The very best way of improving employee happiness at work is normally fairly costly. Cut and dry, increasing wages is the singular strategy that always increases productivity and improves workplace happiness.
But, not all companies have the available budget to give out major raises at present. Especially if you work in a smaller team, then you’re looking for ways to boost employee happiness that don’t have to cost lots of money. That’s where we come in – we’ll move through the X best methods that you can use.
We’ll touch upon the following strategies:
- Weekly 1-1s
- Anonymous Feedback
- Give Thanks
- Award Breaks
- Discuss Remote Work
You’ll have a happy, engaged, and productive team in no time.
Weekly 1-1s
Weekly 1-1 meetings with a manager are normally a fairly nebulous affair. For many people, these sessions can actually create a lot of anxiety, as they’re not sure what the manager wants to talk about.
By establishing a more casual 1-1 meeting culture, you’re able to take away this anxiety. Before each meeting, note down what you want to talk about in an agenda and send it out to people. If there isn’t anything specific, you can use this time to talk through how the employee is currently coping with work.
Many people prefer to suffer in silence, so providing a platform for open communication can go a long way. As a manager, you want to create a workplace where people feel confident and are allowed to ask for help. In this weekly 1-1s, try and see if any employees are currently struggling with the amount of work they have to do.
If you start to think that someone is suffering from burnout or is too stressed at work, it’s time to act. Providing help during difficult periods can help employees feel much more supported at work. Alleviating some of their tasks, redistributing throughout your team, and creating a more balanced working environment will help boost individual happiness.
When all work is shared, and no one person is doing to much, your teams will feel much calmer. A weekly 1-1 is a very subtle way of instilling this culture. Just be sure to tell your employees what the 1-1s are for beforehand!
Anonymous Feedback
Building upon our last point, even with a 1-1 structure, some people don’t want to ask for help. Whether it’s pride or shame, they don’t feel comfortable acknowledging that they’re stressed.
To prevent these people from getting burnt out, you should create an anonymous feedback option. Users can voice their concerns here, telling you information without revealing who they are. If you get a tip-off that employees feel like they have too much work, then you’re able to act upon this suggestion and help alleviate their workload.
Communication is key in any workplace, with a free flow of ideas helping to promote a happy and healthy team. Considering that burnout negatively impacts 83% of workers, reducing its likelihood is vital for a happy environment.
Give Thanks
A lot of the time, working in the corporate world can be a fairly thankless task. Even if you work hard on a project, you might not get much recognition for your efforts. This, over time, can cause employees to lose motivation at work.
As a manager, you should attempt to create an atmosphere where praise and positive feedback are abundant. Commenting on someone’s work and highlighting what you like or simply praising someone for all the hard work that they’ve been putting in can go a long way. Making someone’s day with a positive compliment can actually help boost their overall productivity.
A happy worker gets 13% more work done, according to the University of Oxford. Make positivity a part of your workplace culture, and your employees will thank you.
Award Time Off and Breaks
If you can’t increase the salary of your employees, then the second best thing you can do for them is to give them more time off. We don’t mean extending their holidays by weeks, although this is definitely something you could look into.
Whenever you finish a large project, you should give your team a bit of extra time off. Maybe you finished the final draft of a big marketing project on a Thursday. Why not give everyone Friday off to recover? While that one day might not seem like much, giving people an extended weekend is a great way to boost morale.
The positive benefits you’ll receive from this will often far outweigh the cost of letting everyone have the day off. Investing in extra time off for your employees will boost happiness, reduce the likelihood of burnout, and keep your team as positive as possible.
Discuss Remote Work
One of the biggest objectives of compensation management is to increase worker happiness without breaking your company’s bank. Most of the time, the very best compensation will cost your business money. From matching 401Ks to increasing the healthcare coverage you provide, everything costs you money down the line.
Yet, one of the biggest changes in workplace culture over the past three years might be challenging it. As more companies move to remote work, the need for a physical office space is quickly reducing. If you work in an industry that doesn’t need physical meetings, then you should seriously think about making the leap to remote work.
Remote work has been shown to be just as productive, if not more, than in-person working cultures. Alongside this, you’re instantly brightening your employees’ days as they don’t have to spend hours commuting to and from your workplace. Beyond the happiness benefits, moving to a completely remote working culture means that you won’t have to pay for office space.
Renting an office is one of the largest continual points of expenditure for businesses, meaning that removing this could result in a huge profit for your business. When you move to remote working, everyone wins.
Final Thoughts
Boosting employee happiness doesn’t have to come with a steep price tag. That said, please don’t fall into the trap of thinking a quarterly pizza party is enough of a morale booster. In this list, we’ve covered some of the very best ways that you can boost employee happiness without spending lots of money.
Small changes, like creating a more positive workspace, come fairly naturally. However, if you want to make the biggest possible impact, consider moving to remote working. A mix of remote working and providing more vacation days to your employees are low-cost, high-reward methods of boosting happiness.
With less time commuting, more days off, and more time at home, your employees will quickly become some of the happiest in your industry.