POSITIVE WORKING ENVIRONMENT

IMPORTANCE OF POSITIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT

Most of us spend a huge proportion of our lives at work, so naturally it is important that we have a good environment to work in. The effects of work atmosphere on all aspects of a person’s well-being is much further-reaching than most realise.

A recent study (Robert Half International, 2012) found that the work environment is the most crucial factor in employee satisfaction.

In this article we take a look at why work atmosphere is important and how you can recognize the signs that the atmosphere isn’t as good as it should be.

THE EFFECTS OF POOR WORK ENVIRONMENT

It is a commonly known fact that if one person is feeling down, they bring everyone else down with them. Negativity is contagious, and it can have a detrimental effect on the workplace. Not only does a negative environment cause employees to be unhappy with their jobs, but it makes them less productive. Plus, if they have other things on their minds, they can be more prone to making mistakes. As a business owner or manager, this is not a good situation to be in.

Mistakes equal money!

Not only can a poor work environment slow down productivity, but it can cause employees to consider resigning and moving on to a new job. Once again, this costs your business money. It can also cause current and former employees to spread negative remarks about the business -- which is particularly damaging if you are a small to medium sized business.

Aside from the effect on the business, a bad working atmosphere can have a significant effect on individual employees. Several studies have found that poor working conditions can cause long-term health problems including stress, depression and anxiety.

On the other hand, a good work environment can have a lot of positive effects on not only the welfare of the individual employee, but on the business’ bottom line. If people are happy with where they work and the environment they walk into each day, they have been proven to be more productive and make less mistakes.  Just as negativity is contagious, so is positivity.

SIGNS OF A BAD WORK ENVIRONMENT

Before you can set about trying to improve your workplace environment, you need to identify what problems there are. It isn’t always immediately obvious that there is a problem. So what are the signs?

INTERACTIONS

Is your workplace so silent that you can almost hear other people breathing? This lack of social interaction between your employees could be a sign of an unhappy workplace. And really, sometimes all it takes is a glance around and a gut feeling of whether you are in a ‘happy’ workplace or not.

HIGH TURNOVER

This might seem obvious, but if you are finding that your top performing staff members are leaving to work for your competitors, there is a good chance it is because they don’t enjoy the environment they work in – not because of the job they are doing.

INABILITY TO MAKE DECISIONS

If managers have completely differing ideas and goals, there can be ongoing underlying tension in the office. This tension can quickly work its way down the food chain, with other employees feeling unsure about what goals they are trying to achieve. It can almost become a tug-o-war between management.

Of course it is normal and healthy for everyone to have their own ideas, but it’s when agreements can’t be made that problems can occur.

FAITH IN YOUR PRODUCT

Whether your company produces cat food or computer security systems, at the heart of every business is a product. Do your colleagues use the product themselves? Do they believe in the product they are, in some form or another, working to sell? If not, this can be affecting the overall environment.

IMPROVING WORK ENVIRONMENT

Whether you have identified serious causes for concern in the workplace or you simply need to make a few tweaks, changes won’t happen overnight. However, there are lots of ways to inject some positivity into the workplace, which over time will make a significant difference to the whole vibe and output of your office.

SELF-IMPROVEMENT

Sometimes the only way to get a job done is to tackle it on your own! Do you go into work feeling lethargic and unmotivated? If you do, chances are other people do too. So what can you do on an individual level to make a change?

Once you have identified what it is about your job that is getting you down, you can work on fixing those things. No interaction with your colleagues? Why not spark up some conversation, suggest a lunchtime activity or even after work drinks?

Organising an event outside of the office is a good way to get your colleagues into their comfort zone. Outside of the work environment people can be themselves and often interact better. A couple of social events can be what you need to break the ice.

WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Also working on the idea of self-improvement is your work-life balance. It is important that every employee has a healthy work-life balance. If you or your employees are working overtime every evening or having to cancel personal plans to be at work, then chances are it is affecting your overall happiness at work. You can grow to detest your work, which doesn’t benefit anyone.

Whether its you that’s putting in the extra hours or you know that your employees are doing so, you need to ensure that the work-life balance is maintained. Sometimes people need to be told to go home or be told that ‘it can wait until Monday’.

As a manager, you should not be rewarding those that work late regularly. This makes other employees feel that they can only be seen as a ‘good’ worker, or progress in their career if they give up some of their personal time for work. This can result in stress, particularly in those that have a lot of commitments outside of work.

