The Benefits of Making Employees Happy

When a company thinks about profits, it has to consider many different factors. This article will provide an in-depth view of how the mentality of employees is considered a significant factor for companies to generate this profits.





Ways of Making Employees Happy



Firstly, it is important to understand the employees’ wants and needs. A good company is able to listen and establish a relationship with the employee to find more ways to make her or him happy.





Shifts



One of the most important things that employees need to stay positive is a good relationship between work and personal life. Long shifts can cause many problems, both mental and physical. A research made by University College London states that a long shifts double the risk of getting depression. A poll made by Gallup, an analytics company based in Washington, DC, discovered that 10.8% of workers with a full time shift have depression. Having an employee with depression is not healthy, speaking in terms of the company. It will cause a fall in commitment of the employee to work hard, and it also causes medical expenses for those company who provide health care, because depression is a disease and needs to be cured. It is immoral to leave an employee falling in depression because of the long shifts. A problem like this, summed up with other physical problems, it’s the best way for a company to lower its revenues.

Hiring some extra employees, in a long term will benefit everyone. The company, even if it has some extra salaries to pay will benefit of a workforce that will be more committed to produce more. The employees, instead, will benefits of extra time off to relax and spend time with family and friends.





Engaging



Shifts of course are important, but if the work environment is not cheerful, employees would have a hard time to be committed in what they do. If the company do not engage with the employees much, providing services, activities, etc. the environment would be always monotonous, and this would cause boredom in the environment so it would lower employees’ commitment to work.

Some good ways of keeping the environment joyful for employees is: to promote internal activities, as monthly challenges that would keep employees motivated in what they do also by providing rewards to those employees who win the challenges. A survey commissioned by a company called OGO showed that 40% of the employees would put more energy into their work if they would be recognized more frequently.

Also providing services as on location doctors will show that the company cares about employees.





Transparency



Transparency is another ability very important for companies. There are many companies that reached success just because of transparency. An example is Whole Foods, who is the first grocery store in the US who is committed to become fully transparent about its non GMO products by putting them through a verification process. When a company is transparent employees view the company with better eyes because they know that they are not hiding anything to them. Whole Food, again, apply transparency also for salaries. This give to employees the possibility to know why someone got a rise and they can be more motivated to work better to accomplish a rise in salary as the colleague who got it the month before.





Discounts



Another important thing that would remind the employee that the company is thinking about them, is to provide free or discounted services as free meals for lunch or dinner, if the company can afford it, or to provide coupons that can be used in some restaurants close to the company. If an employee is prompted to eat a full meal, during the rest of the day she or he would perform better during work time, because hungry people is known that don’t perform 100%.





Communication



Lastly, but not the less important point, is the possibility for an employee to be able to talk to people with a higher position. If a company apply an open door policy, employees are able to freely ask or give suggestions to the bosses. Doing this the employee would feel more involved, and so would be more committed to produce better, because a more open environment creates an atmosphere of teamwork and respect between colleagues.







What Happens if a Company Makes Employees Happy



A company may fall in some expenses when it needs to create an environment where employees feels happy. This expenses may involve, as stated before, food, doctors, health care, extra employees, etc. This expenses may scare companies, especially those companies who do not have a high capital, but in a long run, this expenses will be absorbed by all the benefits that a happy employee brings.





Chain Effects of Productivity



A happy employee is more productive and this productivity is able to positively impact the company, because it starts a chain of events that impact the company a lot as: lowering costs, increasing revenues, and busting sales.

Costs are lowered, because productive people work better and faster. So they can produce more of what they do in a good way. A survey conducted by SMF demonstrated that productivity increased as an average of 12% in those companies with happier employees.

Productivity effects revenue. When the employees produce more, they effect positively revenues because they are able to sell more of their product or service.

Also, happy employees will be more committed to sell what they produce, and customers will be more prompted to buy the product or service if it is sold from a person with a positive charm.







So, happiness during work time is fundamental for any company who is aspiring to success. A happy environment is mutual beneficial for the employee and the company, so would be unwise to not invest in the factor happiness. There are many ways for companies to promote this factor, some costs money and other are just so easy as opening a door, hence companies can easily find a way to boost happiness in their work environment, and they should be really looking forward to do so, because it is ensured that profits will increase for any company who decides to apply even some of the features that bring happiness.

