Tag: employees

Conflict in the workplace heavily determines your work environment. When tackling conflict that is leading to a negative environment, there are 7 ways to resolve it.

 

Conflict is at the heart of a productive and healthy work environment. Conflict is also at the heart of a toxic work environment. The difference between the two is how conflict is identified, handled, and resolved.

 

When recognized and effectively dealt with, conflict is by far the most effective way for an organization to grow either by improving team cohesion, or by helping an individual improve. However, this same conflict can rot an organization out from the inside, if it’s ignored, allowed to fester, and turn into something unmanageable.

 

Competent managers and leaders must understand when to engage and address conflict in the workplace, and how to foster an environment that actively encourages healthy conflict, rather than trying to artificially maintain an image of harmony where none exists.

 

To address conflict and identify the best ways to deal with it, it’s important to distinguish between the different kinds of conflict in the workplace. Harvard argues that conflict is best split into three types:

 

1. 1. 1. Task
      2. Relationship
      3. Value conflict

 

Types of Conflict in the Workplace

Each type is common within the workplace, and the three archetypes explain why we decide to engage with others, whether emotionally or respectfully.

 

– Task Conflict

Task conflict is best described by a disagreement on how to go about doing one’s work. Anything related to how business resources are spent – from manpower to hours, money, and physical resources – is task conflict.

 

In a task conflict, one party is in disagreement with another party due to either a personal matter (the second type of conflict) or a professional matter (feeling that resources are being spent inefficiently). The key to addressing this type of conflict is getting to the root of it.

 

• • • Is there a personal cause, or is it a purely professional concern?
    • Is it valid, or rooted in a misunderstanding/lack of knowledge?

 

– Relationship Conflict

The second type is the relationship conflict. Relationship conflicts are arguably some of the most common, and are caused by personality differences, and disagreements. These workplace conflicts can arise due to incompatible working personalities, manipulative coworkers, or a bad gut feeling.

 

Sometimes, relationship conflicts are at the root of task conflicts. Ask employees to exercise empathy and try to resolve their own relationship issues together or let a manager act as a mediator.

 

– Value Conflict

The third type can be the most explosive, as it is the value conflict. Here, we find our beliefs and values challenged. These range from deep-seated cultural beliefs and traditions to moral values, political stances, and religious beliefs.

 

While these topics are a taboo at the workplace, certain coworker behavior or company policies may set off these beliefs and force some people to confront a choice between remaining professional or defending their values.

 

Here, employees should exercise mutual respect, and to avoid discriminatory or demonizing behavior, as well as to refrain from exercising judgment on one another for one’s beliefs, but to instead focus on one’s competence and personality.

 

 

Tackling Workplace Conflict

When tackling any kind of conflict in the workplace, it’s important to beware of the basics of conflict resolution:

 

1. Nip It in the Bud

Rule one is to develop a good nose for sniffing out workplace conflict and recognizing it quickly. Don’t let little comments or obvious hints and body language slide. When your gut or your perceptive skills tell you that something is going on at the office, bring it up. Question it. 

 

Let both parties air their grievances out properly and early, rather than letting it fester. Sometimes, one or the other party (or both) are extremely conflict averse yet are clearly in disagreement. By letting this drag on rather than pulling it out into the open, you’re risking their conflict exploding into something completely out of proportion.

 

2. Practice Empathy and Perspective

This is something you must do as a manager, and something you must preach as a leader. Empathy is an underrated business skill, in part because people misunderstand it as wanting to do right by everyone. Being empathic does not equate letting everyone trample over you.

 

You have a job to do, and sometimes, that job involves cutting people out of the company for the greater good of the organization. But in order to accurately determine where the issue originated and how to address it, you must pragmatically employ empathy and perspective to analyze a conflict calmly.

 

3. Compile and Stick to the Truth

When seeking to resolve a conflict that can ultimately only end up in reprimanding and punishing one party or another, it’s important to go on a hunt for any and all possible information. Blaming the wrong person for starting a fight can kill morale and cause you to lose more than just the confidence and faith of a single employee.

