In decades past, employers didn’t really have to worry much about creating a work environment designed to inspire their employees to greater productivity. There was work to be done, employees were hired at a given rate, they came in, they did their jobs and they went home.
Granted, if you listen to older people talk about their workplaces, they generally don’t have great stories to tell, but that shouldn’t come as a huge shock.
Times, however, have changed, and honestly, the changes are for the better. Managers today do have to spend time and energy creating workplaces that employees actually want to be a part of, though, and that means that today’s managers face challenges that simply didn’t exist in years gone by.
The simple truth is this: If you want to reduce employee turnover rate and increase employee satisfaction and productivity, you’re going to need to spend some time and effort creating an work environment that inspires the people who work for you. If you’re at a loss for how to do that, this article will help by serving as a solid starting point. Here are several things you can begin implementing today to help make your workplace more inspiring:
Deck the Halls (Literally!)
While it’s not quite fair to say that inspiration begins with décor, how you choose to present your workplace can make a tremendous difference. We can help with that. We offer a vast number of fun, beautiful, inspirational art prints that come in a variety of sizes and framing options.
Well-chosen art can do more than just liven up your office space, it can genuinely inspire and improve productivity. Check out our extensive collection right here.
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!
A big part of being an effective and inspiring manager is learning to be an effective communicator. This is something that almost everyone thinks they do well and sadly, something that most people aren’t as good at as they believe themselves to be.
The simplest way to find out how effectively you communicate is to ask, and if you’re not great at it right now, the good news is that you get better with practice.
Good communication means recognizing your employees when they do an outstanding job, soliciting ideas from your direct reports and making them feel like their ideas matter as much as their day to day contributions to the company do, and learning how to give negative feedback without having it feel like an inquisition. If you can master all of those, you’ll be miles ahead of most of your competition.
Provide Employee Resources
When most managers think of employee resources, they tend to automatically think of educational resources. We do mean that here, but we also mean things like career advancement pathways inside your company and greater autonomy and the freedom to work on projects independently.
It’s not always possible to provide a robust suite of meaningful employee resources, but even smaller firms can offer the basics.
The Cool Factor
Finally, consider adding a “cool factor” to coming to work for you. This will vary wildly from one company to the next and is very much tied to your personal preferences and managerial styles, but some ideas on this front include:
- Bring your dog (or cat) to work day
- Working from home several days per week, or perhaps full time
- Having a staff masseuse
- Catered lunches at regular intervals
- A break room that doubles as a game room with a few (free to play) classic arcade games
Again, not every manager is going to be able to do all of these, but the more strategies like these you can implement, the more enriching and inspiring your work environment will be. That’s going to do great things for your employee retention rate, employee productivity and your bottom line.