Statistics show that employees who are happy at work are more productive.  Company culture is becoming more important and is ever changing as the work force is now composed of millennials.  Company culture doesn’t necessarily make it easier to work, but it gives employees a reason to come to work, and that makes all the difference.  Your ability to inspire your team will make your team more productive.  Read on for nine ways to make your employees happier (and in turn, more productive).

Recognition

We as human beings love to be in the spotlight.  We love it when someone congratulates us on a job well done.  Everyone is different in how they like to be recognized, so try and use a variety of methods.  Take the time to individually thank employees in person.  Write meaningful notes to your employees.  Have an employee of the month or employee spotlight to publicly recognize employees.  Have a recognition wall where you put photos of employees that win the award.  After a hard and long project, give a toast, so to speak, for each employee involved and their contribution.

Throw a Party

Find excuses to throw a party for your employees. After projects, have a small debriefing (quick pizza or donut party discussing what went well with the project and what could have gone better).  During the summer, throw company barbecues.  Have a summer picnic, throw a Christmas party, Halloween party, etc.  If a new movie is coming out, rent a theatre and invite your employees to attend.   Have events that they can bring their kids to, and other events that are adults only.  Host lunches every so often that you cater to bring your employees together and to get to know one another.  You can even host brown bag lunches where employees bring their own lunch and you sit and chat with each other. If you do it right, you can write off some of these parties.

Make Hours Flexible

You would be amazed at how much happier employees are when they have a flexible work schedule.  Set the precedence for total hours that they need to work, but allow them to come in earlier or later, have extended lunch hours, and allow them to take time off if they need to visit the dentist, doctor, if their child is in a play, etc.  As long as they get their work done, allow them to set their own schedule.

Stock Your Breakroom

If employees feel like they cannot take a break, they will feel stressed and be less productive.  Stock your breakroom with healthy snacks to boost your employee’s energy and allow them to relax.  Make sure that you have filtered water and soda for employees to drink.  Have comfortable furniture in the room so that employees can take a moment to unwind.  You’ll also want to have flexible furniture, like stacking chairs, so that you can move them out of the way if many people gather in the room.

Make Sure They Know the Bigger Picture

Make sure that your employees feel like their job is important and that their work is meaningful.  Ensure that every employee understands how they fit into the big picture of the company, as well as what their everyday work is doing to benefit the projects you are working on and people you are working with.  This will help them feel valued and like they are important to the company.  As suggested here, being a business with principles and passing those core values to your employees will also help them be more fulfilled.

Give Them a Raise (or a Bonus)

Money is a great motivator.  Let your employees know that you appreciate them by giving them a pay raise.  It doesn’t have to be massive, you’d be amazed at how just a 3% pay raise can do to boost employee moral.  If you cannot give them a percentage raise, consider giving them a bonus.  At the end of a project or as a holiday gift, give your employees a small bonus to say thank you.

Set an Example

Your employees will follow your lead in the workplace.  If you don’t like working in the office, your employees will reflect your attitude.  Find ways to make the workplace more enjoyable for yourself, and your employees will follow suit.  If you set clear expectations and boundaries for your employees, make sure that you follow them as well.

Make Meetings Meaningful

No one likes to sit in a long unproductive meeting, especially when they have a lot of work to do.  When your team has meetings, make them quick and to the point.  Try not to get distracted along the way.  Find ways to minimize meetings by having online collaboration, informal check-ins, quick stand up meetings, etc.  When you are in meetings, have a clear agenda that you will follow, and stick to it.  Make sure that every team member knows what is going on with the project and what they are supposed to do.  Assign someone to take meeting notes with action items, and have them email them to the team after the meeting.

Talk to Them

Your employees need to feel like they belong.  Talk to them about their lives, their families, their interests, etc.  When you ask a question, really listen to the response.  If they have something big or exciting happen to them, ask follow up questions the next day.  Remember to ask them how their weekend went and how their family is doing.  Try to appear less like a boss and more like a facilitator.  If you have a ping pong table, challenge your employees to a match.  Bring in donuts one day and chat with your employees in the break room.  Care about your employees and they will care about you (and your company).