How do I make my people happy?
There's no magic solution to how you can foster happiness amongst your people. But there are things that you can do to create an environment where people can flourish.
Here are ten things you should consider:
- Find out what people really think. Consider conducting an employee attitude survey to identify what people like and dislike about the organisation and their work. Ask questions around the behaviour of managers and whether people feel they understand what the organisation is trying to achieve and what their individual role is. But take care. Asking what people think is merely the beginning. You should be prepared to address any negative feedback.
- Find out why people leave. Make a point of asking everyone who leaves what their reasons are and make sure that you review these regularly for trends.
- Encourage teamwork and good relationships between workers. Teamwork can be key in creating a sense of purpose and belonging. Consider how you might encourage greater teamwork through team events for example.
- Get your communication right. Revisit your approach to internal communication. Is it appropriate for your audience(s)? Does it engage people? Is it open, honest and regular?
- Provide regular, constructive feedback on performance. Make a point of providing regular feedback to your people on their performance - what they do well and how they might improve. Be constructive and collaborative in this. Set personal, achievable goals and make sure you recognise an individual's efforts to improve.
- Recognise achievement. Often a simple 'thank you' will suffice but you might want to consider how you formally recognise achievement through awards or competitions. The key is to ensure that people feel their contribution is valued and that they are doing something worthwhile.
- Deal with underperformers. Your good performers can be demoralised if you persistently fail to deal with underperformers in the organisation. Work with underperformers to highlight areas for improvement.
- Engage your workforce in the business. Make a point of sharing the organisation's goals with your people and encourage leaders to be highly visible in the organisation. Report regularly on performance against targets and explain what people can do to achieve even higher performance.
- Review your management style. It may be a cliché but employees seldom leave organisations, they leave their managers. Take a look at your managers and how they behave in your organisation. Provide remedial training or coaching where appropriate and implement systems and processes to facilitate better people management.
- Review your rewards and benefits. Pay and benefits per se do not make people happy but they can impact upon happiness if people perceive them to be inadequate. Take a look at the rewards and benefits offered by others in your industry or region and consider what would appeal to your people. Flexible working, for example, is emerging as a key issue for UK workers and you need to consider what your approach should be.