In the United States, companies are always pressing to be more successful, more productive, more efficient. In many cases, CEOs believe that this press will help their companies survive. They may even view pushing these items to be their only chance of survival in a cutthroat work environment.
In fact, by creating high stress, cutthroat environments, the companies are reducing their chance to thrive in the modern workplace.
When businesses create a positive, comfortable work environment, they see a number of significant benefits.
Employee Health Improves
Every doctor tells their patients that stress is bad for their health. Affecting heart health, mental health, and metabolic health, high levels of stress day to day are literal killers. And yet employees go to work day after day to jobs that are killing them.
Sure, it’s impossible for jobs to be stress free all the time; big launches and important product changes will always be difficult. But keeping workplace stress dialed up to 100 all the time will quickly make employees look for another job.
Maintain Engagement
When employees are continuously stressed, they will often begin to disengage from work in order to manage that stress level. This is a survival technique, yet employees are often reprimanded for being unable to maintain goals that are inherently unsustainable.
When employees are able to work without ongoing stress, however, they have an easier time caring about their jobs and putting forth appropriate work as they go forward.
Loyalty
This should be obvious, but employees are more likely to come to work and stay at their jobs when they enjoy the work they do. Sure, some work is tedious. Not everyone finds data entry inherently satisfying, or enjoys answering phone calls all day long. But just because work itself is tedious doesn’t mean that the work environment must be tedious and stressful.
So how do employers go about creating comfortable and healthy work environments?
Show Empathy
All too often we talk about empathy as an on/off switch in the brain; either someone is empathetic or not. This is frankly not true. While some people might be more naturally empathetic than other people, empathy is a skill that can be learned. Much of empathy is listening appropriately, echoing emotions, and generally making people feel comfortable with conversations.
Managers who show empathy towards their team members are more likely to have a happy, productive team.
Reasonable Policies
There is a tendency in many corporations to legislate everything, creating comprehensive policies to address tardiness, dress code, productivity, and more. While these policies are occasionally necessary, especially when they address legal concerns such as harassment or compliance, they are often unnecessarily complicated.
Employers should look for opportunities to relax their level of concern over certain items. A salaried team member, for example, should not be reprimanded for occasional tardiness. Many companies could do more to create work from home policies and flexible scheduling. Dress codes can be relaxed and simplified to be more appropriate to the specific environment.
When companies have policies that are employee friendly instead of corporation friendly, employees are happier at work, and more likely to stay there and be productive.
Help Before You’re Asked
Many managers notice that their team is overworked or struggling with a particular policy, but instead of intervening and assisting, they wait for the team to fail. Good managers see that their team, or a particular team member, is struggling, and quickly intervene to find a way to help.
It takes talent to make this natural, and not a sign that the manager sees the team member as failing, but when done properly, this can be a tremendous help.
Foster Positive Social Connections
Social connections at work are why many employees enjoy their jobs. Managers can create positive social connections in the office by being leaders in this area. Check in with employees on a regular basis, and genuinely care about how they’re doing. Ask about family members and kids when appropriate. If managers see stress between two team members, approaching them to see what can be done to smooth over frustrating situations will take teams a long way towards smoother, more comprehensive functioning.
American businesses need to get away from the idea that the only way to be successful at business is to work a hundred hours a week and never sleep. By stepping back their work load, and expecting that their employees are able to do the same, they can create companies which are more nimble, engaged, and competitive without causing high turnover, employee irritation, or disengagement. These companies will have happier employees that are more productive and do better work than their more stressed counterparts.
