The contemporary business world focuses mostly on the happiness and satisfaction of their employees. Note that many studies claim that the productivity of such companies is higher when compared to their traditional counterparts. No wonder, most employers are embracing this change and are ditching the outdated uninspiring and lifeless office environment.
Millennial enterprises are rather promoting activities that can create a fun and positive atmosphere in the workplace. This will benefit both your employees and business alike. Furthermore, fostering a fun and happy atmosphere at your workplace is easier than you think. Some of those amazing methods that you can adopt to achieve this objective are given below.
Encourage short breaks
If a person works continuously for long hours, he/she is likely to get exhausted and this can, in turn, affect their performance. In order to avoid this, promote an active lifestyle at your office. For this, you can encourage your employees to take short breaks in between. In fact, just swapping the desks and chairs or walking around can make them way energetic and yield positive results. Note that an active professional lifestyle can improve employee engagement, alertness, and subsequently their productivity.
Many large-scale companies such as Google have already become a pioneer in the active professional lifestyle revolution by introducing rock climbing walls and many other integrations in their office. While smaller business enterprises will not be able to afford such bigger changes, you can still make some subtle changes that can yield almost the same result. For instance, design a common space in your office where employees can walk around, chat, enjoy a cup of coffee, etc. Undoubtedly, this type of collaborative office environment will boost employee engagement.
Connect with nature
An employee will have to spend around 8 hours or more deprived of natural light in a normal office lifestyle. This can affect their productivity since humans have a constant desire to connect with nature even when they are at their workplace. According to a survey conducted by HR advisory firm Future Workplace in 2018, most employees ranked access to outdoor views and natural light as the most important attribute of the workplace.
So, it is better to consider the ways to implement these aspects into your workspace whenever possible. For this, you can switch one of the walls at your office with plain glass or a large window so that the employees can enjoy the scenic outdoor views while working. Otherwise, host outdoor meetings to achieve surprisingly positive results.
Focus on flexibility
You can define a fun office environment as something that can offer anything and everything. To prove this statement, all you have to do is to check out the workspace of Google. Needless to mention, small or medium scale companies will not be able to afford such bigger changes, as mentioned earlier. However, you will be amazed to know that you can yield similar results by designing your workplace smartly. For this, try to focus on flexibility, especially at the forefront of your office to give an energetic impression to the employees as they step in.
Besides, you can offer fun initiatives and perks to your employees with a little reorganization even if you are running a small-scale company. For this, you may design a dedicated area in your office with removable and quirky furniture pieces such as bean bags, sack bags, versatile occasional tables, etc. While it gives an impression of a functional area at first sight, the employees will be able to transform it into a fun space quickly. For instance, they can pull out a fold-away table tennis table or a board game from the storeroom and set it there when required. Otherwise, simply set the beanbags together and create an instant chill-out zone.
