Tips for Building a Supportive Work Environment

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If you want to get the most from your employees possible, you need to try and build a work environment that everyone feels good about. If employees feel happy about their relationships with colleagues and accepted as individuals, they will be motivated to succeed and perform better.

It might take a bit of effort on your part, but the work will certainly pay dividends. Read our 4 tips for building a supportive work environment and get started today!

Build Trust in Your Team

Trust is one of the most important aspects of all human relationships, so building an environment where people feel they can trust one another should be your top priority. One of the best ways you can do this is through a hands off approach to managing your employees. Delegate important tasks and don't get involved to show that you really trust them. You can also demonstrate trust by getting team members to help with suggesting if or when meetings should happen and by just operating on the assumption in general that your team wants what is best for the project.

Create Programs for Employee Wellness

Wellness programs have benefits for both employers and employees. For employees, they can help reduce stress and improve health by enabling them to make smart and healthy choices. In addition, they also make employees feel that their employers value them.

There are a whole host of benefits for employers too. Many employers actually invest in wellness programs to reduce expenses in terms of absenteeism and health-care costs. And by providing workers with these services, they also benefit from improved worker well-being, lower turnover and higher employee job satisfaction.

Make Sure Workloads are Sustainable

It’s important to make sure your staff’s workload is sustainable. There are bound to be fluctuations, but if your team members seem regularly overwhelmed, it might be a sign you should refocus job responsibilities. This is especially important after the departure of a team member. Work together with your team to find out what they are doing, what is essential to the department’s operation and refocus efforts from there.

Have Fun

Everyone wants to have a bit of fun at the office, even though they might have different ideas of what that means. But at its core, having fun is about taking a break from the seriousness of work. It can be anything from a team lunch or a small get together in the breakroom to just taking a few moments to have some laughs about topics that have nothing to do with work. Not only is fun enjoyable, but it helps break down barriers and creates an environment of mutual respect and open communication.