The modern world has certainly brought with it a massive alteration in peoples’ workplace manner. Flexible working has become possible, working from home has, now more than ever, become part of our society, and promoting a good work and life balance is key.

As an employer, keeping your employees around for a long while is often the main goal. This way, you can maintain productivity levels, make sure your clients are happy to avoid any commercial contract disputes, and just make work a more fun place to be.

That said, we still have a long way to go before we move out of the traditional working world, and into modern day. Who knows, maybe our current global situation may cause drastic change to the work system as we know it?

Before then, though, here’s a good place to start; with my 15 tips for boosting employee satisfaction.

Below, we will cover in more detail:

1. Make sure the office space its nice
2. Ensure the office hygiene is kept up to par
3. Offer tea, coffee and snacks
4. Provide comfortable seating
5. Provide a good pension
6. Provide a worthy salary
7. Encourage team spirit
8. Be open and honest with them
9. Treat them every so often
10. Enforce a good work culture
11. Recognise their achievements
12. Make sure they prioritise a good work/life balance
13. Provide them with the tools they need
14. Be interested in their lives outside of work
15. Remember they are only human

1. Make sure the office space is nice

The first step to making sure your employees are happy is through ensuring they don’t dread coming into work every day. One sure-fire way to achieve this is through ensuring their surroundings are welcoming, homely, yet professional. After all, we want them to feel like they can get stuff done here.

So, how exactly can you get this right? Well, some ideas for making sure your office is as much of a home away from home as possible include:

• Making sure there is no damp, and that the walls and ceilings are clean;
• Space out each desk nicely, so that everyone has their own space;
• Provide office drawers, so each individual has an area to put their belongings;
• Have a nice kitchen and lunch area, so that people don’t have to eat at their desk, and can socialise during breaks and lunch;
• If possible, ensure there is a lot of natural light in the office or position desks near to windows;
• Add plants to the office and let staff have plants on their desk to boost morale;
• Let staff personalise their desks with family photos and their own stationery to enrich their workspace.

These are really just some of the many ways you can make your office space a welcoming environment. This will make such a huge difference to employee satisfaction, so it’s certainly worth investing in a spacious and well-designed office.

Indoor desk planters

2. Ensure the office hygiene is kept up to par

Similarly, it’s also important that everything within the office is kept clean and tidy. There’s no use of a lovely office space if hygiene isn’t kept up! Not least is this important for healthy and safety, but it’s also a key for wellbeing.

Yes, a cleaner is certainly a good investment; the office should be wiped down at least once a day, minimum. That said, there are some ways you can ensure everyone is respectful of the space, tidying up where necessary.

This could come through gentle word-of-mouth reminders during team meetings, or even signs on the walls. It’s everyone’s responsibility to respect the working environment, after all.

3. Offer tea, coffee and snacks

This may seem like a simple commodity, but some offices do miss out on this basic, but very British, necessity.

Through spending a small amount of the kitty on these daily treats each week, you’re making it clear that you value your employees’ time. It really is the little things!

4. Provide comfortable seating

When you’re kitting out your office space with all the gear to get people working effectively, it’s important that each desk is equipped with comfortable seating.

Of course, this will ensure that each person feels ready to work for seven or more hours a day.

That said, it’s also vital to maintain health and safety in the office; we don’t want any back problems along the way which can result in employees needing time off work and reduced productivity.

Office wall art

5. Provide a good pension

As soon as you start making your way in the working world, you’ll have to immediately give a spare thought to your future self. This will come in the form of a pension, and it’s advised that you start saving for this as soon as possible so that you don’t have to pay in massive amounts later.

It’s often recommended that you pay in half of your age each month. So, if you’re 22, you should make sure you and your employer are putting in 11% of your salary, between you. Your employer’s share of this amount will, of course, mean you don’t have to put in as much, so, if your employer has a rather rewarding employee pension scheme, that’s an added incentive to stay.

6. Provide a worthy salary

On a similar vein, making sure your employees are paid for their worth is also paramount to keeping them around. This one really goes without saying, but you’d be surprised how many employers get away with paying the bare minimum.

It may be difficult to pay above minimum wage if you are only just starting to hire staff; however, to attract the best and brightest you need to be in a position to reward. Make it clear that you will offer responsibility early, implement a bonus scheme if you can afford to and invite potential applicants to look around your office before applying, especially if you already have content staff. If they can witness a cohesive staff team first hand, they may deem this more important than financial reward.

Your employees know their worth, and if they could get better elsewhere, they are sure to go and seek it.  A lot of people leave employment because they can earn more elsewhere.  Pay them what they’re worth and they’ll be loyal.  It will also prevent costly recruitment fees, training costs and a high turnover of staff.

7. Encourage team spirit

By no means is it all about money, though, as the environment is such a massive element of whether people stay put or not. Perhaps you could ensure you all have a drink after work at least once a month, or partake in some group games.

Whatever you all enjoy, having some well-earned downtime together is so important to boost team spirit.  Make fun team building events and socials a part of your regular activity to boost morale and keep employees connected outside of the workplace too.

Employee appreciation gifts

8. Be open and honest with them

Making sure to host a culture of trust within the business is so important for the company’s long-term success. The more your employees feel that you trust them, the more likely they’ll be to trust you and your judgement.

