Have you ever thought about what your workspace says about your company? Whether it is an office, factory, shop, kitchen, whatever, what does the working environment say about you? The workplace environment has a significant effect on the mood of the employees. If it is shabby, they will feel shabby and less motivated. Space can dictate how employees, and you managers, for that matter, behave towards each other. If you want motivated staff who always want to achieve their best, then you need to look at what you can do to make your workspace the place to engineer that kind of mentality.
Facilities
What do you give your staff to help them get through the day? The most productive places have tea, coffee, milk, sugar on tap for all their employees. The best employers know that these are essentials to get the staff to do their best. If you don’t provide these, you should think about investing in them, as a lot of workers will complain about not having these things. This generates a bad feeling. You may also want to offer free fruit to your staff. In addition, are there water fountains dotted conveniently around the workspace? Think about the toilers too, are they clean and comfortable. A good toilet says a lot about a company, and it may be worth your while investing in individual cubicles, with sides and doors which go from ceiling to floor to give your staff that privacy they crave. The more creature comforts you can set in place, the better the employees will feel.
The workspace
First off, ensure everything clean, tidy, and uncluttered. Think about the walls and flooring. Could the walls do with a lick of paint? It may be worth your while thinking about colors that inspire productivity. How about the carpet, is it looking tired and in desperate need of an upgrade? If you have a factory, it may be worth your while investing in commercial floor coatings because they look so much better, and they protect the floor underneath. How the staff feels when they enter the workplace can be managed by you, so give it some thought and improve the conditions.
Letting bad staff go
You are a manager, so you need to manage. If you have a disruptive member of staff who does not pull their weight, and continuously brings down team morale, you have to be strong and let them go. As soon as someone starts to become a lousy employee, begin the process of documenting their negative behavior. Always know that you need documented evidence to back yourself when you eventually let them go. If you do not confront bad employees, they can end up ruling the roost. To succeed, you have to focus on the needs of the company, not the bad member of staff.
Lighting
Where possible, let as much natural light into the workplace as you can, natural light is a mood booster and improves productivity. However, for those big workspaces where windows are few and far between, think about the types of lighting that can improve mood, such as blue-tinted lighting.
