What are the traits of a good workplace?

Freely jumping in the sunset somewhere on top of the hill – watching this picture makes me want to do and feel the same freedom and happiness. Unfortunately, my watch is telling me to stop daydreaming and get ready for work. But is it possible to reach the same feeling in our workplace? I think, yes.

For me the list goes on and on, but here are the most important factors that I think are essential:

• Good salary: no matter what surveys are telling us, this is one of the most important points. Let’s say if your salary is below the average at your workplace, after a while it really starts bothering you. It will have an impact on your mood and effectiveness in your job. So, companies need to take care of providing the sufficient salary as well.
• Work-life balance: I don’t think I need to talk about the importance of this topic. Companies can help by providing flexible working hours, home office, emergency holidays, etc.
• Recognition: it is very important in all levels and not just during the annual appraisal. It depends on the team of course, but it can be a monthly or quarterly or half-year appraisal as well. This can give a great opportunity to check certain skills and interests. Providing feedback regularly on one’s progress is becoming more and more important.

  

• Mentoring: now we have the recognition, but employees need sometimes someone they can learn from. There are people who like their job and want to be in the same position for a long time. On the other hand there are people, very typical for the Y generation, who wants to reach something more. In this case a good mentor is necessary. Learning from someone who is more skilled then you are now, it is a great opportunity to gain new ideas as well.
• Transparency in communication: most of the companies think it is ok to inform the employees about the latest news; however the management tends to skip the problematic parts. There can be various reasons behind this, but the most obvious is the lack of trust. For sure some employees can panic, but most of them are able to process the information and handle it. Who knows, maybe those people are the ones who can give some useful tips even for the management.
• No-micro-management: this is clearly a no-go. If a manager thinks the employees needs to be micro-managed that suggest some serious issues in trust and self-confidence from the manager’s side. In this fast-paced world how much time does a manager have for micro-management? Not that much and if he/she still tries it that can cause only more stress, anxiety, bad mood and fluctuation amongst the employees.

Of course nothing is perfect, but we can try to do our best by learning from our mistakes and adapting some good examples. What examples would you like your company to adapt?

There are some great books in this topic, my favorite one is Work rules by Laszlo Bock. Enjoy reading!