Comfort and productivity are tied at the hip. From the perspective of the employer, this might be a difficult relationship to understand, and pushing your employees to a greater level of productivity might have you leaning towards elements that put them more concretely into ‘work mode’, through the use of time trackers and similar tools.
That approach might ultimately create a more tense and hostile atmosphere than you expect, and getting a good idea of what a more comfortable and trusting workplace can offer might lead you to a more beneficial change in your approach.
What’s the Balance?
The question of work/life balance is one that has been asked again and again in the time since the pandemic. It can be a difficult question to ask in terms of your own business because of how subjective and individual the answer often is. One employee might place a greater emphasis on how work offers them a social outlet, while others might want to work entirely remotely.
This means it’s difficult to establish a baseline, but it also means that you can offer a solution in simply understanding this variability. Flexible working can give your staff members a greater degree of control over their own working structure, and while you might have preferences and guidelines of your own in place, that small sense of freedom might be enough to make your employees more comfortable.
Take Care of Them
While many might assume the deal between you and your employees is as straightforward as they work for you and you pay them in return, there is also the expectation that you will look after them in all of the ways that you need to. This might sometimes be through the specific benefits that you offer (related to healthcare or insurance), but it might also be about how secure your business is.
As with your customers, you don’t want the sensitive data of your employees to leak or be subject to any sort of breach. This might go hand-in-hand with ensuring that the security systems your business is using are robust enough to handle any such vulnerability, something that might require the implementation of MDR and the advice of security experts.
Encourage Communication
This can be a difficult area to approach because of how easily it can go wrong. While certain business staples like teamwork days or meetings can have positive effects, they might also create an environment where staff members feel as though they’re forced into mandatory team-building exercises that fall outside of what’s expected of them.
The intention is good, but perhaps a more simple solution is necessary. Creating an atmosphere at work that prioritizes communication can allow you to talk plainly to your team members – letting them know what you’re expecting of them, while also allowing them to let you know what you can change to better accommodate them. The ideal result is a more honest, transparent working environment, but it’s essential that everyone involved is open to constructive criticism.
