#1 Lots of Open and Honest Communication

Nothing is more crucial to creating a productive workplace than making sure the management is perceived as being fair. A high level of communication between co-workers is consistently present in excellent workplaces. Levels of motivation are directly related to a workplace’s sense of camaraderie and achievement. When employees are encouraged to support each other, and through problem solving discover new ways to improve, motivation increases. Excellent workplaces create opportunities for peers to come out of their cubical silos and share information so that everyone knows how they fit into the big picture.

Every resource on creating healthy and productive workplaces emphasizes the importance of honest and frequent feedback. The Hawthorne Effect, which was published in 1933, found that when employees believed their manager was giving them special attention and monitoring them their productivity increased. Frequent and accurate performance feedback -whether formal or informal can positively increase productivity. Ask the employee how they would like their feedback; what motivates them, what threatens them, and what you can do to help them be successful. Also, ask for feedback from your staff. What can you do to improve?

Give praise and celebrate good work! Giving regular positive feedback can create a healthy and non-threatening rapport with employees. Improving communication and making employees feel valued will improve job satisfaction, which motivates employees to achieve more job success. Success breeds success, so celebrate both individual and organizational successes.

 

#2 Train Staff

When looking for someone to join the management team, look for staff members who have leadership abilities, not necessarily the person with the best technical skills. Good people skills and high emotional intelligence are crucial to retaining employees and getting results. Challenge your staff to grow by giving them leadership opportunities, t hey will appreciate that you have confidence in them and gain leadership experience.

If you want to have a high performance staff team you need to train them: diversity training, stress management training, conflict training, technical skills training - the more training the better! Excellent workplaces invest and commit resources to develop their staff. Providing information, training and leadership support to employees allows for high performance standards to be set because employees will have the resources they need to meet those standards.

 

#3 Comprehensive and Flexible Work Policies

Support work-life balance policies that set staff up for success. It is easy to ignore these policies and ask staff to stay late and finish a project or postpone their vacation so that they can attend a meeting, but this is not fair. The long-term effects of these requests can lead to chronic stress, resentment towards management and low job satisfaction.

Encourage leaving work at the office, using flextime schedules, turning off blackberries and taking scheduled vacations. Management that promotes flexible and supportive policies can create a trusting and respectful workplace.

Workplaces with flexible accommodation policies can demand high performance because they remove distractions and inconveniences. Workers who see their employer as fair and trustworthy are more loyal and productive because they value their job more than those who are frustrated with their employer.

 

The first step to creating this utopian workplace is to start modeling the behaviors that you would like to see. Set an example for your employees by finding a work-life balance, expressing your thoughts and concerns to your co-workers and seeking out additional training when you feel it is needed.

 

In the words of Napoleon Hill, a respected and influential writer on success and achievement “You can’t change where you started, but you can change the direction you are going. It’s not what you are going to do, but it’s what you are doing now that counts.”