A happy office is a productive office. Research has found that when employers create a fun and happy workplace, there is a significant increase in the level of employee morale, trust, creativity and communication.
Employees are the greatest asset any company holds. As competition for the best talent continues to rise, holding onto them is only going to become more important and that means making sure they are happy in their work.
Here are 23 cost friendly ways you can keep your staff feeling energised and involved in your business.
1.Provide Healthy Snacks
Get a fruit bowl and fill it up with fruit. Not only will it add some colour to your office but it’s a far healthier option than a snack machine.
2.Encourage staff to use bikes to work
With the bike scheme just €20 for a year, why not treat all your staff? It’s a great way to boost motivation, encourage health and fitness, help staff get from A to B and do your part for the environment.
3.Yoga Wednesdays
Incorporate yoga classes for every week. Corporate activities are big business and gyms, such as Icon gym, have a wide range of company activities such as Yoga classes for your business. Studies have shown that yoga in the workplace can help reduce stress and anxiety, while boosting employee productivity.
4.Fancy Dress Day
A great way to build up the company morale is to have fancy dress days. Numerous companies in Ireland hold fancy dress days. Take for example LinkedIn. In addition to its Halloween fancy dress, it does a competition every year for the best dressed department. Not only does this help staff morale but it’s also great for team engagement.
5.Staff Night Out
Once a staple of the Irish working calendar, it got lost somewhere in the middle of the recession. A staff night out once a month is great for team building and for staff morale.
6.Come Dine with Me
Perhaps best suited to smaller companies. Encourage your staff to get involved in a ‘Come Dine with Me’ day, where once a month an employee makes lunch for everyone in the office.
7.Give every employee a birthday party
Make your employees feel appreciated on their birthday. There is nothing worse coming into work and nobody knowing it’s your birthday. Get them a cake, a present and get all the staff to write something.
8.Participate in a 5km Run
Get all the staff to participate in a 5km run and pay for the fee. You can make it even more worthwhile and collectively choose a charity you’d like to raise money for in the process.
9.Morning Raves
Get all the staff to go to a morning rave. This is a sober morning rave that begins at 6:30am and ends at 10:30am. It offers music, free messages, organic coffee, smoothie drinks & plenty bar. Can you think of a better way to get your morning started?
10.Free Company Gear
Give your staff the company gear that is given out at events such as pens, hats, food, etc. Investing in staff hoodies or jackets with the company logo on them, to keep them warm in the winter months, can also be a great idea. Get them wearing your brand with pride.
11.Party Fridays
Make Fridays a party day. In a study conducted by British Airways, it was found that motivation is at its lowest on Fridays after 2.39pm. With this information, it’s really the perfect time to let your staff start the weekend. Give them something to work towards on Friday before lunch, knowing that after lunch there will be drinks and pizza. This will be a great opportunity for staff to get to know their colleagues more in a casual environment.
12.Provide Unlimited Coffee
This one speaks for itself…we all need our coffee, especially on Monday morning!
13.Have ‘Late Monday Day’
It might not completely expel the ‘Monday Blues’ every week, but knowing they can roll over in bed for another hour instead of sitting in traffic on their ‘Late Monday’ will certainly help!
14.Bring your dog to workday
In a study, employees who were around dogs in the workplace reported feeling less stressed than employees who have dogs but left them at home, according to researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University. Obviously, you should check that no one is allergic or afraid of our canine chums.
15.Allow staff one remote working day every month
Allow staff to work from home one day a month. This allows staff to cut out the long commutes to work, to spend more time with their family while working and to have less distraction.
16.Share Good Customer Feedback to Staff
Be sure to share good customer feedback with staff to show the results of their good work. A good way of sharing the customer feedback to staff is to put it on a staff member board or set up a staff meeting on Monday. During the staff meeting, motivate the staff with the great customer feedback as this will be a great way to get staff motivated and back into the work mode for the rest of the week. If an employee has gone above and beyond, acknowledge their efforts in front of their team members.
17.Ask staff to share to share their success with their team
At the end of the day, get all the staff to gather in a group, with each staff member telling the group the best thing that they achieved today.
18.Employee of the Month
Show your appreciation for a staff members work over the course of a month by giving them a framed certificate ‘Employee of the Month’ and a voucher for their efforts.
19.Flexible Working Hours
Be flexible with working hours and allow staff to focus more on effectiveness. For example, if a staff member feels they work better later, tell them to come in at 10-6, rather than 9-5.
20.Put on the Music
Studies show that music improves mood, which can help boost productivity and creativity.
21.Place plants around the office
Introducing plants to an office environment has been reported to reduce absenteeism by up to 50%, and reduce minor illness by 30%. Reducing absence within the business not only maintains productivity, but will reduce the cost of absence year on year. Studies have also shown that plants help increase creativity and reduce stress.
22.New Staff Team Lunch
Make new staff in the company feel welcome by going out for a team lunch. It gives a great team feeling, gives everyone a chance to get to know the new staff member, while displacing some of those first day nerves.
23.Update the ‘About Us’ Page
Add the staff members that work in the company to the ‘about us’ page and include information about each staff member. In addition to making them feel more valued, it also demonstrates the level of talent your company has.
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