 

You need to be sure, and that means being diligent and careful. Always stick to the truth, even if it’s an uncomfortable one. Never, ever allow yourself to play favorites in a conflict.

 

4. Consider Third-Party Mediation

It’s genuinely difficult to be impartial at all times. Sometimes, you need someone else there to mediate conflict in the workplace – especially when you’re part of the conflict.

 

Third-party mediation can play an important role in some cases to help your team effectively navigate towards a healthy resolution, without forcing you to play multiple roles and give into your own biases.

 

5. It’s Okay to Have Different Opinions

You can just agree to disagree sometimes. But the key here is not to mute the conversation into oblivion or simply seek to bury the hatchet for the sake of stopping an argument, but to emphasize a stance of mutual respect based on competence, rather than chemistry or values.

 

You might not necessarily like what your coworker believes in or what they stand for, but they do a good job, work hard, play well with everyone, and it’s important to continue having a good working relationship together.

 

Possessing the maturity to do this can be hard sometimes, but this is a country where people are free to believe a great many things, and live their lives in a great many ways, and that means many of us must accept that the people we work with don’t always have the same views that we do.

 

6. Handle Conflict in Person 

Never try to handle conflict remotely, unless no alternative exists (and even then, at least opt for a face-to-face conference call). It’s important to send a clear message to all parties involved and the rest of the organization that your team takes these issues extremely seriously.

 

You must show that your team will address and resolve conflict immediately, in person, with full focus on finding the best resolution.

 

7. It’s About Workplace Performance 

Once again, focus on what’s relevant. A business exists to meet a demand, fulfill one’s employees, and produce something great, whether it’s a unique service or a product you and your team can be proud of.

 

When conflicts are running amok among you, the work suffers invariably, and performance drops quite significantly. Prioritize resolving conflicts in order to achieve what is most important: a strong, healthy business environment that continues to be a great place to come work at.

 

Conclusion

Conflict in the workplace is key to helping businesses flourish and provide excellent services and goods. While it is a leader’s job to lead the crew and navigate choppy waters, a good leader gives each and every member of their crew the opportunity and time to engage in a productive conflict, offer constructive criticism, regularly disagree (whenever valid), and put forth their own opinions to strive for a better product or service.

 

As workplace stress and burnout is on the rise, it’s becoming increasingly important to encourage employees to care for their well-being; and now you can with these simple workplace wellness ideas.

 

It’s probably no secret that stress is a major killer, not only of people, but businesses. As stress is continuing to rise in offices throughout the country, causing sleepless nights, lowered productivity, poor turnover, and higher rates of stress-related illnesses, the government and businesses scramble to find ways to turn these numbers around.

 

Beyond stress, millions of Americans are suffering from conditions that are partly or largely caused by lifestyle choices, including:

 

• • • Obesity
    • Cardiovascular disease
    • Hypertension
    • Stroke
    • Diabetes

 

Corporate workplace wellness initiatives have exploded in scope and popularity, with the apparent aim of improving worker health and productivity, while cutting down on immense healthcare costs. But surface-level methods like walking groups and a free gym membership likely aren’t cutting it, with research indicating that helping workers achieve wellness can be very difficult.

 

With both physical and mental health growing in relevance everywhere, there’s a greater understanding of what’s needed and what’s effective when trying to address employee concerns and reduce costs. More than ever, businesses are trying to improve workplace wellness to attract and keep their talent.

 

What Is Workplace Wellness?

Workplace wellness describes a number of different initiatives aimed at urging businesses to make contributions to their employees’ wellbeing, both to reduce total healthcare costs, and to help improve productivity and employee longevity. Some common workplace wellness initiatives include:

 

• • • Fitness and weight trackers
    • Healthier snacks at the workplace
    • Subsidized gym memberships
    • Incentivized programs to get employees to become more physically active

 

It’s a massive multi-billion-dollar industry, with insurers offering great incentives to businesses to provide these benefits. However, it’s also an industry mired in some controversy, as certain businesses insist on tracking employees considerably, potentially violating their privacy, while others wonder if some of the measures taken under the name of worker wellness are truly voluntary.

