Leading companies, such as Google, have emphasised the importance of a fun work environment. This not only creates a work-life balance, but also boosts productivity amongst employees.

Here are 5 steps to help you create a happy workplace:

Show concern for employee's happiness

The well-known Hawthorne effect puts emphasis on the performance of employees is hugely influenced by their surroundings and colleagues. The study showed heighten productivity when someone was concerned with the workplace and gave employees the opportunity to share their opinion of changes before they were implemented. Therefore, prior to implementing changes within the workplace it is best to find out how your employees feel about the change and whether it will have a positive effect on their morale.

Flexibility to encourage work-life balance

Flexible working is becoming increasing common. Technology such as Office 365 allows you to have the same communication with employees as you would if you were sat in the office with them. A recent debate on LinkedIn highlighted that an employee had to use annual leave to attend their child’s sports day, resulting in bad publicity via social media. Therefore, encourage freedom in the workplace, set out clear expectations and in turn this trust will make employees respect boundaries.

Team building

Strengthen the team bond between employees and encourage them to form friendships. Arrange employee days out once a year, buy a company BBQ and enjoy summer lunch breaks together as a team or even ask employees to join you at the pub one evening after work. Create a supportive friendly environment in the workplace and in turn your employees will be happier and likely to promote more collaborative working.

Encourage an open forum

Be approachable. Allow your employees to share they opinions with you without feeling disheartened that they will not even be considered. Set aside one day a month to allow employees to share new ideas for consideration by Management. By adjusting your communication style to encourage an open-forum with employees will make your employees happier. Furthermore if employees are dissatisfied, they are more likely to raise their concerns than suffer in silence which could lead to employees leaving.

No long working hours

Create a divide between work and home life. Don’t allow employees to continually work out of hours, this can lead to increased stress and dissatisfaction. Communicate with employees to find out how you can help reduce the need to work out of hours. This could be through additional training or reviewing workload.