How to Create a Stress-Free Work Environment

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Unfortunately, in today’s society, jobs are becoming more and more difficult to come by. Maybe that’s why some companies are starting to put pressure on their employees. Being stressed at work can come with many disadvantages, but some of the main ones include lack of productivity, constant pressure between employees, lack of professional growth and development, long and inflexible work hours, job insecurity and many more.

Regardless of the workspace or type of work that employees need to perform, it is important to create a more relaxing and chilled environment. In order to do so, it is vital to think about a great variety of aspects.

What are the main reasons for that certain pressure? Is stress generated because the office is too cluttered? Or is it because of the lack of communication? Either way, both the employer and the employees need to discuss these aspects and make some changes. At the end of the day, the employees are going to use all of their energy and skills to improve production and adopt a positive attitude that is of great help for any workspace.

Create a Room for Relaxation

These days more and more companies are starting to think about their employees and are providing them with a room where they can meditate, relax and put their thoughts in order. Having a room for relaxation should be a compulsory aspect for every company. Humans need to take breaks and relax as many times as they need in order to be able to give 100%. It has been proven that the human brain can be a lot more productive after even after a short break between two tasks.

The human brain needs a break so that it can recharge after performing different tiring operations. The room for relaxation doesn’t necessarily have to be a fancy one. Even a very simple space that is decorated accordingly can be a great help that will bring a lot of advantages over time. Once you find out what are the needs of your employees, it is quite easy to create that certain space. You could add a nice corner sofa and some beanbags, a table where they are going to have lunch together and why not a few plants or a small garden space that brings peace and fresh air to the “zen space”.

Communication is Key

Even though many people might not be aware of it, communication is a very important aspect that makes people who they are. People need to communicate in order to survive. So why would they stop communicating at work? These days more and more individuals suffer from physical or emotional stress because of the lack of communication and disorganization at work. A disorganized office usually leads to wasting time of finding important papers, missing deadlines, decreasing the level of productivity and even slowing down the mental energy. In order to be able to create a stress-free work environment employers are advised to encourage their employees to express their ideas and opinions as often as they feel that they could be beneficial for the office atmosphere and not only. Moreover, an employer who is able to communicate well with the team will most likely eliminate misunderstandings, creating a healthy work environment. Efficient communication with the employees is the main aspect that leads to getting the work done quickly, in a much professional manner.

Make the most of the Online World

Every employer aims to create a workplace where the team is able to innovate and come up with the best ideas to increase the productivity. In order to do so, it is important to make the most of every resource that is close to us. These days one can find so many useful applications and websites in the online world. One can find apps that are meant to create a peaceful environment at work, one can find posters that they can print out and frame in order to create a very relaxed and positive atmosphere and last but not least, one has tools that help them facilitate their day to day work. Meteor Forms is essentially a technology that helps its clients build customized forms. This company fills out your forms while you relax and enjoy high security of your data.

Employees need to work in a relaxing environment to be more innovative and maximize their productivity. A Custom Poster Printing initiative can help you to create a positive work environment for your employees. You can opt to print out motivational quotes, postcards, save the date magnets, or hang tags to help maintain an orderly workplace based on your employees’ preferences. Customization ensures that the information printed aligns with the organizational culture and meets the specific objectives that your employees are meant to achieve. It will also ensure that the posters are personalized to reach your employees. Consider having professional and eye-catching posters to gain your employees’ attention. These posters will remind the employees what they need to do, enhancing order and peace at the workplace.

Keep Active

Doctors and experts inform us that in order to live a healthy life both mentally and physically, it is important to keep active each day. They advise us to walk at least 10,000 steps a day, which is not always possible when working in a sedentary office job. However, there are a few tips and tricks that every team can do so that they eliminate the sedentary way of life, enjoy a nice activity together and create a less stressful work environment.

A simple but very effective way of keeping active at work is by taking the stairs as opposed to the elevator. Stretching is also a good way of relieving the tension in the muscles and preventing eventual back problems that might appear over time. Even though most of the time corporate jobs imply the idea of wearing formal attire, employees can always opt for a comfortable option that will allow them to move freely all day long. Another great activity that every team of office workers could do would be taking a walk in the park while on lunch break. This kind of activity prevents a sedentary lifestyle, adds to the daily amount of walking steps, burns calories and helps build a more relaxed work atmosphere.

