This guide outlines why happy employees are important to business success, how to check if they’re happy and how to fix it if they’re not.
Your employees are an essential part of your business, and you can’t afford to have unhappy employees working for you. You may think that it’s not a big deal how your employees feel, and this is the complete wrong attitude to have. In fact, if you think like this, then you are more likely to have a high turnover rate, which is never good for your company.
It’s important that you are paying attention to how happy your employees are and know what to do if they aren’t happy. Sometimes talking to them is enough and finding out what the problem is, and sometimes you’ve got to be a little more creative.
How to ensure you have happy employees
In this article, we’re going to be taking a look at how you can tell if your employees are happy, and what to do if they aren’t. By the time you’ve finished reading, you should know more about how to gauge your employees’ moods and how to improve them as much as you can. Keep reading if you want to find out more.
The work output
One way that you can tell how happy your employees are is by the work output. If you think about what is normal for your company, when you notice a dip, something is going wrong. It’s not always possible to identify the cause straight away, and it’s not always going to be because you have unhappy employees, but it’s a good place to start. Have you ever heard of the phrase hard-working employees are happy employees? It’s true.
The happier people are, the more effort they are going to put into working for you. Try not to forget that your employees are a super important part of your business as they are the ones who keep the wheels turning. If one cog in the machine isn’t working as well as it should, everything else slows down.
The way they interact
Another thing that you should do is look at how your employees are interacting with each other. Working with others isn’t always easy, especially if you don’t get along. But, there is a difference between not getting along with someone and then causing problems to the point where someone is actively unhappy more often than not.
So, take a look at the way that your employees interact with each other and see what you can find out. It might even be the case that you notice there is one person who doesn’t really fit well because they make everyone else unhappy. If you can identify this, then that’s great, because it means you can get to work doing something about it and ensure you have happy employees across the business.
Observe them
Observing your employees is essential but make sure they don’t know you’re watching. We don’t mean this in a stalker kind of way, but you need to know what is going on in each area of your company. If watching to judge whether you have happy employees helps you understand this, and it will, then this is what you’re going to have to do.
When you’re observing, keep your eye out for anything that’s specific such as employees who don’t get on, or someone who seems to be constantly down. Anything that you think is important probably is, so make sure you write down notes if you think you’re going to forget.
Help where you can
Okay, so now you know how you can go about telling if your employees are happy, we can start looking at what you should do if they aren’t. The very first thing that you can try to foster happy employees is lending a helping hand where you can. Obviously, you’re not going to be able to do everything, and some departments you’re going to know nothing about, but people appreciate the effort.
You can head down and ask if there is anything that you can do or anything that they need help with. It’s a simple question, but trust us when we say that it means the world to employees when an employer asks if they can help.
You need to be leading from the front, not sitting in your office all the time. Forming a good relationship with as many of your employees as possible is the best way to get them to be happy employees when working for you.
Do something nice for them
Another thing that you can try is doing something nice for them. Organize a trip out somewhere for your staff and let them bond. This is going to be especially important if you’ve noticed that the team seems disjointed or there is someone who doesn’t quite fit in. You don’t want anyone to be left out when they are working for your company, so things like this are excellent for team building and happy employees.
Or, you could simply give them the day off every now and then. Of course, not everyone can have the day off at the same time because then the business would have to shut down for the day, but you can always alternate a day off between people. For example, one set of people get one day off, and another set get a different day. It gives them a break and lets them know that you’re thinking of them.
Show them they are appreciated
All your employees want is to be appreciated by you, and this could be the cause of their bad engagement if they think they aren’t. Don’t forget that many of the people who work for you spend a lot of their life in your office, doing work to make your company successful.
If you don’t appreciate your employees, you really should — and then let them know. There are a number of ways that you can do this from giving them little gifts with some of the best hustle quotes printed out, to some other kind of gift. It’s always nice to receive a gift from your employer to say thank you for the hard work, even if it’s small.
We know that some businesses can’t afford to do this, and if this is you then just make sure your employees know you value them. Ensure that you are saying thank you as often as you can, bring donuts to work for the break room once per week. It’s the little things that are going to make the most difference to have happy employees, so keep this in mind. You can even ask them what they would like as a reward for working so hard and let them decide if you can’t think of anything.
Ask them what they need
Finally, if you notice that someone in your company isn’t happy, or that there are quite a few people who aren’t, ask them what they need. Ask them what you can do to make their job easier or their life at work happier. Talk to them and find out what the problem is, then work together to come to a solution that fixes it and creates happy employees.
Trust us when we say that your employees are going to appreciate this a lot. They know what they need better than you do, so go straight to the source and figure out your next move.
Conclusion
We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now see how you can tell if your employees are happy and what to do if they aren’t. Now that you have this information, you can make better decisions when it comes to the people that you employ. Good luck, and we hope that you put this advice into practice sooner rather than later, for your sake and the sake of your happy employees.