TRAINING

It is natural for people to want to feel valued and important in their workplace. With technology and business changing at such a rapid pace these days, many people are concerned they will get left behind. By keeping yourself and your employees as well-trained and up-to-date as possible, you can help boost morale and confidence in staff members.

Many types of training courses can also double up as team bonding exercises. Training doesn’t necessarily have to be dull and boring -- many courses these days are very hands-on and involve working in teams.

How Important Is Your Work Environment?

When searching for a job, you may find yourself most concerned about what salary you will be collecting if you are hired.  Although a high salary is certainly an asset to any career and may attract you at first, the work environment that you attend to every day is just as important, if not more.  A positive, collaborative, creative work environment is what retains employees in the long run, and motivates them to work harder.

So, what exactly are the telltale signs of a positive, collaborative, creative work environment?  You might want to look into these signs, and perhaps even ask your interviewer questions about the work environment in order to rest-assured that you will be excited to contribute to this company when you wake up in the morning.

COMMUNICATION

Whether you are applying for anything from an auditing job to a sales job, good communication within the workplace is essential for fostering a positive work environment.  Chances are, if employees communicate well with each other, and managers communicate well with employees, the workplace will be more productive.  A work environment with good communication is one where everybody knows each others’ names, employees from all tiers are approachable and friendly, and there is a welcoming familiarity and openness that allows interpersonal relationships beyond the realm of the business’s mission.

TEAM SPIRIT

Team spirit is the core of a collaborative, positive work environment.  Team spirit builds off of strong interpersonal communication, and strengthens the business because everyone works towards a common goal and feels a strong sense of belonging.  A workplace with team spirit provides rewards and recognition to deserving employees.  Group collaboration is common not only in the lunchroom, but at meetings and discussions as well.  A work environment that welcomes creative, diverse opinions and persons fosters growth, and, in turn, makes the workplace a fun place to be.

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

The physical environment of a workplace greatly affects the positivity within the firm.  Great energy can be created by an, attractive, comfortable physical environment.  This energy ultimately enhances productivity and success.  Windows allow natural sunlight and Vitamin D into an office, which are essential to contributing to a good mood.  Similarly, windows allow an employee to look out and envision a new idea, which enhances creativity in the office.  A clean work environment without much clutter allows employees to focus on their goals.  Lastly, an open work environment that is not closed off by cubicles fosters group communication and helps build relationships between employees.

As you can see, interpersonal communication, team spirit, and the physical environment of a workplace are all connected to each other.  If you can find a job that has all three of these factors, then you will make new friends, find happiness, and allow the best version of yourself to shine and contribute to an already successful firm.

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

In her book, "Happiness at Work: Maximizing Your Psychological Capital for Success," Jessica Pryce-Jones notes that we spend more than a decade of our lives -- 90,000 hours -- at work. Jobs full fill our need to belong and give us a sense of identity. The quality of our association with work depends on the quality of our relationships with colleagues, supervisors and clients as well as company culture. When those relationships and the environment in which we interact are positive, we feel valued and respected. We take pride in what we do, perform better and care about our employer’s future. We become engaged: connected to the organization, results, customers and co-workers. Our professional contentment spills over to our personal lives.

ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES OF A NEGATIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT

A negative work environment has career and health consequences for employees. An employee's less-than-exemplary job performance resulting from frustration with bureaucracy, a bad boss, 70-hour-a-week work culture, co-worker conflicts and hostility raises fears of dismissal, stress and unhappiness. Leaving a negative job situation carries economic uncertainty and interrupts a chosen career path.

According to a 2008 study published in the International Journal on Disability and Human Development, negative work environments lead to insomnia, anxiety and depression.

EMPLOYER BENEFITS

The agency overseeing the performance evaluation system, notes that profitability, productivity, low turnover, an excellent safety record and customer satisfaction result from employee engagement created by a positive work environment.

Engaged workers create a 20 percent increase in productivity and are nearly 90 percent more likely to stay with their employer, according to a Corporate Executive Board study cited in Snell's "Managing Human Resources" textbook. Organizations with a positive workplace also experience fewer Equal Employment Opportunity complaints and lower absenteeism.

ORGANIZATIONAL REPERCUSSIONS

Problems stemming from a negative employment atmosphere feed upon each other to the detriment of the entire organization. Attendance issues -- call-offs, lateness, leaving early -- lower productivity and poison morale. "Presenteeism," defined as reduced productivity while on the clock, leads to disengaged employees making errors due to their lack of concentration and motivation. Customer service suffers when unhappy workers cannot put on a happy face. Innovation and creativity lose their competitive advantage when disengaged researchers and product developers lose interest. As disillusioned employees leave, management loses credibility which tarnishes the organization's reputation and causes recruitment trouble.