 

Although research is limited in terms of both scope and time, preliminary results of the many initiatives companies have engaged in seem to suggest that the benefits of trying to help incentivize healthier living have been quite modest.

 

This doesn’t mean workplace wellness is a lost cause – in fact, some of the researchers argue that not enough is being done, and the focus is being put on specific physical metrics (like weight and activity) rather than the holistic picture of an employee’s wellness, which includes their social, emotional, and physical health.

 

Not everyone benefits from a walking club, a gym membership, or a step counter. Not everyone works better simply because they have lower blood pressure, and not everyone can be incentivized to drop bad habits and start working on themselves with simple financial incentives. This year, companies need a different, more comprehensive approach to workplace wellness if they want to help their employees improve.

 

 

A New Comprehensive Approach to Workplace Wellness

A holistic approach to workplace wellness demands that any changes made address not only a worker’s physical health, but their emotional health, social wellbeing, and intellectual needs.

 

Some potential changes include greater access to mental health resources, more insurance coverage for treatments for mental health conditions that are a problem among employees with poor health markers (like anxiety and depression), and time off for mental health problems.

 

Changes made to the office to help facilitate a more communal experience (while still providing space for focused work on the tasks at hand) can help with social wellbeing, especially if these communal spaces are built to emphasize collaboration and interaction. Coworking spaces often model this excellently, providing space for collaborative efforts and individual projects and meetings.

 

Intellectual needs improve through a workload that best takes advantage of a worker’s talents, and more opportunities to allow workers to train and learn tasks while on the job, allowing them to continue their education and work towards certain certifications or positions that interest them.

 

All of these changes need an individualized approach. With there being no one-size-fits-all, it helps to learn what each employee needs to perform better and take up healthier habits. This can be difficult across larger firms, but by breaking efforts up into individual departments, bigger companies can comprehensively gather data on what their employees’ needs are.

 

Through big data, companies can more intelligently select incentives that their employees are likely to respond to. Some other examples of workplace wellness in 2020 include:

 

1. Incorporate More Nature

The clean, structured design of an office can help facilitate focus, and it’s what we’re used to – but it’s far removed from how we once used to live. While it’s clear that industrialization comes with countless benefits, the eradication of nature can leave a serious impact on the psyche.

 

Making efforts to bring a little bit of nature back into the workplace can help improve physical and mental health. Certain changes, like adding more plants to the office, adding a simple indoor water fountain, or renovating to add more natural light to the office can help reduce markers of stress and anxiety.

 

Another idea is to incorporate team building activities in nature, to bring employees out into the wild every now and again.

 

2. Be Plant-Friendly 

Another way to bring a little extra nature into the workplace is to provide a room for employees to keep and care for their own plants, and nominally give them plants to care for. Plenty of succulents make for excellent beginner plants, including a wide variety of echeverias, haworthias, cacti, aloes, and sansevierias.

 

More than just providing a little color, caring for these plants can help in a similar way that caring for a pet does, without the myriad of potential issues associated with pet-friendly offices.

 

 

3. Work from a Coworking Space 

Whether through a work-from-anywhere policy, or as a way to save on office space, consider moving the business to a shared coworking space. 

 

Coworking spaces offer plenty of benefits in the way of productivity and collaboration, and the communal spirit of a coworking space can help reduce stress.

 

4. Keep the Kitchen Stocked

One way to keep your employees from snacking on junk food or going for a smoke break, especially if you’re incentivizing smoking cessation or healthier living, is to make sure that the kitchen is constantly stocked with various healthy food options, and that employees can feel free to use the company’s own cafeteria or kitchen for lunch.

