The Importance of Employee Happiness
From ergonomic office solutions like standing desks or height adjustable desks, to flexible working solutions or employee reward schemes, there has been a great focus on improving employee happiness and workplace atmosphere in recent years. But what are the business benefits of supporting employee happiness?
When employees feel happy and positive, they are more likely to feel pride and accomplishment in their work, be encouraged to engage more fully and increase their productivity and improve staff retention and customer experience. Studies have also found that workers with less fear and anxiety at work make better workplace decisions, making more educated and calculated decisions – that a more likely to lead to a positive business outcome.
So, how can you support employee happiness in your business for improved working environment and optimised business success? We’ve explored the best steps to employee experience that you can implement with ease. Let’s take a look.
Prioritize Work-Life Balance
Encouraging a balance between work and home life and allowing flexibility for employees to juggle work and home life commitments is one of the most assured ways to support employee happiness. Allow employees to work flexibly, splitting hours as needed, take an interest in employees hobbies, and encourage team members to take annual leave – particularly if their workload has been a stressor. Encouraging a healthy work-life balance helps mitigate burnout further down the line, which can lead to decreased productivity, longer project timeframes, mistakes, team exhaustion, and increased struggle with illness low mood for employees. It’s also important to lead by example. If employees are consistently seeing managers working late or refusing to take annual leave, they will feel less-inclined to take time off or work flexibly when needed, despite company encouragement.
Change Your Office Space
A comfortable working space for employees and healthy office environment is a foundation of employee happiness. Office changes must be guided by employee feedback – it's their working space, after all! Greater access to natural light and fresh air, live plants and comfortable breakout spaces to unwind in can all make a huge difference. One central element of improved working environment is inclusion of ergonomic office furniture, including standing desks or height adjustable desks.
Ergonomic back support chairs and use of flexible furniture like standing desks or height adjustable desks allow for full bodily comfort, reduced stressors, and flexibility in working and incorporating more movement and exercise into the working day. Standing desks and height adjustable desks have been heralded as a key office-based component in reducing time spent sedentary, which has been linked to a wealth of health concerns including musculoskeletal diseases, cardiovascular mortality, and cancer risk. Researchers go so far as to state that a sedentary lifestyle is an “indisputable” player in a range of health concerns, and that it is “important to reduce sedentary time as much as possible”.
The impact of standing desks or height adjustable desks on reducing sedentary time in the workplace is striking. A trial devised between researchers in the UK and Australia assessed the use of standing desks and height adjustable desks in decreasing sedentary time with 146 office workers at NHS University Hospitals in the United Kingdom over a 12 month period. 77 of these workers were assigned to an intervention group, whilst 69 were assigned as a control group. The sitting time of workers was measured by a medical device worn on the body, whilst daily physical activity and worklife questionairres were issued at regular intervals. Over the course of the study, sitting time decreased by almost 83 minutes per day overall by the 12 month mark compared to the control group – a clear indicator the standing desks and height adjustable desks can make a huge difference to employee wellness and happiness.
Listen To Your Employees
Commiting to listening to employee feedback is a sure way to creating a workplace atmosphere of respect and communication, and in turn improve employee happiness. When developing new guidelines or starting new projects, take the opportunity to ask for employee input, and implement regular two-way appraisals and review structures to maintain open and honest communication. Creating a consistent culture where staff are encouraged to report feedback will lead to greater investment in company projects, a greater feeling of being respected and valued by employees, and overall, better productivity and increased staff retention.
Creating A Culture of Employee Happiness
From increased natural light, standing desks and height adjustable desks, and comfortable breakout spaces, to a positive work-life balance that is demonstrated from the very top and developing regular review and feedback processes, there are a wealth of ways to create a culture of employee happiness. If you’d like to start with implement environment-based changes, take a look at our range of standing desks and height adjustable desks, and get ready for a year ahead of postiviity and productivity.
