One of the most important things you need to do as a business owner is invest in a healthy and happy working environment for your employees. The office is a place where most, if not all, of your employees will be based and as such it is crucial that you create a homely and comfortable place for them to work. Here are 4 potential ways you can make your office a better place and bring some fun and comfort to a cold, sterile environment.
By Team Savant
Image: Daria Pimkina
Try Happy Hour Fridays
If you don’t want to make too many changes to the office, but rather the culture of your workplace, happy hour on a Friday is a wonderful idea. If you have a space in your building that is fairly open and free of clutter, you can create a mini bar and finish one hour early on a Friday to go and share a drink before people go home for the weekend. This is a simple social act that will help your workers cool down after the week and it also will strengthen your relationships as a team. Doing this is something that will make a huge difference to you and your employees will be happier.
Be Inclusive
It is incredibly important as a modern workplace to be as inclusive as you possibly can. This means not only being supportive of those who have different gender identities, but also supporting disabled members of the team as well as those who may be blind or deaf. There are plenty of ways to make the office a better place for all such as separate bathrooms for those who don’t identify as male or female, signs with braille and braille keyboards for the blind, and british sign language translation and subtitles for those who are deaf. By opening up your office to everyone you’ll be able to pull from a pool of talented people that would have otherwise been ignored by other employers.
Invest In A Garden
Investing in an outdoor seating area is important for everyone working in your business. Fresh air and vitamin d is great for the brain and it will help your employees to stay on the ball and be productive all day long. Providing a quiet and calming space for people to escape to in the day time is important and it will ensure that all of your employees have the choice to get away if they need it. Mental health is so important so a garden can be the perfect antidote for a high stress job.
Create A Communal Workspace
Finally, if you are a flexible company that allows people to work either in the office or at home — hot desking can be a great idea. Your employees don’t always need a specific desk if they will be in and out all the time, which is why building a communal area almost like a university library is a great idea and will improve morale. Provide coffee machines and chargers, and people can work together in a group, alone, and will feel more productive at work.