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With rising levels of stress and increasing need for better work-life balance among employees, more and more companies are trying to follow the model for developing creative and fun workplaces like Facebook and Google. Let's take a look...
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Why Staff Welfare Is Important?
Currently, the American Institute of Stress predicts that sickness related to stress costs companies around $300 billion per year. The truth is now businesses simply cannot afford this fact and invest in improving the wellbeing of their employees as it is beneficial for both the companies and their staffs.
In a recent article, Saurav Chopra, CEO and co-founder of UK-based start-ups and small businesses benefits provider Huddlebuy & employee benefits scheme Perkbox , wrote,
“A year ago, Perkbox dived headfirst into the world of ‘team happiness’ with employee rewards. At the same time, our team went from about a dozen people to an office of over 50 strong, so we know first hand that when growth happens, it can happen fast. Keeping everyone happy and managing that same degree of quality of service you had when you first started, can be very tough.”
This is perhaps the reason why the companies who focus on the well-being of their employees get so much media attention. However, there are still only a handful of companies that genuinely and actually care about the happiness of the employees. But it gains a lot of focus from business leaders when it proves effective in developing a strong and highly productive team.
Advent Of A “Caring Revolution”
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Currently, a silent revolution is at play. Companies are now striving hard to build a reputation for themselves as businesses which care. As a result, these firms are truly being regarded as inspiring work destinations and as examples that other need to follow. These companies are able to retain better talent, keep their staff motivated and productive and building a motivated, inspired and loyal workforce.
According to the Harvard Business Review, organisations which care about their staff tend to experience around 31% rise in productivity and about 37% boost in sales. Focusing on the happiness of your employees and treating them well, which was considered illogical and unreasonable previously, is now being considered as one of the factors for success. Chopra further wrote,
“...it’s this very pool that the so-called happiness pioneers are tapping into.”
What Businesses Can Learn
This now raises some important question, what does it mean by creating employee happiness at work? What can other organisations, irrespective of their size, learn from the business who have pioneered this movement? Chopra added “We looked at some of the world’s top companies and saw something intrinsic: the teams that perform the best all work towards a common goal - they care about the work they do and they understand how their role advances the business.”
Companies need to imbibe the values of empathy, praise, respect & trust so that these will become the core of the work culture. Moreover, employers need to complement this “no-cost offering” further with practical, recreational and creative benefits and incentives. “This symbiotic balance of empathy and physical rewards is important,” he wrote.
The Bottom Line
Source - bit.ly/1M0XUtJ
This goes to show the contented and collaborative work environment companies wish to create and exhibits an understanding where employees are considered as “real people with real families and lives” who have an existence beyond work.
What do you think? Add to the discussion by sharing your own views with us. Simply comment below.
Source - bit.ly/1LNcWkZ
Source - bit.ly/1LNcWkZ
