9 Tips To Make A Great Office Environment
If you’re like most business owners, the office has become your second home. Again, if you’re like many other business owners, your employees are a big part of that. As the CEO of a company, it’s essential to make sure that your employees are happy with their working environment. More importantly, happy with you!
Here are 9 tips to help ensure that they enjoy the time they spend in your office:
Tip 1: Team Lunches
Start having team lunches more often. It’s not for everybody and some people cringe at the idea of team lunches, however, we have a different perspective.
Firstly, it’s easy to get bogged down by work and forget about the people you spend most of your time with. If you’re not taking time for lunches together, you should start doing it.
Secondly, team lunches are a great way to bond and build relationships with other members of your team. They can also be used as an opportunity for everyone on the team to contribute ideas or give feedback on projects that are in progress.
Start off small by inviting one person from each department out for lunch once a month or so. As these relationships begin developing over time, they will help minimise conflict between different departments within your organisation while also improving morale overall.
A great way to make sure that everyone feels included at these meetings is by using an online messaging platform like Slack. This is a professional messaging app, however, it’s a way to ask people to lunch in a none intrusive/threatening way. They will have the ability to say no if they wish without direct confrontation and if they say yes then great!
Tip 2: Get Rid of the Private Offices
Private offices are isolating. They discourage collaboration and communication, two of the most important things in a workplace. While it’s great to have some privacy when you’re working on a project, having your own private office is not ideal for productivity or teamwork.
Private offices encourage people to work alone. They also encourage people to work in silence. This can negatively impact the quality of their projects and decrease their overall productivity. Everyone needs input from others at some point or another.
Additionally, private offices prevent face-to-face interactions between co-workers who would otherwise be able to collaborate effectively. If they were sitting side by side or even across from each other at desks it would encourage teamwork. Instead, most people are separated by walls and doors while they work on shared tasks such as editing documents together (or any other task that requires more than one person).
Tip 3: Office Therapists
The best office therapist can help you with all your employee stress, burnout and mental health needs. This person can be from an external agency if needed and doesn’t have to be employed in-house. They are simply there to assist your employees in dealing with, or preventing, all types of workplace problems. They will also help them learn how to make their work environments a more positive place for everyone involved.
No matter what an employee’s issue may be, the office therapist will have plenty of experience working with people who have similar problems. They’ll listen to what is being said and guide the conversation in a way that makes sense for each individual. Their goal is not only to help solve the problem at hand but also to prevent it from occurring again in future situations as well
Tip 4: Invest in the Right Technology
The right technology can help your employees work more efficiently, which means they won’t have to worry about doing things by hand anymore.
Scanners
For example: If you’ve got a lot of paperwork to go through, invest in a scanner. Scan documents and feed them into a PDF file for easy storage online.
This makes it easier for employees who need access to those documents because they’ll be able to find them without having to spend hours looking through filing cabinets or paper piles.
Automated Machinery
Invest in automated machines that can do simplistic tasks automatically. This is so a person doesn’t have to spend any time on repetitive tasks and processes can become more streamlined.
There are specific tasks in your office that are simple enough that they don’t require someone’s full attention. A good example is order fulfilment. When an order is placed on your eCommerce, the shipping label can be automatically printed ready for the warehouse to pick up and pack the goods. Automated machines exist for many of your problems.
High-Performance PCs
For those that need it, high-performance PCs are a necessity. Off the top of my head, anything graphic or CAD design-related will require a PC with higher performance power. Be aware that slow PCs will cause slower work output and frustration among colleagues.
Tip 5: Take Care of your Employees’ Health Needs
A way to make a great office environment is to take care of your employees’ health needs. This includes providing health insurance and benefits.
Ensuring lower dental, hospital or insurance costs can improve employee stress levels and be a gratefully received benefit.
An easy way to implement this is to set up employee reward schemes with specific health policies and procedures.
Tip 6: Offer Flexible Schedules and Work-from-Home Options
Flexible schedules and work-from-home options can help employees balance work time and family time.
Letting your employees decide when they want to take breaks or leave early on days when their children are sick is a great way to show them you care about their lives outside of the office.
If an employee has young children, giving them the option to work from home one day a week will allow them to spend more time with their family while keeping up with their job responsibilities.
It’s also very helpful if flexible scheduling is available on weekends. This allows employees who have weekend plans with friends or family members some flexibility in adjusting their hours so they can attend whatever events are important for them on those days.
Tip 7: Employ People More Skilled Than Yourself
Employing top talent is important for innovation, company progression and employee retention. The higher the quality of your team, the more likely they are to bring new perspectives to the table.
In theory, this shouldn’t need to be a tip, however, many businesses have managers with the desire to be the best in their team. Ultimately employing people who are incapable of doing the role will be a detriment to the business so be aware of who you’re bringing into the company.
Tip 8: Celebrate Your Employees’ Successes
Celebrating your employees’ successes, whatever they may be is important.
Small wins can be celebrated by giving out a treat or token of appreciation. Big wins are marked by larger rewards like taking the team out for dinner or treating the individual/team to a monetary bonus.
Celebrating the success of the company is important because it shows that you’re invested in your employees’ futures with them.
Celebrating small or large accomplishments at all levels will help keep the energy positive within any workplace, making it more fun and motivating for all involved.
Tip 9: Implement Fun
Fun means different things to different people and so we cannot exactly define this for you. If we look at a design agency’s approach (for example) to working environments we will often see a pool table, table tennis and maybe even an alcohol-free beer or two.
While we can’t recommend this to everyone, we also need to be aware that these places attract talented people.
If you have the budget, the trust and the right set of people then perhaps look into enhancing the office and creating a unique but brilliant culture.
A Great Office Environment Your Employees Will Rave About
Office environments can make or break your business. If you have a bad office environment, it will result in negative effects on the productivity of your employees, which can cause them to become unproductive and unhappy.
On the other hand, if you have a great office environment that encourages creativity and innovation, your employees will be more productive and happier at work.
It is important for every employer to create a great working space where their employees feel comfortable and motivated to work hard every day. This article covers some basic tips that will help you create an amazing workplace:
Conclusion
By implementing these tips, you’ll create a great office environment that your employees will rave about.
Not only that, but you’ll also be helping to make the world better by being more sustainable and inclusive.
The bottom line is that people work better when they feel happy, healthy and supported in their workplace and when they are appreciated, even better.
So if this sounds like something that fits with your goals as an employer or manager of others (or just someone who cares about making their office a better place), try some of these ideas out and see what happens.