Tip of the Week: An Employee that’s Happy and Healthy is More Productive

If you’re looking for a relatively simple way to boost your office’s productive output, look no further than your employees themselves. Are they under the weather? Are they apathetic about their job, and generally down in the dumps? It isn’t hard to understand why this would make for a miserable workplace. Fortunately, fixing the problem can be an easy fix.

It’s no secret that people tend to be less productive when they aren’t in top form. As many could tell you, a mild cold can be one of the most distracting things one can have. Combining this with the rate people tend to work at when there’s something upsetting them, it comes as no surprise that employee morale is an important factor to consider when managing a workforce.

We’ve compiled a list of simple changes to introduce into the working environment that can help give employees the boost they need to succeed.

Give Employees a (Green) Thumbs Up
The jury is still out as to why, but the presence of plants and other indoor greenery has been shown to decrease levels of stress in the office. Allowing your employees to tend to small, leafy plants at their desks can help to bring this stress-reducing benefit into your office, as well as provide a variety of other physiological benefits.

However, make sure that the plants don’t turn into a source of stress, either, or get too out of hand. Placing reasonable limits (one small plant per desktop) can keep the level of additional responsibility down, as killing a plant will likely have an effect that’s the opposite of soothing. The plants that employees select should also be of the more resilient, leafy green variety, instead of delicate and fragile flora or stress-inducing cacti.

Allow Employees to Personalize
It isn’t easy to settle in and focus on the task at hand if you’re uncomfortable where you are, and an employee’s workstation is no exception. However, this feeling can actually be reduced by simply allowing an employee to add a few personal touches to their work area. When practiced in moderation, this personalized decorating can help chop down on stress considerably. Yet, too many decorations can become a distraction, so this is another place to gently enforce a few reasonable limits.

Giving employees a few other options for their work environment can help productivity as well. Equipping their desks with plenty of lighting can provide some benefit to an employee’s mood, but not nearly as much as natural light can, so be sure to keep those shades open. It also isn’t all that healthy to spend the entire day sitting behind a desk, so allowing your employees the option to use a standing or convertible desk if they so wish can boost morale and their overall health.

Encourage Activity
Speaking of standing desks and the like, some good old-fashioned exercise can benefit an office worker in numerous ways as well. While it isn’t easy for an employee to do very much physical activity while at their desk, promoting those activities at other times can be of benefit to both productivity and morale. Providing storage for alternate means of transportation, like bikes, will only encourage those employees inclined to leave their car at home to do so.

Additionally, there are ways to encourage employees to interact as a team outside of the office that can have a positive impact on the overall wellness of your staff. If there’s the opportunity in your area, form a company team and join an intramural league, or just start a tradition of pickup games on the weekends. Doing so can help your employees to work off some of the week’s workplace stresses, foster a healthy spirit of competition, and encourage teamwork and collaboration.

So, do any of these initiatives already have a place in your office? What are some of the ways that you’ve found success in promoting the overall wellness of your employees? Let us know in the comments!