10 Smart Ideas to Keep Your Employees Happy

How do you sustain your efforts in making your employees happy and excited in their jobs?

It’s not easy but there are practical ways on how you can do it.  Actually, employee satisfaction is not only about pay, benefits or incentives but also how to make their jobs easier and fun.  Add to that giving them all out support and respect and you have the magic combination.

Here are 10 smart ideas that you can try to keep your employees love coming to work every day.

Give them a free hand

Empower them and let them have a say over their working areas, work flow and conditions.  One of the things that turns them off is when they feel that you breath down on their necks too much.  

Challenge them

Raise the bar of their performance by throwing challenges at them.  Make them feel that you believe in them. Give your employees challenging new assignments to motivate and push them even beyond their limits.  Nothing is more rewarding to employees than making them feel your trust.

Engage

Find time to reach out to employees by having informal chats over lunch or coffee to find out what they value and aspire for.

Be open

Employees feel more trusted and valued if they know what’s going in the company and they’ll be more happier if they know where it is headed and where do they fit in.

Listen to their ideas

Never put down an employee’s idea especially in public to promote a creative environment.  Show them that you value their ideas by listening to their suggestions and making them part of the company’s decision-making process.

Recognize employees' achievements

During meetings and assemblies, make it a point to acknowledge and mention the name of your employees and their accomplishments.  People appreciate being respected and recognized for what they do well.

Apply different strokes for different folks

People have unique needs and wants as well as expectations.  Make it a policy among your managers to deal individually with those who are under their direct supervision. Ask their subordinates what they need from their leader, peers and the organization as a whole; how they want to be recognized and rewarded and how do they want to be treated based on their answers, instead of the one-size-fits-all approach to employee motivation. 

Encourage social activities 
Have regular activities that promote socialization among employees such as retreats, nature trips, happy hours and other activities that give them a chance to bond together.

Provide the right tools
To make your employees happy and productive, remove any barrier that will keep them from performing their tasks by providing a conducive work environment and the right tools they need.

Send the right signals

In everything you do and say to your employees, you send out messages that tell whether you are concerned about them or not. The tone of your voice or your body language says a lot about your intentions.

Chances are, before you became the boss, you were an employee once.  What motivated you then? What were your expectations? How you wanted to be treated? 

Your answers to these questions should make it easier for you now to answer the question of how to make your employees happy and productive. 

 

Watch your body language

"Those in leadership and management roles should look inward at their own behavior and body language; are you sending out the right optimistic and positive message? Leaders set the tone for the culture, which will create a happy or unhappy staff." – Laurie-Ann Murabito, speaker and author, "Rethink Leadership: 4 Lessons to Make You Remarkable" (CreateSpace, May 2011)
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