5 Ingredients for Making a Happy Workplace

Some managers believe that a happy workplace can be achieved by being a good boss. Which is true, but it’s not all about giving employees regular praise and recognition. There are other less direct strategies that can make people happy in their work. For example, how would you feel if you sat next to a noisy printer all day long or your computer chair made your back ache?

For any disputes been staff, it's recommended to implement a workplace mediation strategy to resolve the issues. But if you set up a positive atmosphere to start with, then issues will be minimised in the first place.

There are many ways managers can improve their employees’ working environment, it just takes a little lateral thinking and imagination. One of the easy solutions is to make your employees happier, so here are five easy ways this can be achieved in your work environment.

1.    Ambient Temperature

We can all appreciate that not everyone is comfortable at the same temperature, but being too hot or too cold at work can be quite stressful. The best temperature for a typical office is said to be 22 degrees Celsius, however that’s too cold for many people, particularly if they are sitting all day long at a computer. Feeling too hot or too cold takes your focus away from your work, reducing productivity and making you uncomfortable and cranky. The solution is to reach a happy medium where everyone is comfortable, but that can be difficult. One strategy in open plan offices is to locate people who feel the cold further away from the air vents (women often feel the cold more than men). Another is to make branded sweatshirts available, as well as small under desk heaters. Whatever your solution, it’s an issue that should be addressed.

2.    Good Air Quality

Working in a stuffy building with hardly any fresh air or hint of a breeze can make employees drowsy and unhealthy. It’s a hard problem to solve, because you might not have any external windows that can be opened or you worry about letting in pollution from local industries or traffic. Ideally, you want to reduce the amount of pollution within a working environment, as well as outside, but that’s a hard task. However, one of the simplest strategies is to introduce indoor plants, as these are known to increase air quality and lift the mood of employees.

3.    Suitable Acoustics

Too much noise in a working environment can be annoying, particularly if it’s not normal. For example, airport runways and construction sites are both very noisy environments, so employees can’t expect anything else. They can expect however to be given noise reducers to help protect their hearing and stop them getting a headache! Open plan offices are often very noisy, so consider sound blocking ceiling tiles, workplace partitions and locating printers in a separate room.

4.    An Inclusive Environment

An inclusive environment makes all employees feel welcome and valued, integrating them into the work force or team, rather than making them feel isolated or ostracised. Managers can promote this type of working environment by promoting a cooperative, collaborative, open, fair and accountable atmosphere. Diversity training is also a growing trend.

5.    A Functional Tea Room

Tea rooms are often a cause of strife in workplaces, because no-one seems to clean up after themselves and things go missing from the fridge. So have a meeting in the tea room and work out a few rules that each person agrees to uphold, and everyone will be happy.