Creating a healthy workplace: 3 things Forex companies need to focus on
The Forex industry isn’t the easiest to work in. It’s one of the most stressful environments out there as it deals with financial issues. Employees of Forex companies have a huge weight of responsibility on their shoulders which can often lead to them being overstressed and overworked. And when your employees are feeling that way, they often start lacking productivity and enthusiasm, which are required for a successful business and a motivated healthy workplace environment.
If you want to sell more and keep on growing as a company, it is key to maintain a happy and productive atmosphere within your company. Your employees need to feel mentally and physically healthy to maintain a good work ethic and remain engaged.
Remember, even one demotivated, unhappy employee can jeopardise the whole team’s attitude and mood.
To achieve the above, you don’t always require huge financial investments. Sometimes even a small change can make a big difference. Below are some essential accessible ideas that companies can implement to achieve a positive result.
Build a strong corporate culture
If your team doesn’t communicate and do not feel part of one big goal, the chances are they are not as invested as they should be. It is important to allow your employees to form an emotional bond with their colleagues and with your company. This will guarantee that they will be more interested in achieving set goals and can even help keep a valuable worker from leaving the company.
Show concern and compassion to your workers. Ask how they are doing and provide them the emotional support in times of need. Make sure that they feel comfortable around you and feel that they can talk to you honestly and openly. The “open door” policy is a great way to build a bridge between you and your team.
Always recognise your team’s achievements and be generous when it comes to rewards. Even a small bonus or a short email can make a difference to an employee’s overall mood and behaviour.
Boost your team’s morale by having lunch all together and going out for drinks or food after work. Keep them feeling connected and try to find topics that everyone finds interesting for discussion. Make a habit of celebrating birthdays and special occasions altogether, so that your employees start feeling that they’re part of a community.
Support friendly competition by setting an awards system. For example, the person to bring in 20 leads by the end of the month receives a day off or is named employee of the month.
Show your team that you are interested in investing in them by creating Career Development plans for each team member. Explain what they need to achieve to get a promotion or a raise. If they have a clear understanding of what they need to do to get those, they will feel more motivated to work harder.
Have clearly defined roles and responsibilities, so that everyone knows exactly what they should and shouldn’t be doing. This will help to eliminate confusion of who is responsible for what and will allow work processes to be more organised.
Encourage you employees to take short breaks in-between tasks and meetings. Try to encourage a short stretching or movement session throughout the day. You can even go a step further and print a short office stretching guide (like this one or this one) to put on each desk. If your company budget allows it, consider either compensating in full a gym membership for each employee or getting a discount they can use.
According to research, constant sitting puts you at higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, depression, and obesity, so it’s very important to move as much as you can.
Taking breaks can also play a big part in evoking creativity and better decision making. By stepping away from your task once in a while, you can take the mental rest you need to come back to it and look at it with a fresh perspective. This can help to solve problems quicker and find new effective ways to achieve goals.
Try adding a few health-related tips to your weekly corporate newsletters to inspire your teammates to start leading a healthier life style.
If you feel that your employees aren’t ready to speak openly about things that concern them about their work space, you can create an anonymous survey that they can complete. Survey Gizmo or Survey Monkey allow you to create one in a few easy steps.
Set the correct scenery
The surroundings in a healthy workplace are just as important as the mood is. Making sure that your employees are working in a clean and comfortable environment is essential if you want them to feel good.
Everything matters, even the colour you use to paint the office walls. For example, pastel and light tones, are more calming and encourage focus and productivity, while bolder, brighter colours can be more of a distraction from work.
The office furniture needs to be supportive and high in quality. The chairs need to be comfortable and ergonomic, so that employees experience less back and neck problems.
Equipping your employees with newer, powerful IT tools is also essential. Make sure that the work space has everything your team might need – a printer, scanner, video conference zone etc. A slowly loading computer can cause enough frustration to put an employee off working and demotivate them just as strongly as anything else mentioned in this blog, so if you see this happening make sure to fix this situation as soon as possible.
If your offices don’t have a lot of natural light, invest into good, well-positioned lighting. Try to set work spaces in a way so that light isn’t reflected on other objects and thus don’t cause headaches and vision difficulties.
Try to provide everyone with their own individual space. If your teams are mostly sitting in open space areas, try adding short partitions to separate each workspace.
Adding plants to an office can also affect the environment in a positive way. Plants don’t just help to maintain cleaner air but are also proven to have a calming effect on most people. In addition to that they also act as bright pops of juicy green that improves the overall appearance of a room.
If your employees are often sick or you have people with breathing issues in the office, it is a sign that you need to think about purchasing air purifiers as well as cleaning your air conditioning systems more often. A prolonged access to air with a high level of dust in it can cause allergies that will result in irritated eyes, headaches and runny noses. People with symptoms like these will definitely not feel like working and will feel depressed and irritated.
Another important point is to make sure the office is always properly cleaned. Toilets need to have sanitizers and air fresheners, while kitchens always have to have clean dishes and cups. If your office is dirty and sloppy, it reflects on the workers who start feeling that way inside too.
You are what you eat
Most companies who provide food for their employees during lunch time, usually go for fast food options such as pizzas, burgers etc. Everything fried and full of preservatives. The important thing these companies don’t understand is that a person’s diet affects his mood and well-being, probably more than anything else does.
Junk food can cause people to have issues with their digestive system, mood swings, tiredness and after a longer consumption period – serious health problems. This is why it is not only important to encourage your team members to eat healthier, but to also provide these options for them.
Make sure that all office kitchens have water coolers and bowls with various fruits. Order salads, grilled vegetables, rice and grilled fish, meat or chicken as lunch options. If you want to take it a step further, invest into a juicer or a smoothie maker and print out bright colourful posters with potential recipes ideas. Offer a selection of various teas rather than coffee, or at least invest into a proper coffee machine and good coffee.
During meetings change your typical cookies or cakes to healthier options like granola bars or fruit and nut mixes.
