4Cs Blog: Happy Employees = Happy Customers

 For many people, being at work can often be a tiresome, frustrating and mundane experience. Being stuck in an office all day and the health risks associated with this, along with having bad relationships with co workers and feeling unmotivated to complete tasks, are just some of leading causes of unsatisfied workers. In fact, according to The Conference Board, a New York based non profit organization, fewer than half of American workers are satisfied with their jobs. As a leader, what if there was something you could do to fix this?

 
Outdoor activities for the workforce is a great way to re-energize your team. Whether it's some simple activities in the park near your office, or an overnight camping trip, getting people outside and engaging in team exercises has a number of benefits. Check out just a few ways it can help your team and the success of your business overall. 

1. Improves Communication

Until 2016, evidence supporting the benefits of telecommuting was mostly anecdotal. But a recent MIT study has provided real data to prove what many of us already know: telecommuting improves our relationships with managers, allows more time with our family and friends, decreases burnout, and increases job satisfaction. And thanks to the proliferation of software and technology, telecommuting is not only easier, it's also more productive.

 We get it. Working from home has its stigma, because it's just hard to believe that anything could be more effective than face-to-face collaboration. But that stigma is now proven false, and if your business doesn't offer more flexible employee work options, another company will. Luckily, all it takes is a few software options to make it all possible and easy. Here are five helpful tools to help you provide a beneficial and productive telecommuting workplace policy.

 Numerous studies show that our jobs are the major source of stress in our lives and the trend is progressively getting worse.

Job stress is reported by the American Institute of Stress to be causing increased rates of heart attack, hypertension and other disorders. The American Institute of Stress reports that the main causes of job stress are:

1. Workload 46%
2. People Issues 28%
3. Juggling work and personal lives 20%
4. Lack of job security 6%

The Institutes findings on job stress reveal that, ‘The severity of job stress depends on the magnitude of the demands that are being made and the individual’s sense of control or decision-making latitude he or she has in dealing with them. Scientific studies based on this model confirm that workers who perceive they are subjected to high demands but have little control are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease.

 The demand for shared offices and coworking space is on the rise with the total coworking market currently standing at around $20.5 billion. More businesses than ever are looking towards a flexible way of working in order to reduce costs, increase agility and offer more options to their teams.

Coworking is said to improve productivity, with 71% of workers saying they feel more creative in a coworking space and 68% saying they are able to focus more. Instant Offices have taken a look into the benefits of coworking and how to choose a space that will meet your needs.

What is a Coworking Space?

Also known as shared office space, coworking gives SMEs, entrepreneurs and freelancers access to all the facilities and perks of conventional office space without the cost of a lease and all the hidden extras that go with it. Coworking enables people to work independently in a space with shared values and a defined culture, and is increasingly being adopted by larger organisations too.

Rising Popularity of Coworking

According to research conducted by Instant Offices and CoreNet Global in a report titled ‘Coworking, A Corporate Real Estate Perspective’ , the number of coworking centres is projected to total more than 26, 000 by 2020.

 According to a ConnectSolutions Survey, 77 percent of workers reported greater productivity working off-site in a 2015 study. And it's not just workers who report feeling more productive while working outside of the office. A study from Stanford Business found working remotely actually increased productivity by 16 percent. 

The days of grappling over whether or not employees would just lounge in their pajamas and do nothing while working from home are gone, and we’re ushering in an era of high productivity and efficiency with remote work. But that doesn’t mean all companies have created a cohesive virtual workplace culture to meet the growing demand. Fortunately, the marketplace is full of robust tools that can transform your workplace culture from office bound to a team of highly productive virtual workers. Here’s how to get started:

 When it comes to living space and work culture, people often think bigger is better and less is more, but just how big do our homes need to be and how much should our working hours shrink to make us happy?

By analysing the happiest countries in the World Happiness Report by the United Nations, AnyJunk looks at whether the size of someone’s home has a direct correlation with their happiness, and how work-life balance and other daily norms can have a major impact on well-being.

