Strategies for Building a Positive Work Environment in Organizations

1. Introduction to Work Environment and its Impact on Employee Well-being

Work environment refers to the environment of the institution, namely the psychological and emotional environment of the organization. This environment should be positive despite the economic recession that might result from the lack of a desirable physical environment. It implies, however, that if the work environment is good, employees and every member of the organization should feel comfortable and confident in carrying out their daily tasks. Additionally, they have the right to share their feelings within an organization. A worker’s perceptions in this regard relate to concerns with feelings about their jobs, which are known as job satisfaction, while the emotional nature of work is known as job affect (i.e., emotions that can be measured individually). Any negative work environment is likely to result in a negative impact on employees’ performance and is counterproductive, which causes employees to disbelieve and less easily deliver the best for their organizations.

Work is an essential part of life, and a positive work environment contributes to employees’ overall well-being. A significant amount of a person’s time is devoted not only to undertaking activities, but also to being present at the workplace. A positive work environment contributes to employee well-being, performance, and job satisfaction. Vice versa, a negative work environment can have high costs for organizations due to employee stress, compensation claims, and staff turnover. To succeed in today’s fast-paced world, interested organizations must adapt and innovate to become more successful, which means different things to different organizations and starts with each organization’s leadership. The pivotal role of leadership in the workplace cannot be overemphasized; leaders drive every aspect of the workplace.

2. Key Elements of a Positive Work Environment

The framework for engaging staff involvement and cooperation in building and enhancing a positive work environment involves an organizational or institutional culture made up of and modeled by management. This encompasses an aggregate of beliefs, values, and assumptions among managers and staff. There are several common threads among the elements that are essential to build a positive work environment. The aforementioned management characteristics highlight the essence of values, culture, communication, and feedback. It is communication and feedback that permit management associates, including all employees, to be players in building a positive workplace.

A positive work environment can be characterized as one where trust, respect, and cooperation are evident. Managers need to have a clear understanding of a desired work environment in order to change current conditions to more effective ones or reinstate a highly positive situation. In examining the condition of such workplaces, several basic elements are necessary for building and enhancing a positive work environment. These include values, culture, communication, and feedback as well as staff involvement. While these elements are rudimentary to bettering the work environment, there are many more opportunities for managers to employ specific strategies that top executives have found successful.

3. Strategies for Fostering a Positive Work Environment

In addition to these strategies, in order for leaders and managers to foster and maintain a positive work culture, they must utilize specific practices. Some of these practices include “making the connection,” which involves creating a line of sight between work culture and business metrics; “giving control,” in which employees are given autonomy and flexibility in completing work tasks; “squaring things up,” which can involve organizing systems so that there is a standard operating system that can improve work; and “sanctifying services,” which is the effort to inspire others in the mission through their unique values and practices, sometimes this can involve celebrating excellence in values in a variety of ways. Furthermore, Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice suggests that essential to building a high commitment work culture is creating strategies that address job design, flexible organizations, business requirements for lifelong learning development, building a learning culture as standard and ultimately a high-involvement culture.

There are numerous strategies that can be utilized in organizations to create a positive work environment. One strategy involves offering non-financial rewards and benefits that add value to services and performance. Recognition of service, events identifying significant employee achievements, and development of response behavior that demonstrates to employees that their efforts are valued can greatly enhance one’s work life. Organizations that are successful in enhancing employee well-being recognize the importance of healthy relations among staff. More specifically, regular communication – particularly from manager/supervisor to employee – can influence the level of motivation by informing the employee of what is happening within the organization and providing an opportunity for the employee to express his/her concerns in return. Other initiatives that help to create a positive work environment include flexible scheduling, telecommuting, job sharing, and services that provide assistance with concerns outside of the office.

4. Measuring and Evaluating the Effectiveness of Work Environment Initiatives

The data from such surveys can be interpreted in a variety of ways, including those that indicate increasing work environment satisfaction or decreasing the same, including the number of staff members that “strongly agree” after any survey specific to the effectiveness of the work environment. Was there any change in your workforce demographic with this information and/or go-right questions that correlate with “seeing the light” for you? If so, you are evaluating the effectiveness of changes.

How does an organization know if its attempts at culture-building and improving the work environment are working? Automatic, as well as purposefully built, systems can measure and evaluate. One of the best ways to measure the effectiveness of various work environment initiatives is to ask. A brief survey of employees can provide the necessary data for evaluation. The data could include, but is not limited to, the following: a) The number of employees who choose to complete 360-degree evaluations and receive feedback, and then start to show action plans, which may involve a change in leadership style; b) The percentage of those in leadership who participate in employee recognition programs, going to great lengths to articulate the extraordinary work or effort of individuals; c) The percentage of employees who participate in “Employee for a Day” programs, which give those who typically work in the office opportunities to see what happens down-line in manufacturing or in the field; d) Anonymous peer feedback from those involved in team-based projects reflecting on the leadership of those in charge; and e) The percentage of complaints related to inappropriate treatment from leadership as a part of the yearly performance appraisal that would cause a “write up” or additional coaching.