Tips for making your business a more enjoyable place to work

As a business owner, profits are extremely important but on top of that, you want your employees to enjoy working for you – after all, the happier your staff members are, the more productive they will be which will lead to great profits. But, you also have the other side of the spectrum to think about. If your staff members don’t enjoy working for you, then they may leave to work for a company that they believe looks after their staff better. 

There are many ways in which you can make your workplace a more enjoyable place. This can involve spending money and updating your workplace like getting a commercial architect in or making small changes like encouraging work nights out, setting realistic targets and offering bonuses. 

Whichever route you do, the fact you are trying to show you want to make changes will encourage and make your staff members feel like they are being looked after. Below are our top tips for making your business a more enjoyable place to work. 

Encourage work nights out

A big part of motivating a team is for them to feel like they are a team and want to spend time together and work together to achieve the bigger picture. When possible, organize work nights out for some team building, this way they all get to know each other. Team nights out can involve anything from going down the pub, having a meal together or doing an activity of some sort like shuffleboard, darts, pool or a whole team building day where you go away together. Depending on your budget and profits, try to organize a work night out once a month or at least once every two months. You never know, your employees may start organizing nights out together if they enjoy it. Use spreadsheet software to keep track of the costs you are spending so that you can easily budget for each one. 

Set realistic targets 

Setting targets is part of the parcel of running a business. The challenge is setting realistic ones that your employees can achieve. By being achievable, they are likely to work hard to hit their targets as well as find your workplace an enjoyable place to work – who isn’t happy when they know they have hit their bonus figure? If targets are unrealistic, then motivation will be low as they know they will not be able to achieve them and chances are they may not even try as they can’t be bothered. Plus, when targets are unrealistic, you know they will tell others this, making new staff members feel even more unmotivated when they have just started working for you. 

Allow staff members to have an input 

Feeling like you are being listened to is a big thing and can really help staff feel happy and heard. When you are making big business decisions, or small ones for that matter, that have an effect on staff members, try to get them involved. This way they know you care about their opinion and they know what they are saying could make a difference in how the business is run. It could be that their opinions are very valid and benefit you hugely. If you don’t agree with what they are saying you can try and compromise with them.