Given the current situation, the need for creating a happy and stress-free workplace is the need of the hour. Stress, anxiety, fear psychosis may dampen the happy moods of the employees indirectly affecting workplace performance. There is a need for changing the workplace priorities where a happy being should take precedence. Researchers have proved that employees who maintain their emotional wellbeing are prone to make better decisions at the workplace. But have you ever thought of it that why did it take a pandemic for us to realize the importance of employee wellbeing?
While it’s equally important to create a hygienic environment and enforce social distancing at workplaces, organizations should also look at ways to create a happy and positive workplace culture. Engaging over 100 employees needs a lot of hard work. It might as well be a full-time job. Employers could start by taking pride in their employees, appreciating them for their hard work. A small token of appreciation and gratitude can take them very far. The main idea here is to create a healthy and happy workplace where the employees feel and become kind, compassionate, grateful, and cheerful to themselves and one another that would lead to better productivity at work.
In a study conducted by Treglowna, L., & Furnham, A. (2020), the researcher found that interactions in the workplace appear to be, at least partially, dictated by the similarity of emotional intelligence levels among individuals. Another study by Barreiro, C.A., & Treglown, L. (2020) concluded that emotional intelligence acts as an employee’s personal resource that facilitates experiences of engagement. Therefore, the ROI for the business implies employees with more balanced emotions and higher positivity towards work and colleagues that leads to higher performance and higher returns. Another study by Khosravi, P., Rezvani, A., & Ashkanasy, N.M. (2020) found that the ability to understand and to manage emotions among project members enhances their ability to reinforce the focus of their team on vital tasks and challenges that increase project performance and cohesion.
A positive workplace improves teamwork, productivity, and efficiency raises morale and enhances the retention of the employees. A little converts and redefining your company values can bring about a lot of change.
Organizations can create an inclusive and diversified workplace. It should be a place where all employees are valued, feel welcomed, and accepted irrespective of who they are and where they come from.
Employers should focus on building trust among employees while addressing their issues and concerns. This is very crucial to creating a healthy environment. Rewards should be created in such a way that they are highly relevant to the employees.
The “one-size-fits-all” approach is not the solution in the post-pandemic world.
There should be more employee engagements. HR managers or maybe a specific manager say Employee Engagement Manager should reach out to all the employees on a regular basis. It can involve sending out inspirational messages, celebrations, employee and company milestones, achievements and awards, and so on. End of the day, you and your employees would want to feel that you are finally home, right?
Six months down, everyone must have started thinking, is it goodbye to offices? Is it always going to be this way? All these thoughts, I’m pretty sure, are still running in everyone’s mind and eventually led to the use of the term “Sick building syndrome” which wouldn’t go away so quickly. Nevertheless, we have many reasons not to panic over it. Reimagining a Healthy and Happy workplace is not a far-off dream. It is achievable by taking the right steps. COVID-19 might have brought shockwaves to the entire world and might have been a game-changer in many ways but the drastic changes that the pandemic has brought to the table were long due. As far as I can see, COVID-19 merely sped up things. Also, there is no denying that it has been a difficult period for people mentally and physically. Therefore, organizations and employers will have to start prioritizing employee needs and preferences to ensure their efficiency levels are at an optimum level. Everyone should work together, go the extra mile, and build mutual trust, practice flexibility, diversity, and inclusiveness to create a happy and healthy workplace because you and I know that Remote work won’t last forever.