How to Help Your Employees Start Their Day Right

Look after your employees and they will look after your customers, your business and, of course, you. Being a boss is a hefty responsibility, but it doesn’t need to be as hard as you might think it is. Keeping employees happy is simply a matter of giving them a comfortable, happy, interesting working environment, and offering that perfect work/life balance that everyone craves. If you can get that right, you’ve got it made.

 

To begin with, your office needs to be somewhere that people want to go to; you want them to get out of bed in the morning and look forward to getting into work. It’s the first step to happy employees, so how can you help your employees start their day right?

 

Breakfast

Even though we all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, around half of the British population skip it. The reasons behind missing out and getting to work hungry are numerous, ranging from lack of time to not finding an appetite until later on. Getting into the office and ploughing straight on with work without having any food is a bad idea – productivity will be lower, and people will need to take a break sooner due to hunger and fatigue.

 

So why not provide a breakfast for your employees? It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but laying out a selection of cereals and pastries that they can help themselves to means better concentration levels and happier employees. If people are health conscious, then provide an array of milk (full-fat, semi-skimmed, coconut, almond, etc.) and have a large bag of porridge oats they can heat up in the kitchen microwave.

 

Coffee

Having a quality coffee machine in your office is something that employees will really appreciate. Make sure you include good coffee grounds too, so your staff can pour themselves a cup of delicious coffee whenever they feel the need. Free coffee is incredibly important, and is a great way for your employees to take a break while replenishing their mugs. There are even specific online shops such as office-coffee.co.uk that can help you work out exactly which machine is best.

 

Positivity

Teaching your employees positivity is an excellent idea. It’s about visualising how you want your day to go, and allowing that day to happen. It may sound a little ‘out there’, but it sets the tone for the day and puts everyone in a good mood, so it certainly won’t hurt. You could even do it in the form of a morning pep talk, letting your employees know that you’re proud of their work and that you expect good things from them. It’s amazing what a bit of positive thinking and praise can do.

 

Exercise

Exercising before work is a good thing to do. It wakes the body and mind, and it gets the ideas flowing ready for a productive day. The only problem is, who has time to go to the gym before the working day starts? Not many people, that’s for sure! So why not bring the gym to the office? Incentivise your staff to come in a little early (or allow for a more flexible working schedule) and arrange an exercise class first thing, if space permits it. It could be anything from boxercise to yoga. Even losing 45 minutes or so of the working day to exercising can actually mean that your employees’ productivity increases, so in the end, they get more work done in less time. Alternatively, if you don’t want exercise to eat into your working hours, then offering flexi-time so employees can come in earlier (or work later) and schedule work around exercise. By doing so, you can make a huge difference to your employee’s spirits and productivity.

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