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How HR Can Create a Positive Working Environment

By | Sierra Powell

Nothing helps productivity in a business more than having a positive work environment. There are things that you can do to keep a work environment positive. You can easily control aspects of the physical environment, but the human element is harder to control. However, there are things that can help.

Promote a Culture of Team Players

Nothing helps produce a positive working environment more than hiring the best people. You need to find people who are not only going to be professional but team players as well. One thing that helps is when people get along well.

One of the biggest dangers is having a worker with a bad attitude because bad attitudes can spread to others. When somebody is showing a bad attitude, you need to take corrective action before it spreads. This can include finding out what the problem is, but when all else fails, you may need to get rid of them. While terminating someone’s employment is a drastic action sometimes it is the only way to fix a problem.

Set Clear Expectations Around Gossip

Gossip can basically be considered a conversation where you are talking about other people’s personal lives behind their backs. There are few things that can create a negative working environment more than workplace gossip. When you tell others some secret personal information about a co-worker, you are going to cause them embarrassment and even emotional pain. When you are the subject of gossip it can cause a bad attitude towards those doing the gossiping. This will inevitably cause other problems in the workplace. Because of this, it is necessary to prevent this problem. It may be necessary to put rules in place that will prevent gossip which includes the possibility of termination.

Create A Comfortable Physical Space

Maintaining a clean and attractive office can have a surprising effect on the relationship of coworkers. One of the biggest sources of workplace problems is stress and having a comfortable environment can reduce that stress. Of course, that is not to say that things should be too comfortable because your employees are there to work, but a reasonable level of comfort can reduce stress. This includes having an office that is well maintained and looks attractive. Allowing your employees to feel comfortable at work, not only improves coworker relationships but tends to increase productivity. This is because a reasonable degree of comfort reduces stress and stress reduction helps prevent other problems between coworkers helping them to have a better relationship.

Proper Lighting

Having the proper lighting in your office can have a positive effect on your employees. We are all familiar with this effect, for example, bright and sunny days tend to make you feel better than dim gloomy ones. The same thing goes for the workplace environment, a bright and cheery office will result in better productivity and better relationships between coworkers because it creates a better mood. When possible, having windows bringing in natural lighting will always be an immense help. Furthermore, having lighting that brightens up the office in general whether natural or artificial will help your employees’ moods. This may seem like a simple thing, but it is one you can do something about.

Consistently Communicate

One of the biggest sources of problems in an office is a failure to communicate. If the only time you communicate with your employees is when they have done something wrong, then they will dread any interaction with you. Furthermore, when you do not communicate, they may think everything is going well when it is not. If they are under too much stress you may help provide a solution. Even if you cannot do anything to help the situation, sometimes just giving the employee a chance to talk about it can help their mood, rather than letting them stew in whatever the problem is. Communication often helps a problem, ignoring it never does.

Maintaining a positive working environment is critical to a well-functioning office. You also need to know how to deal with passive aggressive coworkers to make the workplace a peaceful and fun environment. There are a lot of things that you can do to help maintain that positive environment. The worst thing that you can do is to ignore problems hoping they will go away. Honest communication is your single biggest key to a positive workplace environment.

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