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All work and no play makes everyone a dull boy, girl, man, woman (whatever might be your preferred ‘pronoun’). The same is true for the workplace – toiling 12 hours a day, every day of the week will take its toll on even the most workaholic of employees.
Your job as the employer at the end of the day is to get the most productivity out of your employees. You can raise their salary, give them employee benefits, more paid time-off, but none of these can get their ‘creative juices’ flowing – if you catch my drift.
One of the biggest roadblocks to your employee’s creativity and productivity is fear and a dull office life, marred by monotonous and repetitive tasks that seem to be going nowhere. The fear only serves to dull your employee’s intelligence, bringing out a timid ‘yes man’ person whose sole purpose in life is to silently follow your orders without citing their own opinion – the work itself will be characterized by soullessness – robotic and rhythmic without any semblance of a human’s craftsmanship.
Trust me – this is not good for your bottom line.
The most successful companies in the world today recognize the problem of boredom at the office and make genuine efforts to transform the workplace and provide recreational opportunities to the workforce. Here are a few steps you can use to accomplish this;
1) Know what makes your employees tick
Every employee will have their own set of hobbies which can serve to relieve their boredom and instill brief bouts of productivity in them. While one might like watching wrestling, another loves playing video games. You will have to take a survey of all your employees, asking them to highlight a particular set of activities that they enjoy.
2) Take a room out for the ‘fun’ activities
Reserve a room in your office premises for employees to spend their lunch breaks in. Install a large screen TV fully equipped with the latest VR equipment, gaming consoles and surround sound speakers. If they spend an hour watching their favorite show or movie, all the dullness of the day will be washed away and will inject them with a fresh new outlook for the rest of the day. It would be as if they just woke up for from a deep sleep completely refreshed and ready to perform.
3) Organize trips to concerts
This is not really the same as paid time-off, what you’re essentially doing is taking out time from the work itself to take your employees out to concerts, theaters and cinemas of their choosing. Since each employee will have their own hobbies, you will have to carefully schedule their ‘fun’ activities over the week. Be careful not to let all of your employees off the hook at the same time. Take them in groups of two, three or four employees sharing the same interests and send them off to spend their day having fun.
4) Bring in some gym equipment
Bring in some gym supplies at the office such as a treadmill desk. You know – for those health nuts who like to watch their ‘caloric’ intake and what not.
Note: While it is a good idea to transform the office space into a recreational ‘playground’ of sorts, you should not expect all your employees to jump on board and start participating in the fun filled activities. It will take some time for them to get used to the idea of fun at the workplace.
