-
5 Ways to Keep Employees Happy Without Resorting to Cash
When executives sit down to discuss their employees’ performance, the happiness of those employees rarely enters the picture. And if it does, executives often believe that a simple pay raise or extra vacation days will be enough to wash away all the frustrations that those workers may be experiencing.
It’s no secret that employee happiness is underrated in the business world. Happy employees are more likely to be motivated, engaged, and willing to go the extra mile for their organizations. But making a team of employees happy isn’t as simple as writing bigger checks. Indeed, there are many easier (and less expensive!) ways to keep employees happy without resorting to modest pay bumps or superficial perks.
1. Build a Transparent Work Environment
Transparency is critical to a positive workplace. When we say transparency, we refer to the willingness of management to communicate goals, share frustrations, and discuss strategies. Many executives, for whatever reason, believe that they need to keep employees in the dark to manage effectively. In most cases, the opposite is true. Transparency is important for giving employees confidence in their organizational roles—a must-have when employee retention is your goal.
2. Set Clear Objectives
Did we mention how frustrating it is when your job duties are not clearly outlined from the beginning of a project? Nobody likes going into work feeling unsure about what they should be doing. Make sure all employees know what’s expected of them before the work starts. This will go a long way towards improving productivity, reducing the number of questions that need to be answered, and making employees feel secure in their responsibilities.
3. Offer Work/Life Balance
Some of your workers might live for overtime, but much more of them enjoy their lives outside the office. Do what you can to support a positive work/life balance for your team by offering perks that let them complete their duties without being chained to the time clock. Competitive PTO, flexible scheduling, and remote working options all qualify here. Research estimates that 75 – 90 percent of all primary care visits are stress-related; improving your team’s work/life balance means doing what you can to help take this edge off.
4. Provide Consistent Feedback
Regular feedback is an important tool for both employee morale and productivity. Feedback gives employees direction, but more importantly, it tells them where they stand. Nothing can be as detrimental to work performance as uncertainty. Check in with your employees every once in a while and let them know how they’re doing and they’ll be more likely to adapt their work performance to meet expectations. Without this feedback, they may assume their performance is fine—even if there’s plenty of room for improvement.
5. Encourage Employee Development
Great managers work to develop the skills of their team around the clock. And fortunately, if you have happy and hard-working employees, this is what they’ll want as well. Give workers opportunities (and trust them) to leave their comfort zones. Let them explore new duties related to their position and incentivize them when they perform well.
Low-Cost Employee Happiness
As detailed above, there are plenty of great ways to make your team happier and more productive without breaking out the checkbook. If your team has been underperforming lately, a few of these simple behavioral adjustments may be all that’s required to get them back on track.
Employee happiness is just as much about who you have on staff as how they’re treated. If you’re curious about how to recruit candidates who are naturally positive and productive, contact Urgenci for an assessment of your workplace policies, procedures, and recruitment strategies.
Urgenci
