How To Make Every Hour Happy Hour At Your Place Of Work
Creating a positive atmosphere at work can have all sorts of positive effects on your business. Getting it right is often the difference between a high turnover and keeping people for life.
Author:Iram MartinsReviewer:Elisa MuellerJan 29, 2024945 Shares13.9K Views
Creating a positive atmosphere at work can have all sorts of positive effects on your business. Getting it right is often the difference between a high turnover and keeping people for life.
But what do you need to do to make every hour happy hour? Well, you’re about to find out. This post delves into how some of the top brands are improving the quality of life for workersand encouraging them to stay longer.
Insist On Fun Time
Injecting some fun time into the working week can make it infinitely more enjoyable for colleagues. Staff who have something to look forward to on a Friday night are more likely to put in the effort during the rest of the working week.
The fun you include could be anything from trivia contests to theme days. Try coming up with some new ideas in a creative brainstorming session and see how they change the culture at your work.
Use AI Tools
You can also make every hour at work a happy hour for staff by including more AI tools in your software stack. Adding these helps to streamline work, allowing workers to bypass repetitive tasks and get more done.
According to Guru, a developer, these tools are getting more advanced. Many colleagues now expect firms to have AI systems in place that prevent headaches.
“The best AI search engines for workcan do more than many executives believe,” Guru reveals. “These solutions aren’t just chatbots that provide generic answers to users’ questions. Instead, they can be more specific, depending on the data companies provide.”
That last point is the critical one. Companies that feed more siloed information into these systems can enable them to give workers comprehensive answers to queries, based on data that’s true for the firm.
“We are seeing the emergence of systems that act as a single source of truth,” says Guru. “Cloud-based, these systems amalgamate all of the company’s available information from reports, emails, marketing materials, and so on and use it as a library to provide answers to employee’s questions. The more data it can consume, the better the responses become.”
Once workers have these tools, it removes a lot of the frustration they experience at work. Colleagues feel better about their jobs and are happy that they can put a lot of the work on autopilot.
Generate Purpose
Of course, work shouldn’t devolve into a situation where colleagues are pressing buttons and doing hardly anything else. Individuals also need a sense of purpose and passion in what they do.
“It’s not just about taking away tasks from people,” Guru says. “Technology also can enable them to focus on the most enjoyable aspects of their work.”
Injecting purpose into employees’ lives requires starting with a mission. It is critical to assist colleagues in seeing how their efforts are contributing to wider, broader, and transcendent goals. Once workers understand that they are making a difference, they are more likely to feel fully engaged in what they are doing.
Create A Healthy Work Environment
You can also make every hour happy hour at your business by encouraging a healthier work environment. Making value-added adjustments can improve your colleagues’ quality of life considerably. For example, you could:
- Make the bathrooms more accessible
- Insist that all desks and chairs be ergonomic and designed to prevent joint injuries
- Redecorate the interiors to make them feel more welcoming
- Improve lighting and adjust the blueness of the light as the day goes on to reflect workers’ body clocks
- Ensure that workers can see some natural daylight
- Remove any toxic chemicals, asbestos or VOCs
Encourage Breaks
You can also make workers happier in your organization by actively encouraging breaks. Many companies believe hardship is necessary, but research shows that people actually work better if they can take five or ten minutes awayfrom work every hour or so to recharge their batteries.
Encouraging breaks is necessary in some organizations. Companies that hire a lot of highly committed and talented individuals often find that they want to work all day and night. And while that might be admirable, it’s not always the best policy for long-term health and well-being.
Therefore, make it company policy that workers should be out of the office by 6 pm and take regular week-long breaks. The more refreshed employees are, the more they can do at your organization.
Enable Internal Mobility
Another tactic is to enable superior internal mobility. Instead of hiring from outside, promote the people you already have.
When you foster internal mobility, it generates loyalty and encourages your most talented people to stay. You simply promote them when merit requires it.
Team Building Activities
You could also try introducing team-building activities to bring everyone together. Helping people form meaningful relationships with each other makes it more likely they will want to work together long-term.
Examples of great team-building ideas include:
- Volunteering together for a local cause
- Getting a commercial company to provide team-building activities
- Organizing a game night
- Themed potlucks
The first team-building might be a flop. But you should notice that they bring colleagues closer together and that the atmosphere in your workplace changes. People are more collaborative and open with each other, encouraging cross-talk.
Institute Flexible Working Arrangements
Another way to make every hour at your place of work a happy hour is to institute flexible working arrangements. Allowing employees to take time off when they need it adds tremendous flexibility to their lives.
For example, suppose a worker wants to get off work early because they need to take their child to the dentist. Under an inflexible working arrangement, that would be impossible (or involve a lot of emails to HR). However, with flexible workers, colleagues can scan in and out at will.
Wellness Initiatives
Finally, you might want to consider adding various wellness initiatives. Employees love it when companies care for them, helping them get fitter and healthier. Options include yoga classes, meditation instruction, and circuit challenges to push fitness even further. Focus on both mental and physical well-being for best results.
Iram Martins
Author
Iram Martins is a seasoned travel writer and explorer with over a decade of experience in uncovering the world's hidden gems. Holding a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Management from the University of Lisbon, Iram's credentials highlight his authority in the realm of travel.
As an author of numerous travel guides and articles for top travel publications, his writing is celebrated for its vivid descriptions and practical insights.
Iram’s passion for cultural immersion and off-the-beaten-path adventures shines through in his work, captivating readers and inspiring wanderlust.
Outside of his writing pursuits, Iram enjoys learning new languages, reviewing films and TV shows, writing about celebrity lifestyles, and attending cultural festivals.
Elisa Mueller
Reviewer
Elisa Mueller, a Kansas City native, grew up surrounded by the wonders of books and movies, inspired by her parents' passion for education and film.
She earned bachelor's degrees in English and Journalism from the University of Kansas before moving to New York City, where she spent a decade at Entertainment Weekly, visiting film sets worldwide.
With over 8 years in the entertainment industry, Elisa is a seasoned journalist and media analyst, holding a degree in Journalism from NYU. Her insightful critiques have been featured in prestigious publications, cementing her reputation for accuracy and depth.
Outside of work, she enjoys attending film festivals, painting, writing fiction, and studying numerology.
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