Learn to Be Tolerant

Everyone needs to remember that every individual is different and they might have personal issues that don’t allow them to be the best version of themselves. A lack of tolerance gets in the way of making personal connections with people around us. Moreover, it can also create unprofessional behavior and misunderstandings. In a workplace, just like in our day to day life, people should be treated with respect. Building tolerance and learning to accept different cultures are great aspects that help eliminate pressures or stress in the work ambience.

Relieve the Workload

Some smaller companies often require one person to do many jobs. This can give them valuable experience for their later career, but other problems could arise. Maybe they aren’t fairly compensated for the extra effort they put in; perhaps they feel overwhelmed with too much work and their primary duties are suffering as a result.

Managers must recognize the signs of stress, anxiety, and burnout from employees who are doing too much. Rather than immediately scold an employee for not hitting their targets, think about why this is happening. If possible, look at outsourcing roles for IT Support and finances to take the load off some employees. You’ll soon see a stressful cloud lifted, and they will be back to their best.

How To Ensure Employee Comfortability In Your Business’ Working Environment

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When it comes to success, your employees can have a huge impact on the level. You probably already have an extensive training programme in place to ensure your employees are well equipped and confident to give the best possible service. However, there are quite a few factors that can affect the efficiency of your employees, and therefore your overall business efficiency. Feeling tired, overwhelmed, and hungry can all be contributors to lack of concentration and an increase in human error.

Below are some ways you can ensure your employees are comfortable in the workplace and working at their highest capacity.

Provide An Outside Space

Being able to take a five-minute break for fresh air will help your employees to reduce stress levels, boost vitamin D levels and white blood cells that fight infection. Fresh oxygen also helps to energise you and help you to feel less overwhelmed, helping a big workload to feel much more manageable. If you do have employees who smoke, not being able to satisfy a craving will prevent their concentration being completely on their work, making mistakes highly likely. Providing aluminum canopies or something similar that provides shelter for your employees from the rain and too much sun will mean getting a fresh air fix will be possible in all weathers and seasons. You may think giving five-minute breaks when needed will be counter-productive to efficiency; however, small breaks at regular intervals can help to keep the brain working at maximum capacity, meaning that the time spent working is far more productive.

Make Sure There Is Sufficient Light

Low lighting, or having computer screens at too high of a brightness level, will put extreme stress on your employees’ eyes and could lead to permanent damage. On the other hand, being in direct sunlight will not only give your employees a headache due to eye strain, but also there is an increased risk of sunstroke and dehydration (see below). It is important to have vertical blinds or similar, so your employees are able to block out the sun when necessary, and have overhead lighting that is sufficient to ensure maximum eye comfort for your employees. Replacing any blown bulbs as soon as they are noticed should not be disregarded either.

Provide Water And Snacks

Dehydration can make your employees feel fatigued and develop a headache, which will severely affect their performance over the day as a whole. Providing fresh water that is readily available, either through a water fountain or specially allocated taps, will help to regulate your employees’ water levels, and help them to feel fresh and alert. H2O also helps to improve clearer thinking, helping your employees to problem solve quickly, take initiative, and stay focused. Hunger can also be extremely distracting, and although your employees will have a sufficient lunch break, you cannot predict when your stomach is going to start rumbling. Taking care of your employees by providing fresh fruit to snack on will mean they will reward you for your kindness by performing at an optimum level.

Hopefully, this has given you some ideas on how you can create a comfortable and focused atmosphere for your employees to work in, ensuring the procedures of your business are in well-equipped, capable hands.

You Could Be The Key To Employee Motivation

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Maybe you can see that your employees aren’t motivated, or you’re just wondering how you can add a little extra oomph to their working day to make them feel like they can conquer whatever is on their plate. Do you realize that you could be the key to employee motivation? That’s right – the things you say and do could either psyche your employees up or make them feel demotivated.

Here are some key points that should help you motivate your employees:

Build Relationships With Your Employees

When you build better relationships with your employees, they will automatically want to work harder for you. If they think that they are just another face or number in your business, they are going to become demotivated eventually. Talk to them, tell them stories about when you were making your way up the ladder –  help them see that you’re like them. Don’t sit in your big office chair having somebody else carry your bags for you.

Praise Your Employees Regularly

Make sure you make an effort to genuinely praise your employees both together and separately. Let them know that you notice the hard work they’re putting in. Put it in emails, say it to their faces, put it on a noticeboard…find all kinds of creative ways to make them feel appreciated. This will give them an incentive to continue.

Make Employees Lives Easier

Do what you can to make their lives easier. For example, investing in a new program to help them save time. It not only makes their lives easier, it shows you care. If you don’t care for your employees, don’t be surprised if you end up with some of the following.


