Employees spend a lot of their week at work – whether in the office or working remotely.
This means their work experience and environment can affect their overall well-being, not to mention their productivity, comradery and health.
So, whether you're a supervisor, manager or HR specialist, one of your responsibilities is to ensure that team members feel safe and comfortable while at work and feel satisfied with their roles.
In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of having a positive work environment and provide some tips to help you create and maintain a conducive culture at work.
The importance of creating a positive work environment
Having a positive work environment is paramount to every organisation as it fosters a workplace that is more engaging for all employees – leading to higher job satisfaction and staff retention.
A healthy work environment gives you and your employees more opportunities to share ideas, collaborate and contribute to your company’s success. A healthy office environment can also boost your staff members’ productivity and mitigate common problems associated with poor work environments like absenteeism and low retention.
Benefits of creating a positive work environment
Cultivating a healthy environment, where employees feel respected and valued, can yield many benefits.
Research by Deloitte shows that around 94% of executives and 88% of employees agreed that a positive corporate culture is an essential part of a company’s success.
Some business advantages of a positive work environment include:
- Preventing or reducing long-term sick leave.
- Boosting productivity, creativity and profitability
- Decreasing employee turnover
- Increasing company revenue by at least 33%.
With all of these benefits, fostering a positive work environment should be a high priority within your corporate strategy. After all, it’s one of the best ways to invest in your employees and ensure they perform at their best.
5 steps to creating a positive environment in your workplace
Creating a healthy work culture can be a challenge for some business leaders and HR managers, as it’s difficult to know where to start. Also, a strong and positive workplace environment cannot be achieved overnight.
However, it doesn’t have to be such an uphill battle. Here are 5 ways to ensure your employees are happy, healthy and feeling well-supported every day:
- Prioritise onboarding and training
Effective onboarding is a key element of a positive work environment because it gives new employees the chance to learn about and become more invested in the company culture. In fact, a great onboarding experience can improve new hire retention by 82%.
By giving employees the tools and information they need to be successful in their new role, you are nurturing high-performing and engaged team members. So, consider having a scheduled plan for new hires for their first two weeks as it can help them feel at home and give them a great impression of your company’s culture. - Improve your actual working environment
Your physical workspace also greatly impacts employee morale and relationships.
This encompasses everything from ergonomic furniture to temperature-regulated interiors. Adjustable standing desks and well-positioned computer screens can not only alleviate pain but can also affect employees’ emotional and mental well-being and promote focus.
If you have a team working remotely, then it’s important to consult with them to ensure they’re well set up too. - Show your appreciation
One of the biggest complaints from employees is that they don’t feel appreciated. Rewarding good work sets a precedent that hard work is appreciated and acknowledged, encouraging the entire team to work toward achieving that same recognition.
You can create reward programs that bring attention to an employee's achievements weekly, monthly or quarterly by giving them incentives or little tokens of appreciation. - Encourage team connections
Building positive connections between all your employees is essential in creating a culture of team collaboration where team members feel like part of a team. It’s more important than ever in today’s remote working culture where people have fewer opportunities to meet up in person.
Team-building exercises can be a great way to bring colleagues together and build social connections to create an environment that supports mutual respect and trust - Create a strong communication and feedback system
To cultivate a positive work environment, it is important to keep communication open and honest.
Fostering open communication and encouraging honest feedback with your employees keeps you in touch with their morale levels and attitudes. You can do this by facilitating regular one-on-ones with the team or conducting a confidential survey where they can freely express what’s impacting their wellbeing in the organisation.
At VibeCatch, we’ve built a powerful platform that enables you to take advantage of scientific-based listening to assist you in learning more about your ever-changing workforce in a non-intrusive way.
We help you proactively harness the strength of clear feedback to boost employee engagement and enable your team to stay committed to working together with you.
How does VibeCatch help managers in creating a healthy work environment?
In the digital age, data is king, and regularly measuring your employee engagement and well-being levels equips you with valuable insights that can enhance your work environment.
At VibeCatch, we offer the ideal way to proactively listen to your team, so you can foster healthy relationships and reduce the turnover of your best employees.
Our platform collects frequent and anonymous feedback from employees and delivers an automatic and clear breakdown of the results to help you make smarter decisions for your people.
What is VibeCatch?
VibeCatch is an HR platform based on 15 years of proven research, offering you the opportunity to make a genuine difference and understand the impact that your working environment has on your staff.
Through VibeCatch’s QWL Polls, Pulse Polls and 360 Feedback Polls, you can uncover hidden staffing opportunities, correct issues and address areas of improvement for both employees and management within your organisation.
Speak to our team today to see a live demo.
