How to Create a Happy, Productive, and Safe WorkplaceBy Karen Kitchen

Smart business owners and managers understand that effectively organizing where and how the job is done can determine not only the quality of the work itself, but have a direct impact on the company’s bottom line. Facts are facts, and according to recent data collected by Towers Watson, Fortune, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the facts in a nutshell are these: A happy, safe workplace is a productive and profitable workplace.

A few examples; Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For increased revenues by 22% last year and, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, grew exponentially, adding employees at a rate 5 times the national average. Towers Watson points out that companies with 300,000+ engaged employees performed well with operating margins of more than 27%, despite a struggling economy in 2010.

Seriously, if you take it down to basics, your employees are the foundation your business rests on. Once you understand that, you’re one short step away from accepting the importance of creating a happy workplace—a workplace defined by a dynamic, upbeat atmosphere that keeps employees engaged and energized, while making them feel safe and enabled. Studies show that kind of atmosphere breeds employee satisfaction, and that, in turn, produces:

• improved performance• higher levels of service• lower turnover rates• fewer accidents• a reduction in sick days, resulting in lower healthcare costs

But wait, there’s more. Happy employees tend to be more creative and tolerant, constructive thinkers who focus on what’s right with the company, instead of negative influences content to complain about what’s wrong. Better still, a dynamic workplace fosters passionate brand ambassadors, workers who provide top-notch customer service, thereby unleashing the coveted and unmatchable word-of-mouth marketing no money can buy.

As if all those perks weren’t reason enough to create a happy workplace, check this out. Hard evidence indicates engaged employees are more productive—up to 31% so—and, as we all know, higher productivity translates into all kinds of financial good. We’re talking about the kind of good that includes increased operating income, increased sales, and higher shareholder returns. Add up the facts, you can’t help but conclude a high level of employee satisfaction is key to building a company equipped to consistently outperform the competition.

So the question is, how do you do it? How do you establish a work environment that gets—and keeps—employees fully on board and motivated? Contrary to what you might believe, the process isn’t all that difficult. In the following sections, you’ll find nine guidelines geared to get you well on your way. Briefly, those would be:

• Hire the right people• Encourage employees to personalize and decorate their workspaces• Show your employees you care about them• Communicate openly with your team• Praise openly, criticize privately• Get everyone together outside the office• Encourage initiative• Kill the gossip• Make workplace safety a priority

Now let’s look at each guideline in greater detail...

Hire the Right People

Obviously, creating a happy, productive, safe workplace begins at the top. Bringing that ideal to fruition, however, also depends on the people in your employ. The question is, how do you know which applicants will contribute positively?

These four simple strategies can help:

Remember, the best fit may not have the best resume. Resumes simply can’t tell you everything you need to know. Lack of experience isn’t the end of the world, skills can be taught. Personality, on the other hand, can’t. You need to consider intangibles like will the applicant fit into company culture and work well with others, and does he or she demonstrate a passion for the product/service you provide.

Check references. You can nail down some of those intangibles by asking the right questions during a reference check. Did the reference and applicant work together, was the job as described on the resume, and did the applicant work often and well with others? What are the applicant’s strengths and weaknesses? Finally, a wrap-up question like, “What else should I know?” can turn up important information you might otherwise have missed.

Do a background check. Worth your while for a number of reasons, including verification of identity and employment, increased safety and security, improved regulatory compliance, and reduced turnover by eliminating applicants with a history of harmful or negligent behavior. Just remember, you’ll need the applicant’s written permission to conduct the check.

Value skills over formal education. A candidate with a prestigious degree can be dangerously alluring. Not that a degree should count as a black mark, but as many employers learn too late and to their chagrin, knowledge gained in pursuit of an MBA doesn’t always translate into workplace know-how. Skilled managers, leaders, or customer service employees on the other hand, can give any workplace a shot in the arm.

Encourage Employees to Personalize their Workspaces

Believe it or not, encouraging employees to personalize and decorate their workspaces is one of the simplest ways to achieve a happy, productive workplace. And this particular strategy won’t cost you a dime.

The freedom to personalize the workspace is always a plus, but it’s especially important in open office arrangements where privacy either doesn’t exist or exists at a premium. Studies have shown that these types of arrangements teem with distractions, raising the stress level and lowering the productivity of almost everyone involved.

