There is a great deal of planning that goes into starting up a new company. An entrepreneur must have good ideas to begin with, and find the resources and employees to build the business. When it comes to attracting employees and getting the ball rolling, the first step is to create a work environment that is clean, healthy, and productive. The benefits of keeping your workforce healthy, are endless. There are many ways to ensure that the space in which you and your team conduct business is a positive one.
1. Start With A Thorough Cleaning
Sometimes it can be difficult to decide where to begin. An excellent first step in investing in your brand is to begin with a thorough cleaning of the entire workspace. Vents, windows, blinds, and light fixtures should all be deep cleaned. A new coat of fresh paint can never hurt. Of course, a deep and thorough clean is never complete without a visit from a professional pest control company, like the one you’ll find by visiting moxieservices.com. All this will give you and your staff a fresh starting point.
2. Consider Layout and Organization
Once you have rid the space of dust and bacteria, start to work with organization. Depending on the size and scale of your company and layout, this may be quite a task. Consider which employees or departments will have to work together frequently, how customers will be greeted, or who should have the easiest access to supplies and inventory. While taking all of this into consideration and developing the layout, be sure to remember the effects that lighting can have on workers. Natural light is excellent for productivity, but other options can be substituted. Always avoid glare and shadows that can cause your employees to suffer from stress, headaches, and fatigue.
3. Keep your Employees Comfortable
Once you have decided where everything is going to go, you need to ask yourself if the equipment that you have is suitable for the everyday person to be using for 40 odd hours every week. As humans, we simply aren’t designed to spend eight hours out of each day at a desk. This is where ergonomics comes in. Long days of sitting can lead to weight gain, muscle loss, heart disease, depression, back pain, and countless other issues. Offering your employees chairs and desks that are ergonomically designed to avoid these problems, and even a separate place of relaxation and fun, can have positive effects beyond your wildest dreams.
4. Promote Wellness Within the Workplace
Once you have the deep-cleaned office, with a great layout that helps productivity rather than hinders it, you have probably already attracted excellent personnel. You can keep the momentum going by promoting a workplace that encourages health and wellness. Cheering on active group goings-on, having healthy snacks available, and even funding partial gym memberships are just a few ways you can promote healthy habits. In the long run, you will find a happier workforce that takes less sick days and is more productive.
5. Improve on Wellness By Encouraging a Life and Work Balance
This goes hand in hand with the health of the employees – ensure that they are allotted time for doctor appointments, and even personal appointments. Americans have increased their work days from the typical eight hours in many industries, and this can cause a huge upset in their work life balances. Let employees know that there is more to life than every single task on their work plate, and encourage fun activities like social gatherings, birthdays, even bring your kid to work days.
6. Keep Up the Hard Work
Never forget that times are bound to get tough as an entrepreneur, or any business owner or manager. When you found a company or begin a startup, you are going to have many idealistic dreams that can potentially fade over time. Always think back to the work that you put in at the beginning, such as the deep cleaning and organization of the first few weeks, and remember how exciting it was. If you have to, keep this list handy for reference, or as possible ways to regain momentum. After all, it is quite difficult to get an entire staff to spring clean, but afterwards, you’ll feel just as good as you did when the office was shiny and new to each of you.
As an entrepreneur, or even the owner of an existing business, following these tips will help get you on your way to having a happy and healthy staff – with increased productivity! The next step is to keep the momentum going, by hiring on the best employees to help you move forward.