Table of Contents
1. Introduction
When choosing a job, we always try to find out what the atmosphere is like in that company. This information is crucial. A positive work environment improves our motivation, commitment, and productivity, but a negative one... can lead to a voluntary exit from the company.
The work environment depends on the satisfaction level of the staff in the organization, which is why it is so important to take it into account, evaluate it, and take all appropriate measures to ensure a good atmosphere at work.
2. What is Work Environment?
The work environment refers to all the factors that make up the environment in which employees work and that directly impact them and their performance. Factors such as health, communication, office conditions, or working hours. Some of these indicators are obvious, such as the existing resources or the conditions of office supplies; others are more vague, such as the company's policy or a colleague with a personality that doesn't fit the company culture.
3. 7 Reasons Why Work Environment is Important
These are some of the reasons why any organization should take care of its work environment:
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Good Vibes are Contagious: Happiness is contagious, so employees who are happy with their work encourage their colleagues. Employees who enjoy their work are more productive and more successful. And what do we achieve with this? An increase in self-confidence and a reduction in stress.
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Believing in the Project Generates Commitment: One of the fundamental objectives of any organization should be for each person who is part of it to believe in it, in its goals, and in its project as if they were their own, because they share its purpose. This feeling will make them want to exceed their goals and want to stay in the organization for a long time. Is there anything better than a team proud of their company?
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Healthier Brains with a Good Work Environment: As Shawn Achor says: the brain functions better when we are happy, and this doesn't happen because success contributes to our happiness, but because our happiness contributes to our success. The psychologist assures that optimism is the best indicator of work success since it helps our brain visualize more possibilities.
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A Positive Work Environment Fosters a Culture of Support: Employees who work in a healthy environment, where the culture of fear does not prevail, are more willing to support their colleagues and collaborate more on common projects. In a positive work environment, collaborators tend to get to know their colleagues better and chat, feeling more comfortable sharing knowledge, opinions, ideas... Collaboration and communication among team members, among many other things, ensure better problem-solving.
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A Good Organizational Climate Attracts Talent: Nowadays, it is very easy to find out about the working environment of any organization, and the new generations seek a workplace where they can have a satisfied and balanced work life. It's common sense: a good work environment helps retain talent as well as attract future team members we'd like to work with.
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A Good Work Environment Fosters Creativity: When there's a good atmosphere, employees are more motivated to work on new ideas. Innovation is the cornerstone of any organization that wants to endure, and happy collaborators are more predisposed to be inspired and creative.
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Sense of Humor is Important for Work Health: Did you know that laughter releases endorphins? These neurotransmitters are the natural antidepressants produced by the human body. In addition, laughing with others and even at ourselves helps us see things from a broader perspective. If it weren't important for our survival, our brain wouldn't bother to produce them, don't you think?
4. How to Evaluate the Work Environment?
To properly evaluate the work environment, we must consider the following aspects:
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Confidentiality. Employees will be evaluating the organization, so it is essential that the process be 100% confidential and that all participants know it. This will increase participation, and the responses will be much more helpful to the evaluation's goal: improving the work environment.
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Indicators. What do we want to evaluate? We will have to be very clear about what type of indicators we want to evaluate - values, conditions, aspects related to mental health... - define them, and group them by topic. The clearer the information, the easier it will be for the evaluators to understand what is being evaluated and what is being conveyed. Of course, the reports will also be much clearer.
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Level of Satisfaction. It is very important that when designing our evaluation model, we define the ideal degree for each of the indicators to be evaluated. For example, when evaluating Respect, will we be satisfied with a low rating or will we be demanding?
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Attractive and Agile Design. Until not long ago, any evaluation process was done on paper or in Excel, but thanks to Software as a Service, evaluations like those of the work environment can be done through an online model that allows collaborators to respond sincerely, as the employee will feel more comfortable and can be more objective, providing responses that generate truthful and relevant information.
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Commitment. A Work Environment evaluation is a statement of intentions on the part of the organization because a company that cares about knowing its environment is a company that wants to take care of its team. Therefore, after the evaluation, it's time to get down to business and make the best decisions: What are the improvement opportunities for the company, and what strategies will we implement? How will we increase certain satisfaction levels? What measures will we take in those positions with lower satisfaction rates? Why is a certain age range or length of employment less motivated?
5. What Indicators to Evaluate in the Work Environment?
Some of the aspects we can evaluate to understand the work environment of our organization are related to:
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Satisfaction and Commitment: by evaluating indicators such as the sense of belonging, managerial commitment, or values, we can determine if our organization inspires our employees to be the best collaborators they can be, if they perform interesting tasks, or if supervisors encourage their team members to work in a way that allows them to have a purpose.
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Communication: Do internal communications provide useful information? Is communication active and well-planned? Is enough information received?
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Leadership: In this group, we can evaluate indicators related to trust and the relationship with the supervisor. It will be very useful to know if team managers know how to delegate, if they provide effective feedback, and if they empower their team.
