If you are a conscientious business owner, then your staff's health, safety, and well-being should be high up on your list of priorities. Ensuring that your employee’s health and well-being is as good as it can be is not just good for you staff. It is good for your business. Staff that is happier in the work environment are more productive, motivated, less disruptive, and less likely to have sick days, which is a bonus, isn’t it? All this clearly affects the overall success of your company.
By caring about your staff, they will care for you and your business. The atmosphere is more upbeat, and there is less stress and tension. People get along better, and there is less division. That means you can focus on the bread and butter of running the company and trust your staff to do what they need to do to get going. The more you can trust your staff, the better you will feel, and that means you can make better business decisions, with a view to growing the company. So, if you want a great company that is thriving and attracts talent, you need to find ways you improve health and well-being in the workplace.
By Team Savant
Lighting
Don’t expect your staff to be the best they can be if you’re asking them to work in poor lighting. You need to make the most of natural light. Natural light actually boosts the production of serotonin in the body, and that is the happy chemical, which means more light, happier workers. Ensure that there are no large objects in front of windows, avoid sticking images to the windows too. Have fire-safety doors with glass in to allow light to flow into rooms and hallways. If you can, have a skylight built. Think mirrors or reflective surfaces to rebound light in large rooms or rooms with few windows. Also, you need to think about good lighting for when the winter kicks in and the Sun drops behind the horizon at ever-earlier hours.
A Little Bit of Nature
Depending on the size of your working space, there are many ways you can incorporate a little bit of nature. Some companies have full-blown trees that are planted into the ground and are circled by benches. These trees reach up to skylights high up in the ceilings. Other companies have to settle with pit plants. But the fact of the matter is the more nature you bring in, the better your staff will feel. Plants actually have a natural calming effect on people, which is great for promoting a peaceful working environment. Also, they are natural air purifiers. They remove harmful toxins from the air as well as converting carbon dioxide into oxygen. In addition, plants look good. So when you have an investor, or client to woo, or even a job applicant to attract, having plants dotted about will help you get the funding yu need, or beat that other business to getting the best candidates.
Tools and Equipment
If you want to ensure your staff are healthy, then you need to make sure that you provide the right tools for the job. This means you should have fully adjustable chairs, and you should offer desks that are height adjustable for certain members of staff. You may need to think about wheelchair access too. Also, what about the tool for the job in hand are they up to scratch. Making staff work with outdated equipment can be very frustrating and can affect productivity. Also, it may actually be unsafe, for example, if they are on-site without the correct Safety Breathing Apparatus this can damage their health and may even make you liable in a lawsuit. Do not scrimp on tools and equipment, as it is through these that your day-to-day operations get completed, and you don’t want errors to occur because you were miserly.
Get Staff To Focus on Physical Health
Physical health is so important for a healthy mind. You could offer free fruit in your canteen to encourage your staff to eat healthier. You could also have a day of the week where you get the staff out for a walk or even have some kind of keep fit class incorporated. Get the blood flowing is great for the brain as it increases oxygen. It also has an effect on overall happiness. Exercise, in general, reduces stress and increases serotonin, a happy chemical. If you are tinging of a strenuous lesson, you need to consider the fitness of your employees as not everyone will be able to participate. You may need to consult doctors too, so be careful in this regard.
Work On the Company Culture
You need a culture that embraces change and values individuals. As part of your culture, you could have reward days for staff who have gone above and beyond the usual call of duty to help a customer or create something new. It would help if you encouraged each member of teg team according to their strengths and weaknesses and recognize members as such. For example, if someone is struggling in a certain area but makes a marked improvement, this kind of ethic should be just as much recognized as someone who has more ability and continuously finds it easy to hit targets. Being recognized has a huge impact on how a person feels and makes them feel valued inside the company. In addition, you want to encourage open and honest communication, which means you need to lead from the top. Have regular staff meetings, where you tell your staff the company's direction and the plan on how you intend to get there. Think about your core values and messages and enable your staff to connect with these messages. Encourage everyone to speak up in meetings, try and learn all their names, and listen to the comments and feedback you receive. If it makes sense, makes changes off the back of these comments to prove you are listening. You need to make your staff feel valued in the company, that way they will have a better sense of well-being.