A work environment can have a significant impact on many aspects of your business. After all, employees spend a large portion of their days at the office so it makes sense that it would affect their general well-being. And a happy employee means happy customers. Jessica Pryce-Jones notes in her book, "Happiness at Work: Maximizing Your Psychological Capital for Success," that we spend more than a decade of our lives - 90,000 hours - at work.
Happy Employees Make Happy Customers
The key to success for any business is to have happy customers. But so many companies fail to recognize that the way to achieve that is to focus on employee happiness first. Gallup reported that employees who are engaged are more likely to improve customer relationships, with a resulting 20-percent increase in sales! The Temkin Group's 2016 Employee Benchmark Study reports that companies with a great customer experience have 1.5 times as many engaged employees as companies with bad customer experiences.
Creating a Good Work Environment
In order to create happy employees, you need to realize that the work environment encompasses many things. It refers to office policies, resources, company culture, benefits and even the way that people treat each other when passing in the hall or riding the elevator. Take a look at some of the ways you could improve your work environment:
- Foster Relationships
- Encourage Open Communication
- Offer Better Perks
Positive social connections at work can produce great results when it comes to employee happiness and productivity. Toxic workplaces that are filled with stress tend to alienate people and make social relationships less likely. Consider starting up weekly happy hours or having company outings to let your employees enjoy each other's company.
Communication facilitates trust, which leads to happiness. Encourage your employees to talk to you about thoughts they are having about work, ideas, personal issues and more. The more they feel they can open up to their leaders, the safer and more understood they will feel.
A few perks can go a long way. Having a ping pong table in the break room, offering free coffee and popcorn for for snacking, letting people work remotely one day a week - all of these things can go miles in boosting workplace happiness and morale.
The key to keeping your customers happy is keeping your employees happy. Try to keep your workplace environment positive and inspiring and you'll be pleased with the results!