WHY THE IMPORTANCE

According to a study conducted by Robert Half International Inc., the work environment has become the most critical factor in employee satisfaction today. Only twenty years ago, the same survey fetched only 9 percent of professionals claiming that the work place is such crucial factor. Work can be demanding and tense, with many professionals feeling dissatisfied by the received gains, as compared to the incurred stress, which is infamously dubbed as the number one killer around the world.

FIRST OF ALL, NEGATIVITY IS CONTAGIOUS. The pessimism and dissatisfaction of a few employees can easily contaminate an entire team. Unhappy employees are not productive and tend to slack and make more mistakes than they usually would. Management must realize that employees are the behind-the-scenes masters to the company’s success. If they are not happy with the work environment of a company, they can always resign and go off to greener pastures. Many employees believe that they work excessively, yet don’t feel a sense of financial satisfaction. Unhappy with their salaries, they avail of pikalaina (quick loans- ah long lah) for certain expenses, usually for leisure and material satisfaction.

The general definition of a positive work environment is that it is a place where employees are happy, healthy and motivated and feel that they are rewarded and of value. People spend a large part of their lives at work; hence, it is understandable that it plays such a vital role in the choosing or staying at job.

When employees feel more positive and find themselves in a good workplace, they are more challenged and motivated to do better. It creates healthy competition among workers which is beneficial for both the company and the employees. A positive workplace allows employees to focus on the job at hand and not be bothered by irritating sidetracks, company gossip, raging bosses and going through irrational complaints or client history.

A GOOD WORK ENVIRONMENT IS CHARACTERIZED BY A HIGH DEGREE OF TRUST AND RESPECT AMONG EMPLOYEES OF ALL LEVELS. ALL FORMS OF DIVERSITY AND POSITIONS ARE RESPECTED. This avoids personal conflict and unhealthy competition. It also creates a sense of openness where problems are discussed openly instead of in a gossiping manner. Employees feel valued and rewarded which creates a sense of loyalty to the organization. Also, a positive workplace reduces the formation of clubs and cliques among employees. In this kind of company, employees are satisfied and put their engines in motion to be more innovative, creative and productive, not just with the hopes of promotion but with the interest of the organization in mind. These good values attained from the workplace also tend to spill over into employees’ personal lives. Workers that are happy at their jobs tend to have happier relationships as the stress does not come home with them. They plan their future and finances better and thus are able to afford more. They might even consider checking cercacasa.it for beautiful properties for sale in Italy.

A GOOD WORK ENVIRONMENT ALSO MAKES EMPLOYEES MORE OPEN TO CRITICISM AND TEND TO TAKE IT CONSTRUCTIVELY INSTEAD OF PERSONALLY. This allows room for improvement in not just the workforce, but on business processes, activities and productivity. A good work environment also nurtures relationships that can potentially turn out into great friendships. Many people have made good friends in the office who not only help them in work-related aspects but even in personal matters like giving advice, from diet tips, and what movie to watch on the weekends, to financial planning and how to make PPI claims.

One reason why several professionals stick with working at a detrimental workplace is because of the money they earn. These individuals however do not find personal satisfaction in their financial freedom and can one day become a liability rather than an asset to a company. Good companies provide their employees with incentives, a good vacation leave or a cash advance when needed. These companies treat their employees as human beings and not as machines.

The importance of a positive work environment cannot be exaggerated. It is a difficult ordeal to transform a negative workplace into a positive one, and it takes considerable time to change ideals, and commonly accepted behaviors and notions. It is the job of managers to do the first step for employees to eventually follow them. Check it now for more information on positive work environments and the benefits thereof.

is Positive Energy Important in the Workplace?

Everything is energy. Energy is powerful enough to create your success or promote your demise. Everything you involve yourself in is a result of the energy you contribute.  

How you contribute to your professional environment is as important as what you contribute.  You may have the experience, knowledge, skill, and a long history of success; however, if you approach a new project, a meeting, a new job, an employee, your boss, or a customer with infected/negative energy, you should also be prepared to take responsibility for the consequences.

Some experts will claim energy is neither positive nor negative, rather all energy was neutral and only has the ability to take on the form in which you give it.  This couldn’t be further from the truth.  The reality is you do have the power to choose how you exert your own energy, but you do not always have the ability to prevent encountering others’ negative energy.  Sometimes it is easy to see how others affect you, but many times you may not even realize the effect others are having on you. Creating an awareness of how situations or people make you feel can help correct or deflect this negative energy. 

