A business cannot go far if it does not recognise the value of its employees. Employees are a vital resource of a business. They represent a crucial investment of your business, so it makes sense to take pains to make the best use of this resource like all others. But getting the most out of them cannot happen without giving them incentives to work honestly and perform efficiently. Not only utilizing them fully but retaining them is another challenge faced by most businesses. Making your employees love their work or choose to continue to work for you has a lot to do with job satisfaction.
The role of a workplace environment in job satisfaction: Where job satisfaction is mainly the result of monetary benefits, recognition, fairness, sense of belongingness, growth prospects and the like, it is also noted that the willingness to work with an organisation comes more or less from the workplace environment. Yes, your employees’ physical environment of working can influence them a lot, for better or for worse. And it is this physical environment of working that is termed as “working conditions”.
Talking about Herzberg’s concept of working conditions, he stated them as ventilation, space, tools, lighting, air quality, noise, hygiene, cleanliness and other allied environmental features, plus the quantum of work and the facilities provided by the organisation. Some studies have blamed poor working conditions for affecting employees’ physical health and resulting in pain, headaches, fatigue, skin problems, etc., thus affecting job satisfaction.
Why and how to take care of working conditions: Lighting is a very crucial component of working conditions. Inadequate light or too much light can affect the efficiency of your employees adversely. Not only how much light there is in the environment but also what the quality of light is which your employees are working under are things that matter. If you were really concerned about your employees, you would give due importance to how comfortably they work and respond in the lighting conditions you have arranged for them. On bright sunny days, you would do them a favour by making your office windows have commercial window tinting to regulate the amount of light entering the workplace.
Besides, temperature conditions are responsible for making the workplace comfortable enough to work. For hot days, you should acknowledge the need for efficient air conditioning and on cold days, the temperature should be sufficiently warm. Even though you have arranged for a proper facility to control the temperature as per the climate, there is still a need to check on the quality of air being circulated in your office. No one likes to work in a place with air that makes breathing difficult. So, you have to have ventilation features, too.
That’s not it! Your employees, especially women, would like to work in an office that maintains good hygiene. From their desks to the cafeteria, bathrooms, hallways and other places, every part of your office should be cleaned on a regular basis. Apart from that, it goes without saying that it would not be possible for the employed people to work properly if they are made subject to too much noise or other forms of distractions that are not letting them focus.
In conclusion, the physical work environment has to be right if you want your employees to derive maximum job satisfaction. There is an undeniable linkage between environmental satisfaction and job satisfaction. To get a feel, just imagine yourself working at a place with no basic amenities and no minimum standards of health, hygiene, cleanliness and quality maintained; how much is this going to impact your performance? Think!
