No matter how successful you are, chances are there is a team that stands behind you that helped lift you to your highest goals. Often times that team are your employees. Creating a comfortable work environment can help your employees to be more productive and encourage them to stay with your company longer.

Research has proven that the brain is stimulated by music, whether it is classical, pop, dance or any other genre. Many companies found that streaming music in the office was well appreciated by their employees. However, there is a downside. The streaming of music actually slows down the bandwidth and download speeds. While this may seem like a minor issue to some employers, it actually can interfere with productivity. Slower speeds means documents and important information is downloaded at a slower rate, therefore slowing down your employee’s ability to get tasks completed at a faster pace.

Once most companies understand that streaming music is affecting bandwidth and download speeds, they create a rule that stops employees from streaming music during business hours. Instead they opt to provide music via a stereo and speaker system that remains on one setting and plays specific music that motivates and encourages energy levels to be maintained at a good rate to keep spirits high in the office.

There are other ways you can keep your employees happy and still keep productivity levels at a good level. The following tips will guide you on your journey to creating a healthy, productive environment for your employees.

  • Keep Your Team Informed – One of the main topics that comes up when employees are asked what causes the most stress at work is the lack of information given by their employer. You may discuss the details and delegate the responsibility of a large project to your employees, but if they don’t know what the end result their striving to reach, it causes lack of enthusiasm and even confusion. Share the big picture and keep your team informed about work related projects that they are directly involved with.
  • Have Fun – There are times when everyone just needs to breathe. Choose to introduce casual Fridays, or switch it up and make it casual Mondays. Provide breakfast or lunch once a month for your employees to make them feel appreciated. Some companies choose to do a variety of things to improve team moral. Create a small team to come up with ideas that will benefit the moral of the office and actually do them!

If you are at a loss for how to keep your employees happy, ask them. You don’t have to have a big meeting and feel overwhelmed. Just simply provide a comment box in an easy to access area and send a mass email out to employees asking them their thoughts on how you can make them happier. Ask them to anonymously provide their answers by placing their thoughts on a piece of paper and dropping it in the comment box. Remember that insisting on anonymous answers provides the most truthful answers. Create a work environment where you employees are happy to arrive to work every day and you will find your productivity and success rate will rise.