Allowing, better still, encouraging employees to personalize and decorate their workspaces, on the other hand, has demonstrated a number of proven benefits, such as:

• giving workers a greater sense of ownership and control• enhancing mental wellbeing and improving coping skills, while avoiding the mental exhaustion

associated with lack of privacy• encouraging employees to “be themselves” and create a home away from home, which

makes them more comfortable• increasing creativity and productivity (by as much as 30%)• fostering a deeper sense of engagement and identification with the company• yielding a significant sense of employee wellbeing (happiness)• creating a workplace culture where people are able to quickly get to know one another

and work together efficiently (team building)

Encouraging workers to own their spaces may even include allowing them to arrange their physical workstations according to personal preferences. Since studies indicate the more control an employee has over his/her workspace, the happier and more productive he/she is, this may be a move worth considering.

Finally, given the fact that personalized decor is exactly that, personal, there may be times you’re tempted to override an employee’s choices. Barring downright offensive materials, that’s a temptation you should try hard to resist. According to a study conducted by Scientific American Mind, employees who had their decor choices overridden felt disempowered and become much less productive.

Show that You Care About Your Employees

It’s not rocket science, but it is a documented fact that employees who feel unappreciated are both unhappy and unproductive. Since that seems obvious, it may surprise you to learn that over 30% of employees feel their bosses don’t appreciate them.

Showing your employees you care about them goes beyond raises, promotions and favorable evaluations, or should. Genuine employee appreciation—the kind that nurtures a happy workplace—can be shown on both the group and personal levels. Best case, it’s a combination of the two.

One way to establish a culture of caring is to keep an open door and walk through it often. Visit employees where they work, check to see if they’re running into problems you can help solve. While you’re in their spaces, notice that personalized decor and strike up a conversation—about significant others, hobbies, artwork. Taking a genuine interest in your employees as people is a surefire way to show you care.

Other approaches might include asking them where they would like to go, career-wise, and brainstorming ways to help them get there; avoiding micromanagement and demonstrating trust by giving them increased freedom and responsibility; and backing them up in challenging situations.

Company picnics, office potlucks, and holiday parties are old favorites for a reason. Not only because bonding happens better with food, but because these types of get-togethers foster a cheerful family atmosphere and give you a chance to relate on a completely relaxed and personal level.

Finally, a little verbal consideration goes a very long way. Those magic words “please” and “thank you” shouldn’t be have to be inferred; say them out loud. “Good job” is another phrase too often considered tacitly understood. A smile, a compliment, a kind word costs you nothing to give, yet each can pay big dividends by increasing employee satisfaction.

Communicate Openly with Your Team

Employee engagement and productivity increase when workers feel involved with and valued by their employer, and open communication in the workplace is a critical component in nurturing that feeling. Without it, the workplace culture becomes tentative, negative, even stagnant.

Like most business strategies, establishing open communication begins at the top. Share your vision for the company—as well as its mission, values, and goals—with every employee and new hire. Encourage your workers to buy into that vision, to get excited about it and make it theirs. They need to know whom the company serves and what it stands for. If everyone starts on square one, their objectives and strategies are far more likely to be aligned. Problems and snarls will be much easier to straighten out, conflicts fewer and farther between.

Share company achievements, be honest about problems or potential problems. Make commitments, and honor them. Then, once you embed the concept of open communication in your company culture by example, let employees know the communication door swings both ways.

Actively encourage open sharing of ideas, problems, and concerns and develop vehicles to make sharing them easy—meetings, an e-mail list, an office intranet. Keep an open door and establish a positive tone, letting your employees know you’re receptive to all types of communication, positive or negative. And remember, your body language speaks every bit as loudly as your voice.

Creating these clear channels takes time and patience, and there is an element of vulnerability involved. Fortunately, the benefits of open communication far outweigh the effort and any potential risks.

In an atmosphere of openness, productivity increases. Employees become a unified team, with everyone working toward common goals. Creativity and initiative increase as workers learn ideas are both encouraged and favorably received. Resources are used efficiently. Job satisfaction is high, because employees know they’re trusted and valued members of the team.

Praise Openly, Criticize Privately

Needless to say, establishing and maintaining an atmosphere of trust and respect is key to creating a happy, productive workplace. Handling both praise and criticism the right way is imperative. The old adage that says, “Praise publicly, criticize privately,” provides a tried-and-true guideline.

