Negative work environment slows growth, productivity
By Majd Othman
KUWAIT: Being productive at work depends on the environment the employees work in. A positive atmosphere is the main motivation that helps them invest their qualifications to be creative and give their best efforts to the company. Meanwhile, a negative work environment leads employees to struggle in giving their best experience. It may shift them to survival mode, with the sole aim of not losing their job. Several psychological reports have shown that creativity and survival mode cannot exist in one place, which also holds true for workplaces.
Kuwait Times discussed the effect of the work environment on employee productivity with human resources experts who spoke on the condition of anonymity. They all agreed that employee productivity depends on the company’s level of transparency with them. The experts said absolute transparency from the management toward their employees, especially in the matter of policies and procedures of the company related to governance matters, is key to helping employees understand their roles clearly. They stressed transparency is also highly related to the job the employee is responsible for. The job description also helps the employee to understand the opportunities to be promoted to a higher position, and this will motivate employees to give their best.
The role of the human resource department at companies is also important, who have to make sure all employees know their career development possibilities. The new generation is over-motivated to be managers or in a place of responsibility, which has been an obstacle for companies in the last couple of years. Regarding staff competitiveness, HR experts pointed out companies that want to give equal opportunities to their employees or at least be fair with them should establish a clear system for staff evaluation that includes clear measurement criteria created by experts, stressing this system should be explained to employees by the beginning of each year.
The experts shed light on the “grievance complaint”, which is one of the most common struggles employees face after it is submitted, due to the lack of the management’s experience to deal with it, or when the environment is not healthy to correctly deal with it. They suggested that medium-sized companies that struggle with an inconvenient environment for their employees should follow in the steps of big companies that base their success on employee comfort, which is by creating a specialized department to address grievances and raise them to the upper management for adjudication.
Experts also said creating a healthy environment for employees to be productive also depends on the company’s awareness of employees who try to steal their colleagues’ hard work, stressing companies that ignore this issue will face a loss of their good employees’ interest in the company. They said teamwork will reveal the real work of each employee, and the level of their productivity, as well as cheer up and comfort employees that their work is being recognized and appreciated.
Meanwhile, they warned companies that do not give all their employees equal opportunities to talk about their motivations, ideas and plans are not creating a good environment for them to grow and improve the company. The experts concluded it’s important not to forget to conduct a market study on an ongoing basis to evaluate the level of wages so that they match those in the company’s field. Some companies give additional benefits to their employees to push them to the highest level of productivity despite it being optional.
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