What is The Work Environment And Why is It important?
With the advancement of society and progress in the achievement of rights, it is increasingly clear that the work environment must be taken care of. Productivity, key to the expansion of any business or business project, largely depends on it.
However, not all companies give the work environment the importance it deserves. Therefore, from time to time you may have heard a story about a toxic work environment . These types of environments should be avoided at all costs. Discover the key guidelines to improve the work environment and, therefore, allow your business or your time in the office to improve.
What is The Work Environment?
Generally, we understand the work environment to be the physical and emotional conditions in which workers carry out their tasks. Depending on the prevailing company culture, it may or may not be a toxic work environment. The ideal work environment must promote not only productivity, but also the motivation and personal satisfaction of those who are part of it.
Not in vain, some studies have been carried out in this area that seem to indicate that happy people or a work environment without tension helps the business grow better and faster. What's more, developing one's activities in a pleasant work environment is essential for many. In other words: some employees value the work environment above other aspects, such as salary or even the pace of production.
Why is The Work Environment Important?
Taking into account what was said in the previous point, the importance of paying attention to the work environment lies in the fact that, if positive, it will allow:
Meet the general objectives of the company or company faster and more effectively. On the contrary, a harmful work climate would prevent objectives from being met and would create a hostile and suffocating atmosphere.
Get the maximum potential out of each worker. With this, workers will feel satisfied, motivated and happy. When everything flows, everything works as it should.
To find out if things are going well in this regard, many companies hold meetings or conduct anonymous surveys that allow them to fearlessly point out the problems that need to be solved. Generally, in addition, the Human Resources manager must maintain contact with all employees, as well as periodically evaluate the situation to know if it should be redirected or how to improve it.
Tips To improve The Work Environment
Whether you are an employer, employee or Human Resources manager, it never hurts to know what can be done to improve the work environment. Here we collect some general guidelines, but, obviously, everything will depend on the context in which you find yourself. The ideal is to always communicate between all the actors in the company, as well as be very observant and self-critical.
Assertive And Open Communication
In psychology they tell that story about the friend who invites you to lunch. He offers you something you don't like. There are two options:
- You eat with distaste.
- You lose your temper or calmly tell him that you appreciate the effort, but unfortunately you don't like the food.
It is up to you to accept or reject the food and how you do it. The best option is to be sincere, but always assertive.
In this way, one can communicate their wishes and concerns calmly and with zero aggression. It is important that, if you are in charge of a department or a renowned boss, you are also willing to receive criticism. And these, even if they are conveyed assertively, can be difficult to fit. But making others feel valued is no small matter.
How To Achieve Assertive And Open Communication
The following tips help you achieve better communication:
- Exchanging opinions is good to be able to restructure the company's philosophy or values in case these fail.
- Polish details and to make people feel that they work for something that goes beyond a simple salary.
- Arguing does not have to be synonymous with confrontation, so we must foster a work environment in which things can be said maturely and in a two-way manner.
Work And Personal Life Should Not Conflict
We live in times of stress . Everything seems to be done in a throwaway format. This forces us to move quickly from one thing to another and barely have time for anything. The main danger of this philosophy is forgetting that we are not only workers created to produce, but human beings who need to rest and have time for growth not only at work, but also at personal level.
In classical philosophy, Aristotle already made it clear that virtue consisted of a middle ground between two bad extremes. Therefore, it can be achieved and is the best option to generate a truly productive work day whose driving force is, mainly, harmony and motivation.
How To Avoid Conflict Between Personal And Work Life
Well, respecting free days and schedules. Regarding this last element, we are not only talking about constantly betting on overtime, but also forgetting about emails or calls at untimely or non-working hours. These types of actions generate anxiety and instability and can cause conflicts in the family unit or, little by little, the employee falls into a pit of discontent with his responsibilities as a worker.
Training And Development Of The Different Existing Skills
When a company has clear objectives, it is easier to transmit them to workers. But not only that, if this is the case, it is easier to train team members for it and get them to exploit their skills . In this sense, we can talk about hard and soft skills:
Hard skills : They are key to productivity, since their influence on it is direct. It is about knowing how to use the tools that the company uses to achieve its objectives. We are talking, for example, about computer programs or internal documents. Developing them is essential.
Soft skills : Despite their nomenclature, which can lead to misunderstandings, soft skills are also very important, as they are basic in generating a good work environment. When talking about soft skills, one refers to the personal capabilities of workers: leadership , communication, teamwork or motivation, among others.
Fair Recognitions And Incentives
When you go to your workplace you expect to be valued for what you do. This ensures that the employee not only feels like an important part of the team, but also becomes more motivated and feels the company's global project as his or her own. Therefore, it is a matter of psychological logic to resort to positive reinforcement when team members achieve their objectives or achieve levels of excellence.
It's not just about offering monetary rewards. Not everything in life is money. Sometimes a few words of recognition are enough. Therefore, there is no need to think that to keep employees motivated you have to have an extra budget or endanger the stability of the company. Of course, one should not forget that, from time to time, financial incentives are not a bad idea.
How To Give Recognition And Encouragement
For the employee to feel truly important, we must keep in mind that praise for a job well done must be personal, individualized. It is useless to always use the same congratulatory formulas, as one loses credibility with it. We must ensure that the worker perceives that he is taken as a fundamental piece of the project, that we know in depth what he does.
Nurture Team Spirit
When you think about team spirit, sports examples may come to mind, like the one we find in famous renowned teams. Examples are shown with a squad in which egos were put aside and the shooter with the best chance of scoring is always looked for.
The same thing must happen in a company. Excessive personal ambitions must be put aside and think about the whole. To do this, it is necessary to resolve conflicts together and with maturity. In a work environment where everyone comes together and supports each other, there are more possibilities to increase productivity and achieve year-end objectives. To do this, we must also promote tolerance and the exchange of disparate ideas.
How To Improve Team Spirit
To create this team spirit, it is not enough to just cultivate it by working. Important dates can be celebrated, inside or outside the office, in a group. In this way, emotional bonds will also be created between employees that go beyond simple work friendship. Not neglecting chemistry will increase support for new ideas, reduce the fear of communicating them, and allow for stronger, faster decisions.
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