 

No matter how healthy a snack is, it’s easy to have too much. Prioritize filling and nutrient-dense, calorie-low snacks, and serve protein-rich meals with plenty of fiber to discourage binge eating or excessive dieting. It’s not easy to live a healthy life and maintain a balanced diet these days. You can help employees by offering a discount on healthy meal delivery services.

 

5. Encourage Walking or Stretching Breaks 

One way to improve productivity is by helping employees make use of their time more effectively and fighting back against some of the side effects of leading mostly sedentary lives.

 

While sitting itself won’t cause chronic back pain, it can contribute to it, and it’s better to sit for shorter periods of time than a single long period. If your employees aren’t a fan of standing desks, instead encourage frequent stretching breaks, or quick walking breaks.

 

Final Thought

There’s a lot to consider when tackling a person’s wellbeing. Workplace wellness has to be more than just a few small policy changes, especially if we expect to revert habits that have lasted for decades and generations.

 

An astounding 85% of employees are not engaged in the workplace, and that can cost companies over $400 billion a year. Knowing these employee engagement strategies can improve morale, productivity, and profitability.

 

A happier employee is a better worker. There is plenty of data to support that assertation, yet there’s less data on how to make workers happy. An obvious answer would be money, but the truth is that it often isn’t quite that straightforward.

 

While money is a useful tool, it’s not actually the best motivator, and it certainly isn’t the key to employee happiness. Money can be a limiting factor if your employees aren’t getting enough of it, or if they’re being paid less than they feel they deserve – but throwing more money at well-paid workers does not make them more efficient, or more engaging.

 

To facilitate employee engagement strategies that actually work, it’s critical to identify what engagement actually means, and how to define it. This is especially important in shared office spaces, where it’s harder to identify with an employer or a company, and where finding and developing a cohesive bond between employer and employee is critical.

 

What is Employee Engagement?

 

Employee engagement is not job satisfaction. It is not work-life balance. It is not employee happiness.

 

Employee engagement is best described as the enthusiasm a worker shows for their work and contributions, and the organization or company they work for. Employee enthusiasm is being attentive at work, putting in extra time here and there to deliver a project early, brainstorming and showing initiative, and caring about the future of the company.

 

Engagement is when a worker works not only to further their own career path, but because they believe in their offer to the client or consumer, and because they feel their effort is worth something. An engaged employee is someone who can feel that their contribution is making a difference, someone who feels valued, someone who feels that they belong to something greater than just a job description.

 

It can be measured with a few simple questions, like:

 

• • • Do you like your work?
    • Do you feel valuable to the organization?
    • Are you proud of your accomplishments at the company?
    • Do you feel that people listen to you?
    • Have you improved as a result of your time at this company?

 

Employee Engagement Strategies

An engaged employee will typically be a happier employee, and as a result, a more productive one. It’s clear that there are many factors influencing employee engagement, but it is ultimately a combination of two major underlying considerations:

 

1. 1. 1. The personality of the employee and their synergy with the company culture.
      2. The way employees and workers integrate into their role at the company.

 

1. Improve the Role of the Workplace

Coworking spaces can be a great way to improve worker productivity through an open, cooperative environment that emphasizes a more casual and creative approach to work. But a shared workspace doesn’t guarantee a job well done, and it can make the bond between company and workers less tangible, and more difficult to define.

 

A shared workspace does not have a unique culture for each individual or group, but possesses a shared, general, and cooperative culture. This is the best kind of culture to have to help welcome newcomers and foster healthy relationships, but it doesn’t leave any room for the development of a unique company culture.

 

You need other ways to help your workers identify with their roles in the company and feel part of something bigger.

 

 

2. Understand Personality Differences

Some people are just more optimistic, more conscientious, and more loyal. They’re the ones most likely to show high engagement and identify more easily with their colleagues and workspace. They develop a stronger bond with those they work with and are easier to engage with.

 

Those with a more pessimistic attitude are less likely to feel positive about their work or their company and are less likely to display high levels of engagement.

