The quality of any work environment goes a long way in showing how much an employer values the employees. But as important as this is, many employers knowingly or unknowingly fail to create an enabling environment for employee efficiency. Some think that each employee should work towards improving his or her productivity and that as employers, they don’t have a role to play in that. Tell you what; that is the riskiest conclusion you can make as a business owner or manager.
Good working environment go hand in hand with employee productivity and, by extension, revenue generation. That is why even though the employee has an obligation to work on his or her productivity, you cannot be hands-off in this matter. You need to encourage your staff members to drink less, get enough sleep, eat well, and do everything else that would make them more alert and inspired to work. But that is only a by the way: The real deal is inspiring them by creating the right environment for them.
1. Try incorporating both natural and artificial light in the office
Good lighting helps workers to be alert and healthy at all times. You cannot afford to have excess or inadequate lighting in your office. Research shows that natural light is the best to have in a working environment because most artificial lights cause headaches and can affect the power of sight when used in excess. Workers who have their desks near the window are mostly relaxed and are always in the right mood to work. But then, artificial light is easier to dim than natural light, and dimmed lighting helps the human brain to get creative. That is to say that you need to blend artificial and natural lighting in your offices for optimal results. A perfect choice is to buy a house with a lot of space and windows with a garden which would not only blend some natural light in the office but employees would have a perfect view of the garden.
2. Acquire some office art
Inspiring typography art will definitely make your workplace aesthetically pleasing or impress visitors. But it does more than that: Art, in general, creates the right environment for employee efficiency, productivity, and creativity. Depending on the type of inspiring art you and your employees prefer, art will help you to get creative with your campaign ads, to connect better with your clients, and to pursue more business leads successfully. Hanging a beautiful painting of the rising sun, for example, will always put the employees in a working mood every single morning.
3. Have the office properly equipped
Your office infrastructure determines how effective things run in the office and how the employees execute their core responsibilities. A slow computer, for example, will lead to unimaginable time wastage. A recent study actually shows that companies lose up to 4 weeks’ worth of productivity per employee due to slow tech. On top of that, nearly 65 percent of American employees report that they would be motivated to work harder if they were given the right tech tools to work with. Also, many businesses are now incorporating kitchens as e means of not only providing their employees with space for lunch but also for employees to interact and have one-to-ones. If your office does not already have a kitchen, we recommend that you invest and remodel your space for the kitchen.
4. Have better desks and chairs
When employees spend hours trying to find a comfortable sitting position, they become stressed, demotivated, and obviously unproductive. Also, small desks that make it hard for people to organize their working spaces always rob them of the concentration they need to work effectively. As a matter of fact, the ability of the human brain to process new information is seriously jeopardized by cluttered and messy workplaces. Other studies have shown that it is possible to raise employee morale by up to 18 percent by simply replacing their old furniture with modern, comfortable ones. That said, it is imperative that you invest in the most modern and most comfortable desks and chairs for your office.
5. Create a quiet place within the workplace
Keeping office noises low is hard because let’s face it; it is hard to force people not to chat especially when in an open layout office. But there are many people who as much as they try, they just cannot work effectively in noisy atmospheres. Others cannot be productive without having some background noise. So, how do you strike a balance between these two categories of people I asked Rilind from Animas Coaching, a center that offers coaching training courses? “The best things to do include installing ambient noises such as rain music in the office for those who love noise, and a quiet space where those who hate noisy offices can go to meditate and relax.”
In conclusion, these are some ways through which you can create a conducive environment for optimal employee productivity.