You’ve spent so much time thinking about building your business from the ground up. You’ve got your financial plans, your team, and your core strategy. Everything may seem stable, but after a certain period, there may be one particular area in your business that may start to come apart: your overall work environment.
While you may have put a large amount of thought into selling your product or service, you may not be ready to manage a large group of people. As your business grows, you’ll need more employees to handle more workload. Whether you’re a successful marketing manager or an RSD lawyer, there are multiple ways to achieve a comfortable environment for each member of your working community.
Open Communication
As your group of employees grows and you become a more fully-staffed company, personalities can sometimes conflict with one another. While you cannot always control how your employees act, you must control where they work. In managing your employees, ensure that you have a policy of open communication between your staff and that they’re able to come to you with any health or safety concerns.
If there’s ever a problem between staff members, make it a point that it’s alright to “air it out” between them in a respectful manner. At the same time, if there’s ever a particular member of your workforce causing excessive trouble with multiple employees, it’s your responsibility to take them aside and see how you can resolve the situation so that your company’s workflow isn’t affected as a result.
A Secure Culture
It’s vital to establish physical safety in your workplace, as all employees have the right to a secure working environment. Ensure that walkable spaces such as hallways are free from obstructions such as boxes and other large items, which could potentially cause injury. Check that the equipment you use in your workplace is clean and free from potential safety hazards.
In addition, if your work environment utilizes tools or machinery in its day-to-day procedures, make sure that you perform routine inspections and proper maintenance. This regular pattern of observation will lessen the possibility of workplace injury.
Perfecting the Posture
With so much of our work being done at desks these days, constant leaning and bending can lead to back pain and other forms of discomfort. It may sound funny at first, but having meetings with your staff to establish proper posture can have fantastic results, and lead to improved mental focus. Other ways to help in these aspects include:
- Having interval stretch breaks
- Providing back pillows at personal desks
- Utilizing comfort-designed seating and furniture
- Ensuring hydration with water/energy drinks
Support for Behavioral Health
With 13.1 million U.S. adults currently being affected by mental illness, the focus in 2021 and beyond will be on the workforce’s mental health and psychological stability. Declines in productivity, absence from work, and errors in planning or decision making will be areas in which any business manager will need to address with his or her staff.
Just as you have a policy of open communication between employees, establish a support structure for behavioral health so that these areas aren’t one-strike problems. If your working community knows that you’re a source of strength for them in case personal issues of theirs arise, then this will build on your business’s foundation and help its support structure grow even further.
Physical and mental safety are equally important as we look towards the future for the American working community. Whether you’re growing a small business or forging ahead with a large enterprise, ensuring a workable environment of security and well-being will benefit each of your employees and help your company rise even further.
Veronica Baxter is a writer, blogger, and legal assistant operating out of the greater Philadelphia area.