 

It’s impossible to please everyone. You shouldn’t expect 100 percent engagement, but you can watch out for people who are generally more positive and glass-half-full during the hiring process.

 

3. Ask the Employees

 

Employee engagement strategies that work are more complex than just paying more. One of the best ways to figure out where to start is to ask your own people. Start a worker committee, remember that engagement begins with the employees, and ask them what it is they feel the company should be doing to improve its direction and provide a better service.

 

By turning around and asking your workers what they think, you’re giving them a chance to influence the course of the company and wield power. Suggestions are suggestions, not orders, but it can also be a good opportunity to collect great ideas.

 

4. Show that Work Is a Learning Opportunity

 

The opportunity to improve is something many workers relish, once a job fulfills the basic need of providing a livable income and a realistic future. It’s great for workers to know that they have places to go, but cerebral challenges and interesting situations at work can offer more than just recognition, but personal growth and achievement. Employee engagement strategies begin with the opportunity to become a better professional.

 

If you want an employee investment in their position at a company to be geniune, then you need to make them feel like the relationship they have with your company is not one-sided. Some workers feel like they give, give, and give, and receive nothing past the bare minimum (money).

 

A good salary is important, but key to helping someone feel like they’re in a healthy relationship with their employer is through opportunities that represent a chance to improve drastically.

 

Final Thoughts

 

Employee engagement strategies can be utilized from many different avenues, even in coworking spaces. Key to it all is remembering that employees want reasons to be proud of their work, and they need to tie those reasons to the company or space they work in.

 

If you can prove to your workers that they’re benefitting in more ways than one from working with you, they’ll be more engaged in their own work, and much more motivated to continue improving over the long term.

The ability to create and utilize emotional intelligence in the workplace is often overlooked in a business, however this skill is necessary for success and not only benefits employees, but the business and the bottom line as a whole.

 

Business is business, right? There’s nothing personal in it, and who cares if you get hurt? It’s a tough place, and a healthy, competitive environment pits people against one another in terms of pure competency. That’s what a meritocracy is all about, isn’t it?

 

While some might think so, anyone who has spent any amount of time in the workplace knows that there’s far more to being a good worker, leader, entrepreneur, or employee than simply doing your job, and doing it better than the other guy/gal. All business is ultimately a matter of:

 

• • • Understanding interpersonal relationships
    • Negotiating agreements
    • Coming up with agreeable terms
    • Shaking hands on potentially life-changing (or very mundane) decisions

 

For workers and leaders alike, understanding one another and being good at communicating in an effective and productive way is critical. The ability to do so isn’t simply a matter of raw intellect, but of emotional intelligence.

 

What is Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace?

 

Emotional intelligence in the workplace, often known as EQ (emotional quotient) due to its comparison with IQ (a controversial measure of intelligence), is not measure of how emotional someone is, but how they work with their own emotions and the emotions of others.

 

Emotional intelligence describes a high level of self-awareness, as well as an awareness of others. It describes empathy, self-control, and level-headed decision making. Someone who can be described as high-EQ is aware of how they feel, how others around them feel, and how individual decisions and various factors influence these feelings – and why they’re relevant.

 

Emotional intelligence in the workplace can be neatly divided into several aspects. These are:

 

• • • Self-awareness
    • Empathy
    • Self-regulation
    • Motivation
    • People skills

 

The Connection Between EQ and Mental Health

 

Another hallmark of emotional intelligence is that it requires a healthy state of mind. In other words, it’s much harder to remain emotionally intelligent in the face of overwhelming stress, both internal and external. For example, it is harder to remain self-aware and impartial when negative thoughts are constantly applying pressure on your own self-esteem. It becomes harder to motivate oneself when depressed or anxious, whether as a result of overwhelming workloads or due to an underlying issue, such as a mental disorder.

 

This means emotional intelligence cannot be expected of workers who are not receiving enough support to be emotionally and mentally healthy. Equity is critical here – workers who struggle more with negative thoughts and have a harder time with maintaining a high level of emotional intelligence need greater support, whether through altered schedules or therapy. Mental illness can mean that a worker will require a greater number of resources to function well, but when given the proper support, they can be some of your most loyal, efficient, effective, and creative people.

