There was a time when employees didn’t get a say in their office experience. It was expected to show up to work, do a job and leave at 5 o’clock. That was OK a few decades ago, but today, companies need to raise the bar.
While customers may be the revenue driver for the company, employees are the ones that keep it operating smoothly. A study by the American Psychological Association revealed that 61 percent of workers feel burnt out in their current position due to a lack of attention. How can they perform their best if they are hovering on autopilot?
Imagine if the organization empowered employees at work and prevented them from feeling burnt out. In 2020, businesses need to focus on creating a company culture that allows their teams to thrive and embracing the People First Movement is a great place to start.
People Over Profit
People want to be heard, and it’s the organization’s duty to make employees feel valued. The reality is, these days, it’s an employee’s market — they can always find somewhere else to work. Even the President and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management, Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. is an advocate of the People First Movement. He believes companies must focus on people strategy first and make business strategy the second priority.
Engaging Environments
A couple of years ago, it may have seemed crazy to pull everyone away from their desks for a ping-pong tournament in the middle of the day, but with so many generations in the workforce, you can’t afford not to. Give employees a much-needed chance for different teams to connect, blow off steam and build an internal culture of friendship. People work better together when they are comfortable sharing ideas and not siloed in their department with a cubicle doing their best to limit conversation.
Pump Up the Perks
According to the American Institute of Stress, 80 percent of workers feel completely stressed out when they are working. Of that 80 percent, half admitted to needing help managing it. Employers should use information from these types of studies to capture the sentiment of employees and create programs that are a bonus to health benefits, vacation time and retirement options.
Along with opportunities for stress management classes, employers should gauge how important certain perks are to the staff. Considering things like a pet-friendly office, standing desks, a well-equipped break room, meditation room or even a subscription to a mindfulness app shows managers aren’t just listening to their employees, but also responding to their wants and needs.
Mindful Management Styles
When a manager treats each person in the organization as an individual, they acknowledge the fact that one management style doesn’t fit all. Start having emotionally intelligent conversations with employees, work with an assessment provider to find out how the team prefers to communicate, be rewarded, and get work done. Remember, people don’t leave companies, they leave managers.
Some of these shifts may be a bit of a stretch for operations, but it’s the direction workplace culture is headed. Companies need to get onboard or get left behind.
Jessica Lizza is the marketing coordinator at TTI Success Insights. For more than 30 years, TTI Success Insights has used assessment solutions to help more than 100,000 companies improve the lives and productivity of their organizations and management teams.
Sources
https://www.stress.org/workplace-stress
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2017/state-nation.pdf
