Are your people not delivering the results you need and your business not performing as expected?

Consider for a moment, the findings of research conducted by employee services provider Personal Group, which revealed that almost half of UK workers are unhappy with their job. The same survey showed that happy employees are a massive 12 per cent more productive than those unhappy with their work situation. Hands up anybody who would like to see a 12% increase in productivity in their business this month?!

So, if your employees feel unhappy or unappreciated, you can be sure as eggs is eggs that they won’t be giving their all to the business that employs them.

When you take the time to show your people you care – in a variety of ways – they are going to be happier, more engaged in their jobs, and more productive. The bonus is that when your staff are happy, this typically leads to better customer service, too. And who doesn’t want that? Here are a few of my low-cost ideas to boost your employee engagement and productivity in this final quarter of the year;

• Give more than is expected. Think outside the standard wage and benefits box you provide to your employees. Observe them at work and see what you can do to improve their work environment and make it a more welcoming and pleasant place to be. Ask your employees what their career goals are and help them achieve them. If your company has the budget, reward outstanding performance with extra perks such as gift cards, dinner at a local restaurant, or a surprise paid day off. It needn’t be expensive, and the small gestures are often the most impactful. If cost really is an inhibitor here, why not consider ad hoc personally handwritten thank you notes? They can be a highly valued, lovely touch.
• Get the welcome mat out. Make sure that new employees feel welcomed. Have an existing staff member mentor the newbies until they get on their feet, and ensure that they get a full and thorough induction into their role and the company to make them effective in their role asap.
• Work in the Cloud. A work-from-home day is always useful for employees waiting on deliveries or with childcare issues. By putting as much of your company’s shared content in the cloud as possible, it frees up your staff by offering more flexibility. This will also show your staff you trust them to work well, without you having to look over their shoulders. From a productivity point of view, this is a win-win. We are now entering into a time of year when adverse weather can sometimes mean people can’t get into work.  Making your systems available remotely means work does not have to grind to a halt should adverse weather conditions make commuting impossible.
• Safety and Wellness. Don’t forget the little things that make life liveable. Onsite minor vehicle maintenance and other machinery/equipment repairs can go a long way towards keeping your employees happy. Who else hates it if their laptop or printer isn’t working? It can take up tons of time trying to sort out these issues, but will also cause a massive frustration for your employees if they simply don’t have the tools to do a good job!  Likewise, offering basic medical assistance, basic medications, access to health-based time off, company sponsored flu jabs – can all be helpful, particularly for those companies that don’t offer healthcare to their employees. Incentives keep employees productive. Productive employees help a company succeed. And the double win here is that some health and safety incentives even lower the costs of keeping your employees employed – think of the sheer number of employee sick days that get taken by the dreaded flu virus…..a company-sponsored flu vaccination might seem like great business sense in this context and now’s the time to be getting your flu jabs!
• Be on your employees’ side. It is always important to have your employees’ backs, even if an issue has something to do with a customer. The customer is not always right. Show the members of your team that you respect and care about them by defending and supporting them when needed. And yes, sometimes that may mean losing a customer.

So, we know that healthy, happy workers lead to healthy, happy and successful organisations.  If you want to increase productivity and boost your profits employee wellbeing needs to be at the top of your agenda.

A well-being strategy and policy is a good place to start and we can provide you with a well-being policy that is right for your business and give you loads of creative ideas for a well-being strategy to get you started. Want to know more? Then book a virtual cuppa with me and we can have a chat about how to improve your employee well-being and boost your productivity. Book a cuppa with me here.