How To Make Employees Happy At Work

Ergonomics has made a tremendous impact on safety in the workplace, but does it contribute anything to making employees happy and more productive?

Good health  

Good health is something that makes most people very happy and employers who take the health of their employees seriously enjoy many reciprocal benefits. It has been proved scientifically that healthy workers do work harder and contribute far more to productivity than employees with even minor illnesses. 

Employers can easily arrange for in-house Employee Health Screening Days from one of the Workplace Health and Ergonomics consultants in Australia. These consultancies provide today’s essential employee services that may be beyond the human resources of small to medium-sized employers.

Comfort

Staff who have comfortable, ergonomically designed chairs and equipment that fits their particular size and shape are happy too. This is because they don’t suffer from the painful muscle strains which are a constant feature in the lives of many workers in Australia today. Employees with a workstation that has been ergonomically designed to make their work comfortable and efficient feel valued and appreciated. And that's also one of the key elements that make employees happy at work.

Life-work balance

Another source of happiness for employees is the option to work flexible hours at times that fit in with their other responsibilities and allow them to spend time with their family. In addition, sensibly arranged shifts that allow workers to enjoy a social life or pursue their favourite sports - without having their sleep pattern completely disrupted - also make some companies more popular than others.

Variety

Variety in working tasks is another key element that keeps employees happy and productive at work. People who are kept on boring, repetitive tasks without sufficient breaks lose their ability to concentrate because under these circumstances the brain automatically moves into ‘stand-by mode’ and people begin to make mistakes.

Stress management 

Boredom also causes psychological stress leading employees to move to a more interesting job with another company as soon as they can. Therefore, employers who organise their personnel carefully to avoid them spending too much time on a boring job, which could easily be shared out amongst several workers will have happier employees

Assembly line workers often have quite uninspiring and uncomfortable working conditions in addition to boring work. The way to make them happy is to arrange job rotations to break up the monotony by varying their work and by making their workspace and break-room facilities more comfortable and attractive. 

Injury Prevention

Workers who have strictly enforced health and safety precautions at work are naturally happier than those who work in an unregulated workspace where safety rules are routinely ignored. Working in an unsafe environment produces stress, anxiety and tension amongst employees and decreases productivity. 

Bringing in ergonomics experts who can implement an Injury Prevention Programme to supervise, educate and train employees in safe-working practices makes workers feel a lot happier and attracts the best candidates for job vacancies.

Happiness is cost-effective 

Ergonomics promotes happiness through health, safety, comfort, self-worth and efficiency - leading to maximum productivity. It’s easy to make employees happy at work by providing good ergonomics and it’s also an extremely cost-effective way to do it. A typical ergonomics assessment and overhaul produces a return on investment of at least double the original investment – like this: 

• Low injury rate
• Low absenteeism
• High staff morale
• High staff retention
• Maximum productivity

Bringing in an ergonomics consultant is the key element that makes both workers and employers happy.

Date Published: Monday, April 24, 2017