Putting fun in the workplace means making it a happy place to be! A happy worker is a productive worker. In fact, unhappy American workers cost $300 billion dollars each year in lost productivity! By creating a fun, happy work environment, organizations can boost productivity and reap many other benefits including:
- Increased productivity. Without a valuable break or some downtime during the day, employees get burnt out. Short breaks filled with some fun activity serve to rejuvenate employees. Take a look at Google, which provides their employees with 20% of any given workday to simply take to do “what they want to do”. They realize that their people are working hard, and the breaks are meant to enhance employee productivity.
- Fostering organizational health. Fun is an important part of one’s emotional wellness. Organizations that create an environment where employees laugh and feel comfortable are the same organizations where ideas and collaboration are welcomed. Organizations where employee interests and hobbies are integrated into the workplace have a happier, well-balanced staff.
- Enhancing loyalty. Retention is a challenge for all companies, particularly with today’s new generation of employees, Millennials, who tend to job hop. Attracting and keeping employees at your firm means understanding what motivates them. Millennials value an organization’s culture over salary and, in a survey conducted of this generation, 88% said they want a fun and social environment, compared with 60% of Boomers. Culture and fun is a differentiator that will give you a competitive advantage and help you gain loyal employees.
- Increasing job satisfaction translates into better client servicing. Your clients will recognize happy employees, as they are ready to go the extra mile to do what’s needed to address and meet a customer’s need.
- Lowering employee absentee rates. Employees disengaged in the workplace take more sick days. They also arrive late, miss deadlines, and are more likely to get customer complaints. Having fun at the workplace can help turn this around. The “It Pays to Play” study from BrightHR showed that fun in the workplace positively impacted how many days respondents took off work due to sickness or injury. Sixty-two percent of employees who said they had fun at work took no sick days over the course of three months. Moreover, 58% of those who had not experienced workplace fun had been off sick for 11 or more days, compared to 42% of those who had. The absenteeism and tardiness rate decreased as people look forward to going to work.
Get together with your employees to come up with ideas to inject fun into your workplace!