As a leader, your energy can determine the success of a meeting, a workday or even your overall company.  If you have an employee or co-worker who is struggling, have you considered how much responsibility you have in their performance?

If you have chosen the privilege and responsibility to supervise others, how are you dealing with your negative employees?  NEGATIVITY IS CONTAGIOUS. 

It may seem as if dealing with negative people is easier to simply ignore them.  However, it’s important to remember that many people are not aware of how negative energy is affecting them.  Therefore, your negative employees may be consciously or sub-consciously expanding their negativity and influencing the behaviour of others.

WAKE UP LEADERS!  LOOK IN THE MIRROR.  What are you contributing to your personal and professional life?  How do you protect those you are responsible for, as well as your overall company, to ensure they have the positive, working environment they deserve?

1. Begin with yourself!

There are very common questions to help evaluate the energy you may be contributing. Are you generally a positive or negative person? Do you have a high or low energy level? How do others respond to you; relaxed or tense? Do you find yourself being judgmental of others or open and accepting of diversity and new ideas? Do you harbor anger rather than letting these feeling go? Do you feel mostly happy or sad and frustrated? Are you a nice person?

2. Observe Energy

Awareness is a great advocate for improvement. As leader, you should care about creating a positive environment. As an employee concerned with your current work environment, consider you are as responsible for creating a positive environment as your boss and your co-workers. Therefore, by simply taking time over the next week to observe others, you may create a new awareness of the type of energy that is most common in your department or company.

3. Dealing with negativity

How a leader deals with energy can directly determine how well an employee performs. The majority of employees spend most of their waking day at work. Most employees want to feel good about their workplace. Identifying a negative person does not have to result in turnover. The reality is if you begin with yourself, many others will naturally follow your lead and contribute toward a positive environment. However, if you identify a negative employee who is not supporting the environment you are expecting to create, it is critical to deal with this behaviour. If after giving the employee an opportunity to improve, they do not respond favourably, as a leader you cannot ignore this behaviour. Allowing this employee to continue contributing negative energy will quickly infect the energy of other employees and yourself.

4. SETTING EXPECTATIONS

Evaluate your management style and look for ways to create a positive, supportive, and rewarding process. Reward the positive improvements and mentor the employees who are not exceeding expectations. Positive reinforcement can quickly shift energy and build momentum toward your desired results.

5. ENERGIZE YOUR TEAM

A typical workday can drain the energy out of your employees. Look for ways to create energy boosts throughout the day, in meetings, and throughout projects. This can be as simple as frequent short breaks, laughter, creating a very open environment where fresh ideas and creativity is rewarded.

The relationships you align in life reflect who you are.  You are defined by your relationships in your personal life and most certainly within your professional career.  If you find the majority of your employees are tired or your team is having difficulty with exceeding expectations and creating momentum, seriously consider evaluating the energy flowing within your company.  Do not wait for others to create the positive, rewarding, motivating environment that you have had the power to create all along.  A positive environment is a healthy environment.

5 Characteristics of A Positive Work Environment

Aside from the job scope itself, one factor that significantly influences how employees feel about work is the environment. By work environment, I mean everything that forms part of employees’ involvement with the work itself, such as the relationship with co-workers and supervisors, organizational culture, room for personal development, etc.

A positive work environment makes employees feel good about coming to work, and this provides the motivation to sustain them throughout the day.

If you’re looking for a new job, then I would say that assessing the work environment is a crucial step you shouldn’t skip. After all, this is the place you might be working at in future and you wouldn’t want to be dragging yourself to work every single morning!

Due to the job variety available in the marketplace, this article is probably a little generic and may not apply to all types of jobs. However, as you shall see below, these qualities are much valued by employees and employers in most jobs. I would say that they are pretty universal in that sense, except in a few exceptional cases.

1. Transparent & Open Communication

In essence, a transparent and open form of communication addresses the employee’s need to feel that what they have to say has value. It is what makes employees feel that they belong in the organization. Work then becomes meaningful because the employees know that what they contribute affects the organization that they are affiliated with.

It is thus essential for staff to discuss the organization’s philosophy, mission and values, from time to time during retreats, meetings, etc to ensure that everyone knows what they’re working for other than their pay checks. Having open discussions get people involved and allow them to share their views and perspectives on how to achieve company goals. After which, the management side will give their own perspectives on how to fulfill the organization’s mission.