Public reprimands are confidence and trust killers. Criticize an employee in front of his/her peers, you not only damage their confidence in themselves, but in company leadership. Worse yet, that loss of trust will contaminate your entire workforce, damaging morale and, in turn, productivity.

Criticism or discipline is a private affair that should take place behind closed doors and in a timely manner. Don’t let problems fester, address them immediately. Provide problem-solving guidance but present a series of next steps you’re prepared to take, should those problems continue.

Praise, on the other hand, should be everybody’s business. If public criticism damages workplace satisfaction, respect, and trust, public praise gives all those characteristics a big boost. Open praise expresses appreciation and makes employees feel valued, and psychologically speaking, behavior that’s rewarded tends be repeated and/or emulated.

Still, while public praise can produce great results, it shouldn’t be abused.

Avoid gratuitous praise. You want to give sincere praise for genuine accomplishments.

Keep your recognition current. Praise makes a much greater impact when it’s given immediately, as opposed to during, say, an annual evaluation.

Be explicit. Describe, in detail, what the employee did and explain exactly why you appreciate it.

Watch for opportunities to give recognition. Terrific customer service, an increase in sales, an idea that streamlined operations, the acquisition of a new client, and service milestones are all good occasions for that public pat on the back. Giving praise can be as easy as sending a company-wide e-mail or delivering those kudos at a meeting or social gathering.

Get Together Outside the Office

Remember, at its heart, the process of creating a happy, productive workplace is about creating certain kinds of relationships with and among your employees. That being the case, it only makes sense to take those relationships outside the office once in a while. Believe it or not, what you do with your employees outside the office will impact what happens inside it. Extending your relationship beyond the office walls can:

• create a team environment• increase collaboration• increase job satisfaction• create free-flowing communication• increase employee retention

You’ll no doubt be happy to hear you don’t have to come up with all the take-it-out-of-the-office ideas. As a matter of fact, getting everyone in on the brainstorming might be a terrific way to encourage collaboration! In the meantime, here are 7 ideas to get you started:

Take your next staff meeting off-campus and hold it at lunchtime. If you can’t afford a company-sponsored lunch, try holding a potluck in the park.

Sponsor a company sports team, either for a local league or a charity event.

Encourage your employees to start clubs—book clubs, hobby clubs, clubs for parents of toddlers. If you can provide meeting space on site, so much the better.

Create off-site group volunteer opportunities, and take part yourself. This is a great way to enhance relationships, both with your employees and potential customers in the community.

Invite employee families in for an after-work potluck, Bingo game, or big-screen TV movie night.

Offer group-rate tickets to a local sporting event and hold a pregame tailgate party.

Set up an employee fitness challenge and offer wellness classes and activities after work or at lunch-and-learns. Offer fun rewards for fitness milestones.

As you can see, the number of ways you can get together outside the office is only as limited as your—and your employees’—imaginations!

Encourage Initiative

The amount of employee initiative present in your workplace is directly related to both employee engagement and the success of your business. Companies that fail to tap into employees’ creative energies often find themselves stuck in “we’ve always done it this way” and losing ground to their competitors.

Encouraging employee initiative begins with letting your employees know, openly and often, that you’re receptive to, and value, their opinions and ideas. Fess up to the fact that not every good idea will come from the top.

Just make sure your actions speak as loudly as your words, or you’ll do more harm than good. According to a recent Gallup poll, while 66% of U.S. workers surveyed said their employers asked them to get involved in decision-making, only 14% of those workers felt the same managers gave them what they needed to get the job done.

Once you’ve created a supportive environment by touting initiative, concrete steps you can take to increase it include:

Encouraging workers to get out of the office for a brainstorming retreat. Urge them to think outside the box and make it clear you look forward to hearing any and all ideas they come up with.

Setting up guidelines that allow your team to take the initiative and make certain decisions without prior approval.

Encouraging employees to volunteer for committees or teams handling projects outside their specific job descriptions.

Giving and “A” for effort. Reward initiative, even if an idea doesn’t pan out.

Using staff meetings or the company newsletter to share stories about historical figures who, by showing initiative, came up with a breakthrough or invention.

Letting employees use a percentage of their time to work on pet projects.