So, be sure to let them in on how the company is doing, what your plans and goals are, and any worrying issues that may occur.  Likewise, let them talk to your honestly about any issues they are facing or worries, without judgment.

9. Treat them every so often

We’ve already talked about keeping morale high through group activities, and this can be done easily through treating them every so often. This doesn’t have to break the bank, and some nifty event-planning will do the trick.

Something like an annual Christmas and Summer party would work wonders, giving people the chance to dress to the nines too and socialise without work on the mind.

10. Enforce a good work culture

A good work culture is paramount to hiring and maintaining employees. Not least does word of mouth get around, and could tarnish your reputation as a desired employer, but you’re unlikely to maintain employees for long without this.

In a toxic working environment, employees are likely to feel unappreciated and unenthusiastic about heading to the office each day. You may be wondering what, exactly, counts as a toxic working environment?

Well, some key factors of a toxic workplace include:

• Feeling insecure in your job, like you may be fired at any point
• A long probationary period
• You dread going to work each day
• Lies and false promises being commonplace
• Feeling as though you have to watch what you do or say all the time
• The feeling of having to prove yourself all the time to be respected
• You are made to feel guilty for taking holiday or days off
• You feel watched, even when you go to the toilet or to make a cup of tea
• A lack of communication, and no clear processes on how things go
• No HR department
• Colleagues are rude to you, and treat you as inferior

You need to immediately put a stop to any of these toxicities in your workplace.

Employee appreciation card

11. Recognise their achievements

Okay, so we’ve talked about the work environment, culture, and pay, but what about the human aspects of it all?

It can be so easy to recognise where things go wrong, as the numbers never lie. That said, recognising your employees’ hard work, and when they’ve done a great job, is also paramount to keeping their work ethic up.

Ensure that you value your staff and celebrate their successes in a weekly email. Recognition boosts morale and keeps your staff team stable.

12. Make sure they prioritise a good work/life balance

Encouraging a good work/life balance is also key to keeping your employees happy, through nurturing their mental health.

You can’t expect them to keep up their work if they work late all the time, and never see their family.

Having a healthy balance, and prioritising family when it needs to be prioritised, may even boost their productivity when they are back at work.  There's a strong link between employee wellbeing and productivity. 

13. Provide them with the tools they need

You can’t expect A* work to be achieved without the necessary tools. Yes, they may break the bank a fair bit, but how can you expect to see results without the right investments?

Equipping your employees with the right working materials is also to making them feel valued and respected; this way, they’ll want to do a good job for you.

14. Be interested in their lives outside of work

We all have lives outside of our job, and recognising these lives will make for a fun and friendly workspace.

So, remember to celebrate employees’ achievements outside of work too.

Whether they’ve brought a house, had a baby, or gotten married, these are the sorts of goals we should also be celebrating.

Indoor office desk plant pot

15. Remember they are only human

Finally, it’s also important to keep in mind that your employees are human. This means they might make mistakes, and they might struggle from time to time.

So, be sure not to set them insurmountable tasks but, if you do, be prepared for them to take a while to accomplish it.

As long as you recognise their human weaknesses, and provide leeway for this, your employees will feel trusted and respected.

Don't forget to hire the right employees in the first place

Hiring the right employees is one of the most important things for any company. It is not just about getting good staff but also about retaining them. High employee turnover can affect the company's productivity and profitability.

The most basic reason for staff turnover is that people are not satisfied with their job or they feel that they are underpaid. But there are other reasons too, like a lack of opportunity to grow or develop, a lack of work-life balance, bad management decisions and so on.

The key to preventing staff turnover is hiring the right employees. Hiring the best candidates not only ensures that they will be a good fit for your company, but it also reduces the risk of staff turnover.  This will help to keep employee retention high.

To ensure you hire the right person for the job, you need to ask the right questions.  You shouldn’t have the same script for an admin assistant and a marketing manager position. If you work in a creative industry, by all means, ask the wacky questions but don’t hire purely because they came up with a witty answer about life inside an orange. You need to hone the qualifications you’re looking for to find the top talent for the role, but also take into account the personality you think will fit within your existing team and the general vibe you get from a person.

If they show commitment and drive and are genuinely excited about working for your company, they may be worth hiring.

Ready to make your employees the happiest they’ve been?

Every company wants to have happy and loyal employees and you should learn how to make your employees happy. But, how do you keep them? Well, it is not easy to get your employees to stay. There are many factors that contribute to employees wanting to leave their job. These factors can include low pay, lack of growth opportunities, and a poor culture. In order to get employees to stay, employers should focus on the company culture and pay.  You need to make sure that they are happy with their work and the company culture. One way of doing this is by making sure that they are being valued as a person, not just as a worker.

You also need to make sure that your employees feel like they are contributing something meaningful to the company. This could be by giving them more responsibility or allowing them to take on new projects. Another way of ensuring loyalty is by showing appreciation for their hard work and commitment.

Keeping hold of the best employees can be tough in a competitive marketplace. However, by following this advice, you stand every chance of keeping your staff team happy, content and productive.  I hope this has shown you some more ways to make sure your employees are satisfied and happy.

 

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