GIVE AND TAKE

Such two-way open communication will eventually break down the hurdles present in hierarchical or bureaucratic organizations. At the end of it all, it promotes trust in day-to-day interactions between co-workers, as well as between subordinates and supervisors.

Everyone becomes more united with the organization’s mission in their mind. There is mutual respect among all employees, regardless of their official statuses.

This is when employees will not be afraid to suggest ideas to improve the work processes, thus benefiting everyone in the organization in return.

2. Work-Life Balance

There has to be some sort of balance between work and personal life. In general, having that sense of balance will improve job satisfaction among employees because they will feel that they’re not overlooking the other areas of their lives that are, if not more, important to them than work.

THE CONSTANT JUGGLE

When employees fulfill their various needs and goals in life, such as those of family, friends, spiritual pursuits, self-growth, etc, they can then feel more confident about themselves and perform their best at work. Apart from that, employees that are exposed to more experiences in life outside of work can use what they’ve gained and apply that to their work.

In other words, work-life balance can promote creativity and out-of-the-box thinking.

A NOD FROM THE TOP

‘Good’ employees or workers are often defined as those who put in loads of effort and sacrificed their personal time in order to perform well in their work. Some employees are simply workaholics who would rather neglect other aspects of their life for work.

Managers have a responsibility to show that this is not right, by rewardingemployees who maintain good work-life balance habits (e.g. leave work on time) and can still perform well.

In this case, the organization may adopt a firm stance on work-life balance by educating employees on the benefits of having such balance in their lives or even include it under their mission statement.

3. Training & Development-Focused

In a time when change is more rampant than ever before, it is necessary for organizations to be keep abreast with the changes and train their employees accordingly. For instance, technology is evolving so rapidly that what organizations commonly used ten years ago could be made obsolete today (e.g. Zip drives, dial-up modems, etc).

Adapting to change is never more crucial in this era because those who don’t, get replaced. This applies to both the individual and the organization itself.

A training and development-focused organization has a clear roadmap for training their employees to sustain and enhance the productivity of the organization as a whole. Essentially speaking, there are two kinds of skills that can be developed: hard skills and soft skills.

·         Hard skills: impact work productivity directly e.g. knowledge of a new database management system

·         Soft skills: interpersonal skills which could affect the morale of the organization.

A positive work environment would have routine trainings to improve efficiency and instill positive attitudes among employees.

4. RECOGNITION FOR HARD WORK

Rewards are necessary to encourage certain behaviors in persons. This is known as positive reinforcement under operant conditioning in the field of psychology. It is used in organizational behavior management as well: by rewarding employees who put in effort for their work, this will promote similar behaviors in the future.

SHOWER PRAISES

A reward here doesn’t have to be monetary in nature; sometimes even a simple verbal recognition by the supervisor is all that is necessary to spur the employees’ motivation.

When hard work is appropriately rewarded and duly recognized by the management, employees will naturally feel valued by the organization for what they put in. Such mentality is healthy for the organization because employees will be willing to go the extra mile without worrying about not getting anything in return.

ACKNOWLEDGING THEIR PRESENCE

Apart from having a system of monetary rewards in place to award those who perform at work, daily interactions can also be a good means of recognizing efforts. It’s free too! Managers ought to verbalize their appreciations for simple little things when employees go the extra mile. However, these should be made specific and personal for the employee to feel that what they do are being taken seriously and appreciated.

5. STRONG TEAM SPIRIT

As social beings, we naturally seek support from our peers and seek to belong to a group. Come tough times, the team should come together to deal with whatever problems are out there. This is where a sense of unity is evoked in the team and employees will no longer just feel that they’re working for themselves. They are now working towards something bigger than themselves, and as a team.

Instilling a strong team spirit is not easy because it involves the acceptance and tolerance of differences in perspectives and working styles between teammates. There is a need for them to see that they’re working towards a common goal before they can look beyond the differences.

BAND OF BROS

Have team-bonding activities that let the team focus on the positive sides of each member and negate the negative ones. Celebrate events like birthdays for each member of your team to show the exclusivity. Deal with issues together. Basically, whatever it is that you do, do it as a team.

One pitfall to look out for when team spirit is high is the group think phenomenon. This psychological phenomenon occurs when the group cohesiveness gets so strong that judgments or decision-making get clouded.

Think about it, when team spirit is strong, members will be inclined to support whatever decision made as a team without raising any valid objections. The solution is to have a member playing the role of the Devil’s Advocate during discussions.

So what do you look for in your ideal working environment? Full-time freelancers can sit this one out, you are probably already in it.