Finally, reward, reward, reward. Extra vacation time, recognition at staff meetings, lunch with the boss. However you choose to do it, reward successful initiatives to empower employees and keep those ideas coming.

Kill Gossip

The fact that gossip in the workplace can decrease morale is hardly surprising. But did you know gossip can also negatively impact productivity and employee engagement? Persistent, malicious gossip can even create liability issues. In light of the damage it can do, killing office gossip is obviously essential to maintaining a happy workplace.

As manager, you can take a number of proactive steps to prune the gossip grapevine:

Set a good example. If you don’t spread rumors, share hearsay, or go for guesswork, your employees are less likely to do so.

Keep workers informed about the company, reorganizations, new initiatives. Communication is especially important during a crisis. Always be transparent, open and honest. Lack of knowledge and half-truths make fertile soil for idle speculation that can quickly turn negative and get out of hand.

Go on walkabout in the office. Getting up close and personal with your employees improves communication, builds trust and gives you a chance to catch and stamp out rumors before they gain traction.

Let everybody know rumor mongering won’t be tolerated. Use staff meetings to discuss the damage rumors can cause and set out a clear policy for dealing with people who spread them.

Emphasize cooperation in the workplace, rather than competition.

You can also stem the spread of rumors by suggesting strategies workers can use to deflect them. These might include simply walking away, changing the subject, or saying, “I’m not comfortable talking about this.” A more direct approach might be, “I hadn’t heard that. Let’s go ask the boss (or whomever the rumor is about).”

Of course, rumors may start despite your best efforts. If they do, deal with them immediately, in a one-on-one, closed-door meeting with the offender(s). Review your policy about spreading rumors and discuss the rumor’s potential (or actual) damage. Finally, set out the consequences of future gossip, which might range from a letter of reprimand to being fired.

Make Workplace Safety a Priority

Making workplace safety a priority is just good business. It’s also an important ingredient in the recipe for a happy and productive workplace, because when you manage safety well, you increase employee satisfaction and productivity and get a leg up on the competition.

Failing to emphasize workplace safety, on the other hand, can leave you open to all kinds of trouble, from time and productivity lost dealing with workplace accidents to extremely costly lawsuits.

Establishing safety as a priority doesn’t have to be painful or complicated, especially if you start with an atmosphere of trust and respect. Building on that, you can take the following steps:

Set up a program. Start by reviewing each position to get an accurate take on what safety measures are necessary. Conducting employee surveys and holding focus groups are both good ways to verify and/or add to your own data. Then draft a clear set of safety rules, tweak them with employee feedback, then implement.

Encourage regular breaks. Never mind the fact that breaks are mandated by law. The fact is, regular breaks are vital to employee health and safety. You might even think about instituting—and enforcing—a flexible break policy according to age, type of job, level of monotony, and physical effort involved.

First aid training. In the event of an accident or illness—and, let’s face it, these are going to happen—an on-the-spot, trained first aider can make all the difference. Hold in-house first aid and CPR workshops. Set up well-equipped first-aid stations, keep them stocked, and make sure every employee knows where they are.

Screen for drugs and alcohol. Screening for drugs and alcohol is in your best interest, even if your business isn’t legally obligated to test. Screenings protect you, and your employees, from risks of damage, injury, loss of productivity and revenue, among other things.

Have a fire escape plan. Planning ahead, and making sure each and every employee knows the plan, are vital to getting everyone out safely in the event of fire. Make sure your plan details both evacuation procedures and escape routes for your specific building—and post diagrams. Determine who will report the fire and establish a safe meeting place for everyone, so you can an all-hands-on-deck head count.

About Karen & Ken KitchenThe Kitchens are born and bred Clevelanders whose science and pharmaceutical backgrounds propelled them to make USA Mobile Drug Testing Cleveland’s most trusted compliance specialists.

The Kitchens’ belief in a safer and healthier workplace is behind their successful business practice. Dedicated professionals, Ken and Karen are certified by the State of Ohio, placing their Cleveland franchise on the state approved vendor list. It is a certification that offers companies not only Workers Compensation discounts, but the peace of mind they are working with the very best in the drug compliance industry.

Outside of work, the Kitchen’s are actively involved in many local organizations including Animal Rescue, Irish Heritage organizations and numerous business networking groups including COSE and the Northcoast Chamber of Commerce.

440-653-5003

kakitchen@usamdt.com