Maintaining employee happiness and productivity during change
Evolving industries, the Great Resignation and the war for talent have led to unavoidable changes in a majority of companies. As these changes endure, workers continue to leave their jobs and companies fight to recruit the best talent, ensuring your employees are happy and working to their highest potential is more important than ever.
The best practices to sustain morale and productivity within your organization include:
Promoting a healthy work-life balance
Advocating a proper work-life balance is not only appreciated by employees, but it's generally a necessity to support their mental health. Without a balance, your workforce is likely to feel burned out, which leads to high absenteeism, low morale and decreased productivity. This is a detriment to your bottom line. However, implementing strategies to support your workforce in finding a healthy balance can help keep workers happy long-term and lead to a 25% lower employee turnover, according to TonerBuzz.
Implementing flexibility
Offering flexible working options is a progressively important strategy to keep employees happy. The most common types of flexible work arrangements include hybrid work, remote work, telecommuting and condensed workweeks. These alternatives are an effective way to take some unnecessary stress off of your workers while showing you trust them. Companies have been wary of utilizing flexible arrangements in the past, fearing it will negatively impact productivity. However, according to the Gartner 2021 Digital Worker Experience Survey, 43% of respondents reported greater productivity with flexible working options.
Improving your leadership
Constant change can lead to high levels of stress and anxiety in your workforce. To actively combat these feelings, your company needs strong leaders to navigate your teams through changes effectively. Successful leadership involves listening more, communicating clearly and supporting your workers while enduring change. Doing so ensures you know what your workforce needs to maintain morale while keeping up with demand.
Creating opportunities for career mobility
Employees highly value the opportunity to advance in their careers. In fact, 76% of millennials believe professional development opportunities are one of the most important aspects of company culture. This upskilling is more than an effective strategy to maintain employee morale; it's also a boon to your operations. Creating or improving your career and development opportunities will be a key element in promoting motivation, productivity and security in your workforce amidst times of change.
Foster a positive and supportive work environment
A positive culture is often considered the key to success. While there is an abundance of ways to foster an improved culture, transparency and open communication are typically at the forefront of these initiatives. This allows employees to be honest and feel comfortable, which is a necessity for them to reach their full potential.
Implementing strategies to maintain employee morale and productivity throughout times of change is a necessity for your retention and operational efficiency — and as a result, your bottom line. Ensuring your employees are happy and efficient will be a key factor in supporting your overall business success in the long run.