Positive Workplace Environment (Importance / creation) | Vineet Garg | Head-HR | Brake Parts India Pvt. Ltd.

The workplace environment significantly influences employees’ attitude towards their job and coworkers, their performance, happiness, motivation & engagement levels. If your work culture is positive, you will stay productive.

The workplace environment or workplace culture is the force that always surrounds us and drives our performance. A positive and engaging workplace culture improves teamwork, raises employee morale, boosts productivity and efficiency, and enhances employee retention.

An organization’s environment refers to healthy work environment which underlying values, attitudes, behavior systems, and goals that lay its foundation. It’s an invisible yet powerful force that drives the thought process, decisions, actions, and performance of employees.

In this blog, we will be looking at why a positive, safe and healthy work environment is so crucial and what could be some ways to create a positive workplace environment.

Why workplace environment matter?

First, let’s look at the reasons why workplace culture matters? For many progressive organizations, their work culture is their strongest message as a brand. An organization’s environment –

• Defines its internal & external identity.
• Is capable of elevating or hindering Employee Engagement.
• Is powerful enough to drive employee turnover & absenteeism.
• Can help attract the best talent.
• Can improve employee productivity & efficiency.
• Safe and healthy environment Helps organization to retain your best.

These are just smattering evidence of how crucial the workplace environment can be. Thus, creating a positive work environment should be imperative for every organization. Following are the ways to create a positive, Safe and healthy workplace environment:

1. Appreciate & recognize your people

Celebrate your people. Being appreciated and recognized at work does wonders when it comes to employee engagement, motivation, and productivity.

Appreciate your teams’ efforts and it can change their attitude towards their tasks completely. Organizations can do a lot when it comes to recognizing and rewarding their star employees –

• Giving out Employee of the Month awards regularly.
• Creating a Rewards & Recognition Committee.
• Offer rewards for high performance apart from regular /annual increments.
• Revisit the existing reward and recognition.
• Gamify your rewards program – give out badges, offer points redeemable for gift cards, etc.
• Institute rewards for even the small yet significant contributions made by your employees, like an Employee Referral Bonus or innovative idea award.

Tangible performance recognition leads to healthy competition among employees and avoids counter-productive behavior, dissatisfaction, and resentment. When goals are constructively reinforced, and achievements are acknowledged, employees feel valued at work, which in turn creates positivity at the workplace.

2. Encourage collaboration and communication:

Organizations that encourage open communication and team collaboration are more successful at creating a positive workplace environment. Offering employees an opportunity to voice their opinions & concerns; giving them a platform for social engagement & interaction goes a long way in instilling a sense of ownership among employees.

Strong communication gives an opportunity for team members to nurture and foster connection & trust. On the flip side, poor communication can impede almost all aspects of a business – customer service, employee engagement, productivity & profitability. In order to create a positive, healthy and safe work environment, improving how you and your employees communicate is crucial.

Good communication between the management & employees and also among employees is essential for a healthy working relationship. Your employees need to understand what you expect from them, but you also need to know what they expect from you.

3. Be diverse & inclusive

Workplace diversity is imperative to greater proficiency, healthier work culture, elevated employee satisfaction, and lesser bias. The Human Resource Department of the companies that encourage a more diverse and inclusive workforce also tend to outperform vis à vis their industry peers.

A positive & healthy workplace environment is one where all employees are equally accepted, valued, supported, nurtured & rewarded irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, or color.

Employees are happier, more comfortable at work, and aim to give their best, thus creating a positive and progressive work culture. Organizations should work towards building a healthy and safe working environment that promotes diversity in all forms.

4. Promote Opportunities for Growth & Development

People development is among the vital factors contributing to employee well-being and constructive work culture. Encouraging your employees to grow and advance also boosts employee retention and motivation.

When employers continuously invest both time and money in their employees’ development, employees realize that the company is also interested in the progress of their career and this has a positive impact on their work attitude and performance levels.

Offering training allowances or sponsoring e-learning or certification programs, are some of the common ways by which managers can help build & sustain an ever-growing and ever-dynamic work culture.

5. Have fun at work

Logging in every day and doing routine work may sooner or later get a little dull. Therefore, companies should look for ways to make work more enjoyable. When workplaces make “fun” an intrinsic aspect of work, they have happier teams; and a happier employee is bound to perform better.

Workplace fun is often linked to – greater motivation & productivity, less stress and fatigue, and better job satisfaction. Moreover, having fun activities at work helps build trust among employees and enhances teamwork.

Hosting employee engagement activities, team building games, town-halls, retreats, off-site well as onsite socials are all great ways to allow employees to come together and build strong relationships outside the boardroom. Companies should make efforts for creating a healthy and safe work environment and to build an engaging culture where people love to come to work.

Conclusion:

A positive workplace culture that fosters healthy relationships and camaraderie among employees is crucial for success. It is essential for managers to instill a sense of pride, loyalty, and ownership among their teams.

When employees are proud of being associated with their company, they align themselves with the company’s vision and are inspired to work harder, find better ways to solve problems & devise faster ways to achieve a task.

Positive workplace culture boosts the overall employee engagement levels at an organization, while a negative culture not only mars engagement but also kills productivity. Your workplace culture can either transform employees into advocates or critics!