4 Ways to Improve Your Office’s Work Environment

Your work environment impacts your mood, drive, mental health and performance. If employees work in a dreary office setting with unfriendly workers, they likely won’t have enough confidence or job satisfaction to speak up. That’s why creating a positive work environment is critical to your company’s success.

The importance of a positive work environment
Creating a positive work environment more deeply motivates and engages your employees, leading to higher job satisfaction and employee retention within your organization, not to mention less stress among your employees. A healthy work environment gives you and your employees opportunities to share ideas for your company’s success that can help your organisation grow. A healthy office environment can also boost your employees’ productivity and reduce your chances of dealing with frequent absenteeism.

What does a toxic office environment look like?
On the other side of a positive work environment is a toxic work environment. A lack of proper communication among employees – or, worse yet, communicating unclear or incorrect information – is a key sign of a toxic work environment. A lack of work-life balance or time off may also indicate a toxic work environment. The most obvious indicator of a toxic office environment is that the company’s culture prioritises business outcomes at the expense of employee retention, job satisfaction and mental health.

What does a positive work environment include?
A positive work environment equally prioritises business success and employee happiness. If you’re focusing on creating a positive work environment, make sure that your company’s culture includes work-life balance (such as by allowing remote work), unobstructed flow of ideas among employees and management with no fear of harsh criticism, and reasonable policies for vacation and paid time off.

When creating a positive work environment, you should also think about your office space. Keep the following questions in mind:

Do your employees have enough space to complete their work without taking up somebody else’s space?
Are you offering spaces where employees can go to take breaks or discuss work matters with their co-workers?
That said, creating a positive environment extends far beyond your office space. You should also ask yourself these questions:

What opportunities do you provide for gathering your employees outside your office space for fun group activities that can increase team morale and help achieve your company’s mission?
Are your employees clear on what your company’s mission is?
Do you permit remote work when your employees feel sick or need to take care of personal needs at home?
How many vacation days, personal days, sick days and paid days off do you allow?
These questions can help you in creating a positive work environment, but above all, common sense, tact and empathy – in other words, seeing your employees as humans rather than just business tools – are key. Here are four ways you can improve your work environment and, in turn, employee engagement.

1. Hire great team members (and don’t be afraid to let bad ones go).
Successful businesses know that a positive work environment starts with hiring the right people. Make sure your employees are professional and team players. The same idea translates to those who are already in the office. When employees work with toxic people, they are more likely to become toxic themselves, tumbling your company into a toxic work environment.

2. Improve the lighting.
Lighting plays a vital role in workers’ performance and attitude. Studies have shown that exposure to natural light improves mood, energy and mental health, greatly impacting focus and productivity. At the Time & Life business centre you will find office spaces with plenty of natural light.

3. Make the office comfortable.
A clean, attractive office can have tremendous effects on the relationships between co-workers and managers. Providing a relaxing atmosphere with comfy furniture, working equipment and a few extra-mile amenities can make all the difference on employee moods.

4. Improve communication.
Be mindful of how you interact with employees. Team members and upper management should focus on their communication methods and the effects they have on creating a positive work environment. Employees are motivated and feel valued when they are given positive reinforcement and shown how their work contributes to the success of the business.

Also when you involve your staff in decision-making in an effort to create a better work environment, they feel valued so don’t be afraid to ask employees for their opinion on a new benefit offered, or what they think of a new client project.

While you are working on communication, do not forget to show gratitude for hard work. It ignites enthusiasm, increases innovation, builds trust and drives bottom-line results.