Managing Employee Mood
Helping to creative positive emotions in the workplace
Why is Workplace Mood Important?
Keeping employees in a good mood creates an overall positive environment within any workspace. Here are some of the reasons why it’s beneficial for your company:
- Happy employees are more motivated, they’re more excited to show up to work and contribute their skills and talents to achieving your company’s goals. They get more work done, because they’re excited to be a part of this environment.
- Positive vibes create more opportunities for collaboration. Seeing positive attitude encourages employees to approach each other, initiate interactions and work on ideas together.
- Positivity encourages creativity! Being in a good mood encourages people to be more dedicated to the tasks, go the extra mile and think outside the box for solutions.
Here are some tips for maintaining positivity and good vibes —
Take Care of Physical Health
Eat healthier
Healthy snacks are great! Stock up on fruits and healthier snack alternatives, instead of office candy. But think even further! Certain foods increase positivity and energy levels! For example, walnuts, bananas and wholegrains are considered to be ‘happy foods’!
Encourage exercise
Whether you provide discounts for gym membership, invite a yoga teacher to office once a week or organize a football club at work, you can create opportunities for your employees to exercise and make it convenient to fit around their work schedule.
Encourage real lunch breaks
Encourage people to actually take their lunch break off. Move away from their desks, walk somewhere, eat and, if they want to, socialize instead of staring at the laptop screen. Disconnecting for 30 minutes will provide much needed break, recharge batteries and provide energy for the afternoon. Lunch break is not just about eating!
Emphasize sleep
Sleep or lack thereof can impact the mood of your employees. Make sure work is not what they are losing sleep over!
Vacations are to be taken
You might think it’s better if employees never go on vacation, but its actually not. Disconnecting and getting time off is a healthy practice that employers should encourage. Do quarterly review of holidays and flag if there is a tendency to not take any or too few.
Provide Healthy Work Environment
Give feedback
Giving feedback is a basic necessity at work by now! Create a structure of feedback during 1:1s, include it in team meeting agendas, create reflection meetings after a project is completed to provide and receive feedback. Make sure feedback is a healthy part of work life, it’s expected and always given in a constructive, respectful way.
Show gratitude
Saying ‘Thank you’ is so powerful and can create a lot of encouragement and motivation. Lead by example — regularly say ‘Thank you’ for contributions and efforts, whether it be in public communication channels or team calls. Make sure it’s always deserved, timely and visible.
Recognize and celebrate
Celebrate milestones, achievements and successes. Celebrate birthdays and company anniversaries. Make sure the right people get a shout out during a company/team meeting. Send a public message and if its a significant reason to celebrate — get a cake or desserts out!
Be nice to each other
Although it’s obvious, emphasize office rules of respect and kindness. Even when delivering a harsh feedback, it’s still possible to be respectful and polite! Nobody wants to go back to a workplace where they are not being treated well. Emphasize this message through your company values and provide feedback when someone doesn’t follow these basic principles of human decency.
