Don't Overlook Employee Comforts in the Workplace

Your employees are the bread and butter of your company, so make sure that those workers know you appreciate them.

Yes, healthy salaries and benefits certainly do the trick for most employees, but a workable office place, one where workers can best thrive in, is more important than many employers probably stop and realize.

With 2016 here and already rolling along, have you taken stock of your workplace and whether or not your employees seem happy?

If not, move past just focusing on salaries and benefits, looking to see what the conditions are that your staff find themselves in each and every day in your office.

Review the Office to See What Works and What Needs Work

To start out, is your office space truly big enough to not only comfortably allow your staff to get its daily tasks done, but what about if you have clients coming into your business? If your workplace is not conducive for one or both, time to think about a change of venue or reworking the present site.

Secondly, can any of your employees if need be work from home?

What once seemed to be almost a requirement of the majority of American businesses for employees to be in an office from 8 to 5 or similar hours, has truly changed over time, especially in recent years.

More companies are discovering that allowing workers to telecommute not only can increase employee production, but it also can lower a business owner’s overhead in terms of office rent, utilities and more.

Keep in mind that not all businesses are cut out for having employees work out of their homes and/or while out on the road meeting clients or traveling to networking events such as conferences.

It is also important that before moving into an office space, you map-out your current employee numbers, along with considering potential growth down the road.

Look to see how you can easily and efficiently space employee desks, chairs, computers, printers, and other needed ware for the office. Sometimes you might surprise yourself at how you can fit in an office corner desk or other such items, allowing you to fully take advantage of the space at hand.

Set the Scene for Clients

In the event your office space is visited regularly or time to time by clients, make sure that you have a setting that is not only visually appealing, but also comfortable for customers.

Among the things to keep in mind:

• Do guest have a comfortable area to sit while the wait to be serviced?
• Will guests come in contact with any other employees besides someone (typically a secretary or admin assistant) in the front of the office? In some cases, it may be good to let clients see your employees working in their natural settings, while sometimes it is best that your employees are removed from the front area of the building so they are not continually distracted by people (typically clients but can also be delivery folks etc.) who are coming and going through the front door;
• Don’t have a bland waiting area for clients. Image means much to many customers, so if clients have a bad image of you and/or your business the minute they walk in the door, it could impact your overall relationship with them;
• Make sure wherever clients go in your office is safe and there are no concerns about a visitor injuring themselves. It just takes one slip or fall by a client on your office grounds to end up being a nightmare, especially from a financial point of view. That person could end up suing you and your business, something that could lead you to court and potentially a large payout to the injured party.

When you take the time to make both employees and clients happy around your office, the first impression both get is that you care about their well-being and overall mood when on your property.

If your office space is in need of a little reworking, use the New Year to try out some new ideas and see which ones work best so that everyone is comfortable when they enter your office space.