 

 

What a Lack of Emotional Intelligence Can Do to the Workplace

 

We cannot ignore the role that feelings play in life, whether in our personal lives or in business. A high-stress, toxic environment with poor management will lead to burnout, high turnover rates, and poor performance.

 

Plenty of hot-headed business decisions and failures were the results of making a poor decision made due to being slighted by a rival or making a gut call rather than being calculated. When we aren’t in control of our emotions, or when we let our emotions and our ego run wild, we run the risk of piloting the ship straight into a craggy coastline.

 

That isn’t to say that the world’s most successful leaders and entrepreneurs are devoid of ego, or possess a perfect understanding of the human mind, let alone their own. However, knowing what makes people tick is a prerequisite for running a great business. You can’t sell to your customers without knowing what they want, especially what they don’t know they want.

 

You can’t keep workers happy and productive if you ignore their needs or mistreat them constantly. Without emotional intelligence in the workplace, it becomes infested with toxicity and betrayal. Without EQ, there’s a lack of trust between the employer and the employee, and a level of strife that renders all work tainted.

 

How to Harness EQ in a Company

 

EQ is relevant for workers and leaders alike. We cannot simply pretend that the personal and the professional are entirely separate. While we should strive to dictate and preserve boundaries, a mark of a high EQ would be to embrace and resolve issues that affect our performance and thinking, rather than ignoring them for the sake of keeping the personal out of the professional, or trying to ignore the toll of an excessively stressful work environment on our relationships and health.

 

There’s a value in this beyond making the workplace feel more welcoming and understanding of everyone’s struggles. Emotional intelligence in the workplace also describes one’s understanding of other people’s thoughts and emotions.

 

• • • Leaders: this means knowing what motivates your workers, and what makes them tick.
    • Salespeople: it means knowing how to sell, and how to convince a customer to pay for a product or service.
    • Marketing people: it means understanding how to advertise something so successfully that people who might not have bought it otherwise, now feel compelled to do so.

 

Emotional intelligence allows you to appeal to something deeper and more ingrained than rationale. It’s the power behind rhetoric, propaganda, and good marketing. Beyond making the office a better place to work, good emotional intelligence is critical for running a great business and selling more products.

 

1. Encourage Honest Conversations

 

Trust is the foundation of interpersonal relationships. At work, it’s important to encourage honest conversations about matters of emotional and mental health, to promote a productive and healthy workplace. Workers should feel free to come forward with concerns and issues, from high workloads to issues with stress and problems at home that are bleeding into work.

 

While managers cannot be expected to fulfill every worker’s wishes, compromises can go a long way. An employer-employee relationship built upon trust and the understanding that good, quality work is compensated for through good pay and a flexible work environment that encourages good mental health can be very productive.

 

Outside of usual office setups, such as in coworking offices, it can be helpful to encourage coworkers to be social with one another, and setup special events throughout the year to prioritize getting to know one another and cooperate in teambuilding activities.

 

2. Set Boundaries

 

Listening to your emotions can potentially have a negative impact at work. Professionalism has its place, and there’s no room for being hurtful or antagonizing at the workplace. Such behavior, even if it’s cathartic, is not indicative of emotional intelligence. It’s also important to set personal boundaries to preserve a barrier between work and home, such as being unreachable at certain hours, or on certain days.

 

Boundaries help us tell others where we draw the line, and while boundaries are hard lines, they vary greatly between individuals. Understanding and respecting other people’s boundaries and clearly defining your own are critical components of emotional intelligence in the workplace.

 

 

Conclusion

Emotional intelligence is not only necessary or beneficial for employees, but for those in charge as well. This skill helps a business to run smoothly, while creating trust, improving morale, and creating a closer workplace environment. Taking the time to improve emotional intelligence throughout your office can go a long way.