Get help with employee scheduling

Core Components Of Company Culture

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You’ve probably heard all kinds of business gurus talking about it. The company culture. They’ll tell you that some tip or another is going to improve it, or some mistake will damage it. But what exactly makes up a company culture? Why is it worth fostering and why is it worth protecting? We’re going to be looking at the answers to those important questions now.

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Goal

The most important part of a company culture, and of a business in general, is the goal behind the business. Every business must have a mission statement and a long-term goal that can inform the strategies they take in the day-to-day as well as the larger collaborative projects. But the most important part of that goal is making sure that everyone understands it.

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Collaboration

One of the reasons that ensuring people have their own grasp of company goals, not just individual workloads, is because they have a lot more to offer than just work. Great company culture is about realizing that good ideas can come from anywhere. To allow those ideas to flourish, you need to give people some control and autonomy over the work they do as mentioned at intuit.com. If they spot new solutions or new tools and techniques that help them better do their work, then let them try them out.

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Relationships

To trust that they can use that autonomy well and that you can rely on them, it’s vital that the relationships within the business are kept healthy. The idea of fostering competition above all else does not create a healthy company culture. It creates a selfish culture. People need to better understand collective responsibility as well as personal accountability. The best way to do that is to create relationships where it’s safe for them to experience both.

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Environment

Think of the workplace as just another place that they have a relationship with. If the environment doesn’t treat them with respect, it fosters a lack of respect for the business, as well. Quality decor from places like fsgofficefurniture.com creates a prestige in the environment that sinks into the culture and the people. It gives them more respect for the business, their roles, and themselves in those roles.

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People

If you haven’t figured it out yet, the people themselves and how they work within a business are what the company culture is all about. But not everyone is a fit for that culture. This is when you need to take the time to get more in depth with your hiring practices and processes. You need to not only identify the skills that people bring to the table but find a way to see if they’re a cultural fit as well. For instance, if yours is that kind of collaborative culture of shared responsibility mentioned above, then signs of selfishness and self-exceptionalism should rule out most future applicants.

As you can see, a company culture isn’t just one attribute. It’s how the different elements of the workplace all work together and come to a single purpose. It can create a company that can excel even without you at the wheel and ensures that the business never relies on any one individual too much, but gains a life of its own.

What Your Team Needs Besides Money

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The monetary compensation plays a big role in retaining your best employees and giving them good reason to give their job their all. But if you believe that’s all they need, you’re going to find more people leaving the team than you would like. There are deeper needs that you and even they might not recognize at first. Neglect them for too long, however, and those will serve as the reasons you can’t retain your staff.

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Goals

Employees have responsibilities for day-to-day work in their role, and they should know that. When it seems like the day-to-day involves nothing other than just running through a workload to no aim, however, that’s when people can get frustrated. Goal setting for employees, whether it’s collaboration toward a certain goal or simply improving productivity and efficiency can give them something important. It can give them something to aim at, so they don’t just feel like they’re standing still in their job. It’s also a good way to align their goals at work with the goals of the organization.

Progress

Beyond their work goals, you should consider your employee’s personal goals a little more. If they’re looking to progress in the company, see if you can bring out that leadership material. If their job requires expertise, help them build on it with training. If they have personal projects they want to tackle, then offer them time in the office environment to work on it. Make your leadership instrumental in their personal progress.

Value

Let’s not pretend this relationship is all about what you can do for your team. Your team does plenty for you and showing that you acknowledge and value that is important. From simple thanks and an employee-of-the-month scheme to an awards dinner complete with award plaques. Showing real, verbal appreciation and offering a physical token of that appreciation shows that you truly value the team. It also gives you the opportunity to incentivize the behaviors that you consider most important in the workplace.

Cohesion

The work environment is most likely one of multiple people. Getting them cohesive and collaborative is important. Even for those like remote workers who aren’t in the physical environment. Improving the ways they communicate and organize, such as using project management tools, removes the barriers from that cohesion. You should also consider those corporate get-togethers as the opportunity to have people build rapport and relationships without the pressures of work exerting on them.

Flexibility

Speaking of those pressures, every workplace has them. But allowing a little more flexibility to your team can help them deal with said pressures a lot better. Everyone has ways that they work better. Flexibility helps them discover those ways. Whether it’s flexibility in time, location, dress code, method or otherwise. You have to think of what you can reasonably allow. Whatever you can allow, you should.

A better understanding of the human needs in your team is going to make you a better employer in every way. You’re going to retain them, keep them motivated, engaged, and even happy to work for you.