Research undertaken in Britain in 2015 showed that employees who experienced an event which made them happy were, on average, 12% more productive than they had been beforehand. It follows that keeping your employees happy, as much as possible, helps them to be productive and reach their full potential. This sounds pretty straightforward; but how do you do it?

It’s important to remember that you should never just assume your employees are happy. The best way to find out if they are is to ask them. Regular employee satisfaction surveys are a good idea, as long as you are prepared to act on the results, or explain why changes cannot be made. There will be specific changes that you can make, depending on the results of these surveys. Here are some general ideas that you can consider right now.

Address the issues of life outside work

You cannot be there to support your employees all of the time. They have a life outside of work which is full of its own stresses and pressures. What you can do is provide advice about how to deal with some of the most common issues in day to day life. You can do this by including this advice on the business Intranet site, or by hiring experts to speak about issues such as:

  • Budgeting and debt management.
  • Childcare and child health.
  • Advice on diet and exercise.

Problems in any of these areas can have an adverse effect on the performance of an individual. Providing this type of advice can help them to solve their problems, and begin to perform to their full potential.

Provide information on dealing with sleep issues

Lack of sleep can lead to issues with concentration and memory. This type of issue in an employee is obviously not ideal if you want them to perform to their full potential. Providing access to information including tips for improving sleep patterns, which foods not to eat and how to choose the right bed by reading reviews on popular mattress brands like this Nectar bed review, can help employees to rectify sleep issues, and improve their concentration and memory.

Encourage an open and supportive environment

If the managers in your business shut themselves away behind closed doors, and do not engage with people, your employees will start to feel excluded. Encouraging an open and supportive environment means that employees can contribute to business planning, and feel valued when they do so. This means they are more likely to be motivated to reach their full potential.

Encourage social interaction

Most people need the support of others, at some point, to reach their full potential. This is why strong teams are so important to any business. Teams tend to bond more easily if the members interact socially, as well as when working. Enabling them to do this can be as simple as providing a pool table in the break room, or organizing an away day, or a meal at a local restaurant.

Provide learning and development opportunities

If any of your employees are stuck doing the same job, every day of the week, they may stagnate. Providing them with development opportunities helps to refresh them, and get them performing to their full potential again. This does not have to cost the business a lot of money. A development opportunity can be something as simple as shadowing people in a different part of the business. On the other hand, you may want to invest in IT, or marketing, training for employees, in order to help them improve their performance.

Get away from a blame culture

Most businesses promote a no blame culture amongst the people who work for them. But, if you run a business, you need to make sure that this is actually what happens. A mistake being made should be a learning opportunity, not the chance for a finger pointing exercise. Blaming someone often causes their performance levels to drop. Whereas, helping them to learn from the mistake assists them in developing and achieving their full potential.

Remember, helping your employees to reach their full potential does not just benefit them. It’s also good for the business. This is why you should take some time to consider the points we have made, and decide if you need to make any changes.