Meet Some of the Happiest Countries in the World

1. Norway
2. Denmark
3. Iceland
4. Switzerland
5. Finland
6. Netherlands
7. Canada
8. New Zealand
9. Australia
10. Sweden

Companies need collaboration. With more employees working remotely and satellite offices a viable opportunity for SMBs and enterprises alike, continued growth demands the ability to quickly and easily connect team members across locations and time zones. The solution? Collaboration tools.

The challenge? Many companies now face "collaboration-tool overload." With both startups and established vendors offering their own take on employee-driven digital cooperation, how do you single out tools that offer the biggest boost to employee impact while still keeping costs and complications under control? Here are three toolsets that fit the bill.

Inside/Outside

The goal of collaboration tools is to enhance staff ability to interact, cooperate and complete projects. But these tools don't always hit the mark. While over 80 percent of professionals say that collaboration solutions play a "very or extremely important role" in meeting business objectives, 46 percent are frustrated that these tools don't allow them to make contractors, consultants and other third-party providers part of the collaboration loop, a CIO survey reports. As a result, it's a good idea to look for a tool that allows external users but also supports the security of two-factor authentication. Here, it's a question of balancing inside and outside needs. While internal collaboration is critical, business opportunities don't exist in a vacuum. Going beyond corporate walls is now a requirement.

 As employees researchers one of the most common comments we see from employees when asked what they like best about their organization is that it ‘feels like a family’. Given we spend the majority our lives either at work or with family it is not surprising that there are parallels in the way we view these two parts of our lives. Many of us think work should feel like family and we assess our happiness based on the presence or absence of that feeling.

After all, our co-workers are like family because we don’t get to choose who we work with just as we don’t choose our siblings. We also spend more time with our co-workers often than with our immediate families. Our relationships with our co-workers, by virtue of the amount of time and interactions we have with them, will impact our work and our attitude towards the place we work in good and bad ways so it is important to foster the kind of relationships that benefit our work most.

Yet it may actually be dangerous for employees to function as a family. Consider that when we develop close bonds with people, we are more willing to do whatever is needed to help. Doing whatever it takes to help a co-worker can backfire especially if some employees take advantage of others and don’t pull their own weight. If this happens, overtime bad feelings develop and this family feeling can become an “inefficient and demoralizing way to work”.

 The proliferation of digital devices mean that we’re constantly connected to the office, wherever we might be. It can become difficult to switch off from works.

Whether it’s a two week holiday or a twenty minute respite at work, taking a break and disconnecting from all things digital and work-related has a number of important benefits.

The statistics

According to a survey conducted by the Chartered Management Institute, only half of UK managers booked a summer holiday this year, whilst 35% put their annual holiday plans on hold. 69% of those not taking a holiday cited their workload as a reason why.
Even for those taking some time off, 12% planned to check their email daily, 19% said they would check their mail most days, and 26% planned to check at least once or twice a week.
Furthermore, holiday time led to people putting in extra hours of work prior to taking leave – 25% of those surveyed said that they worked an extra 8 hours the week before their holiday.

In the US, the situation is the same; 61% of employees said that they planned to work during their break. 38% planned to spend time reading emails, 32% said they would access work-related documents whilst on holiday, 30% planned to take work phone calls, and 20% would complete work tasks if asked by a colleague, boss or client.

If so, your work life must experience some difficult and challenging moments and we can empathize because we frequently hear about jerks in our research.

A jerk is a person who is unlikable, cruel, rude, small minded, who talks behind other people’s backs, and basically treats other people badly. Perhaps you work with some ‘prima donna’ employees who appear to get away with every trick in the book because they excel at their jobs. They can be life sucking and toxic so it is no wonder researchers study jerks to better understand the impact they are having on our work experience and how that impacts productivity, and job satisfaction. As employee researchers, we often see the impact jerks have on overall organizational performance and how they can wreak havoc on productivity and morale.

What the research shows is that people who spread their bad energy to others are often the squeaky wheels or ‘de-energizers’ in your organization. In a study from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business researchers found that what ‘managers may not realize is that this type of behavior spreads a dark cloud over everyone else, and the whole organization suffers’.

If you are not sure if the problem is you or your colleague, ask yourself if when you interact with that person do you feel:
a. Deflated or depleted?
b. Rejuvenated and energized?

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