At the heart of every business – past the goals and the values, and much deeper than the clients and projects – sit the people who have made your dream as a business owner come true. These incredible individuals are responsible for making your business a viable idea by bringing in new work, providing an invaluable service, and building upon your initial idea.
Keeping your team happy, then, should be a high priority – and to be fair to a lot of businesses, it’s something they wish they could focus on more. As your business grows and develops, however, it can be difficult to keep a hands-on approach towards measuring and ensuring employee happiness.
Thankfully, as with most areas of life, technology has found a chance to step in to provide business owners with the tools they need to make their people a priority again. Below are just a few ideas – some of which we’ve implemented at MAP HQ. Give them a try and see how your team respond!
Why Happiness is Important
First though, it’s best to understand why this is such an important topic to tackle. Let’s be honest: the age of the cruel workhouse is over and society has pretty much completely come to understand that a happy team is a productive team.
Measuring and developing your team’s happiness not only makes your business a more pleasant place to work, but it also creates an environment in which people are encouraged to thrive – and the benefits for your business can be anything from faster project turnaround to world-class growth! That’s why focus needs to be given to maintaining happiness. On the flipside, the moment people realise they’ll be happier elsewhere…well, your dream is going to stall.
Get a Feel for the Vibe
At My Accountancy Place, we’re big fans of OfficeVibe. The genius of OfficeVibe (and apps like it) is that it allows everybody to have their say on various aspects of the company through short, engaging and randomised weekly surveys. The results of these surveys are then presented to you in both figures and images, making for a pleasant reporting stage.
Of course it’s all very well and good having a beautiful looking piece of software asking the team questions every week, but what value can be derived from all of the data its collecting?
Firstly, because of its anonymous nature (although people can choose to put a name to their answers if they wish), OfficeVibe breaks down the barriers between management and everybody else. There’s no fear in speaking your mind when nobody knows it’s you. Honesty is the name of the game, and OfficeVibe (and its ilk) are able to provide a genuine picture of how the team feels without throwing the spotlight on anybody in particular.
Secondly, the data sheds a huge light on areas within the business which need improvement – whether that’s health and fitness, personal development or interpersonal relationships. OfficeVibe offers up its own suggestions and you can ask the team for further feedback in their next survey.
Combined, these two huge benefits help to support a flourishing company culture which will inevitably show employees that those in charge are listening and that they care.
Perking Up
It’s not just gathering honest feedback which has helped business owners to become more in touch with their employees – online companies such as Perk Box have provided management teams with an effective way to deliver perks and bonuses to employees through vouchers, freebies and regular discounts.
Similarly, online health plans have found a foothold in UK businesses by offering money back on medical procedures and wellbeing treatments, like massages (which are especially popular in a busy office!).
Though to take this one further with exciting tech developments would be to point out the new wave of health insurance innovations which have managed to get a generation of customers up on their feet. Now premiums can be reduced simply by walking or going to the gym, all measured using wearable tech.
Not only does this ensure your team is healthy, but also that they’re happy; countless studies have shown a correlation between movement and happiness, and you’re actively encouraging that behaviour as an employer. It also makes charity fun runs a doddle if you’re team are already fit and healthy!
As technology continues to pervade more and more of our lives, there will inevitably be even more innovations keeping your team happy, but for now there’s already plenty to think about! All that’s left to do now is to give the likes of OfficeVibe a go and watch your team’s smiles grow and grow.
Want to find out more about anything we’ve spoken about in this blog? Give us a tweet – or pick up the phone! We’d be happy to chat.
