According to Forbes Magazine, a study completed by the University of Warwick indicated that on average, happy employees are 12% more productive than their unhappy counter parts. Aside from Health benefits, what other factors contribute to maintaining happy employees? Well, the answer to this differs from company to company. The employer has to look at the atmosphere as a whole and determine what can be done to increase serotonin in the office.
Serotonin plays numerous roles in your body, including influencing learning, memory, and happiness as well as regulating body temperature and sleep patterns. This is important for a multitude of reasons. All of these examples have a direct correlation to increasing productivity, which ultimately should be the goal for any company! Still the question is, how does one increase serotonin in the workplace? Below are two easy examples.
- Check in with each person individually (if in a small office), or supervisors on a regular basis. Then, have those supervisors’ complete check-ins for those under them. If your employees are happy in their position, they will WANT to do more for the company. They will be more driven and determined to do their tasks in a timely manner, hit their sales goals, or go the extra mile to make sure their tasks are done to their best standard. This alone will drive up productivity.
- Become more inclusive as a whole. Although individuals have to get their work done separately, employees like to feel a sense of community no matter what setting they are in. You can do this by implementing little things such as increasing employee engagement and having small contests every few weeks or months. Companies could also hold happy hours one a month outside of work at a local pub or restaurant. This would give the employees and/or management the opportunity to get to know their coworkers and feel more comfortable working together as a team inside the workplace setting.
Doing small things like this will provide a more positive and inclusive workplace atmosphere. This could indirectly relate back to sleep patterns and decrease anxiousness about work, allowing individuals to improve their sleep duration and quality. The more someone feels rested, the more energy they have to conquer the day!
Here at Selective Staffing Solutions, we have implemented some of these ideas to help drive productivity! A few examples include
- Having our office dog Gabby (Allowing employees to bring their animals in)
- Frequent meetings with management to
- Discuss employees’ point of views on daily operations and the business as a whole
- Check ins to see if there is anything further that can be done to make daily tasks flow more efficiently
- Weekly lunches
- Holiday decorating contest for our personal workspace
- Creating a more comforting atmosphere by dimming the florescent office lighting with uplifting cloud screens (See Article Picture)
These are minor changes, but effective ones! Minor changes eventually add up to huge results! Doug Conant once said, “To win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace.”