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Working Conditions: We can evaluate adequacy to the position, materials and resources, office location if applicable, space distribution...
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Career Development: Are the roles and functions of each position clear? Are internal promotions fair? Is there an opportunity for professional development?
In order to understand and improve the climate of an organization, knowing how employees feel and giving them the opportunity to share their ideas or concerns is very important. In Hrider, in addition to being able to create your own templates for evaluation, you also have a Library of Models, where you will find pre-designed (and editable!) templates. You can download this work environment evaluation template for free.
6. How to Improve the Work Environment?
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Facilitate Social Interactions: Colleagues who interact and get along tend to work better as a team and collaborate more effectively. How can you promote these interactions? With informal meetings where not only work is discussed, by encouraging online and offline events and activities... any idea that comes to mind that takes your employees away from their desks, so they can talk to everyone and build relationships.
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Training and Development: The job landscape is constantly changing, and adapting to change is crucial. This should be applied at both an individual and organizational level. An organization focused on continuous training and development is guaranteed to maintain and improve productivity.
According to the Employer Brand Research 2022, 74% of employees said they were very likely to stay in their company if offered opportunities for retraining. To know what skills each team member needs to develop or acquire, the most efficient way is to send training needs surveys and review the strengths and areas for improvement shown in performance evaluation reports.
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Promote Work-Life Balance: If an employee's balance between work and personal life is stable, they will be much happier at work. This leads to greater productivity and, of course, it helps reduce stress and demotivation.
65% of potential employees seek to reconcile their professional and personal lives, being the second most important factor after salary. And since no one is interested in promoting a culture of demotivation and lack of productivity, presenteeism cannot continue to be the default norm. Employees who can decide where to work, how to organize their schedule, and who have time to go to the doctor or attend to their family will develop a greater sense of loyalty and satisfaction, so turnover will also decrease, and employer branding will improve. On the contrary, staying late and working extra hours by default, although it may seem to indicate greater productivity, actually leads to lower quality work and unhappy employees.
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Recognize Your Team's Work: One of the worst things a leader can do is not recognize an employee. Even if they think they are not doing anything, they are sending a very difficult message to erase: what you do doesn't matter. Positive feedback is not only good because people deserve it for their good work, but also because positive feedback promotes positive reinforcement under operant conditioning, in other words, it is key for the person to continue doing it just as great.
According to David Sturt, recognition is vital, and the lack of it is one of the main reasons for attrition. Recognition increases innovation, builds trust, and drives results orientation. And sometimes, it's as simple and basic as saying thank you for the work done.
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Analyze Strengths and Areas for Improvement: As soon as you have completed the work environment evaluation and have a report with the strengths and areas for improvement of the organization, it is very important to analyze how to improve those weaknesses and how to take advantage of and reinforce the strengths.
If you have an office:
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Invest in the Physical Environment: When choosing an office, it is vital to consider the team and take into account the needs of the staff. Although it is easiest to focus on cost, we must think about factors such as parking for the team, proximity to local services, and whether the space is pleasant and spacious.
We must pay close attention to lighting and ventilation, noise pollution, cleanliness, and maintenance.
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Keep the Door Open: Transparency between managers and workers is essential. Implementing an open-door policy is synonymous with promoting open and friendly internal communication. It is an invitation for employees to approach and make suggestions or ask questions without having to wait for a formal meeting or appointment. Clear and honest communication engages employees while also fostering positive growth.
6.1. Other Examples to Improve the Work Environment
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Activities Only During Working Hours: Don't make your team spend even more time at work organizing events outside of their working hours: what is done for work should be done during working hours.
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Don't Encourage Overtime: If something is urgent, people will stretch their time until it's finished. So, it's not necessary to promote a culture where people should spend more hours at work just because. If a person has to spend extra hours in their position, it means they are not able to be productive during their regular work hours.
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Help Employees with Dependents: And we're not just talking about mothers and fathers, but anyone who has to take care of others, be it people or animals. For a person to be able to work well, their personal life must be in order. Offer flexibility so they can go to day care, to the health center, to the vet... or simply so they can work from home while taking care of those responsibilities.
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Offer Real Opportunities for Flexible Work: Following the previous example, if flexibility is among the benefits in an organization, that flexibility must be real and personalized: each person has their own needs and preferences.
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Focus on Productivity, Not Micromanagement: The quickest way to lose talent is by micromanaging it. Adoring the details in your work makes a difference, but if you do it without delegating a single element, it can also wear out your team. No one works the same as anyone else, and if you manage to clone processes, what creativity and innovation can you expect?
7. Conclusion
We spend a very important part of our lives at work, so the work environment plays a decisive role in our health, in the health of the organization, and in the satisfaction of our entire team – we must take care of it!
8. Free Template
Evaluating the work environment provides a clear idea of how the work environment is perceived. Find out how the climate in your organization is:
Work Environment Template