Building a positive workplace culture results in happier employees, which in turn, increases your production rates. Basically, a happy workplace is good for everyone. The question is, how can you create a positive, supporting workplace culture quickly. Check out these tips to get started.

Design an Open Floor Plan

Having a large, open floor plan lets your employees communicate with each other easily. This creates stronger team bonds and work friendships — and that alone can make your employees happy. While work shouldn’t be all about socializing, it is an important part of making your employees happy, and happier employees get more work done.

Look for New Hires That Fit In

To create a positive work culture, your employees need to get along. So it’s important for hiring managers to look for qualities in job applicants that would help them fit in at your company. For example, if most of your employees are the more casual, chatty type, you don’t want to hire someone who seems tightly wound. If you did, he or she would have a hard time working with and building relationships with your current employees. It might take you a bit longer to find someone to fill a job that will be a good fit, but finding someone who “gets” your company’s culture is worth the wait.

Be Approachable

You might tell your employees that you have an open-door policy, but do you really make them feel comfortable approaching you? Take a few minutes each day to interact with your employees. Listen to their ideas, and help them solve problems they’re having. When you show genuine interest in your employees, they know that you care about them and appreciate the work they do — and they’ll be a lot more comfortable entering your office to have a chat when needed. Also, say “hi” to people you pass in the hallways and smile frequently — it’s important for the boss to lead the way and small gestures like this show your employees that you’re happy and they should be too.

Have Some Fun

Don’t be afraid to let loose once in awhile. It’s good to have some fun with your employees. It shows them that you’re just a regular person, not someone who’s powerful and scary. Host company-wide events such as a family picnic or an office holiday party. You can also host team-building events for each team. Simply choose fun activities that require team members to work together such as a trip to the nearest escape room facility.

Recognize Accomplishments

Set reachable goals for your employees each month an give recognition awards to employees who meet or exceed their goals. Alternatively, start an Employee of the Month program and let your employees nominate their co-workers for the award. Also, when an employee reaches a small milestone, be sure to let them know that they did a great job.

Creating a positive work environment doesn’t have to be difficult. The key to success is getting your employees to bond and interact with each other and ensure they feel valued and supported.

Fuente del artículo: State House News Service

Author: Matt Murphy

JAN. 29, 2021…..Sweet dreams are not made of weeks like these. In fact, for a technocrat like Gov. Charlie Baker, they can be the stuff of nightmares.

The logistics of trying to vaccinate at least 4 million people as fast as humanly possible is no easy feat. Layer on top of that the fact that there’s not nearly enough vaccine to go around, and it’s a recipe for restless nights.

But political leaders often deal with things out of their control by managing expectations. And this week, that’s where things started to break down.

That and the fact that the government told residents 75 and older to try to navigate an online registration site with not enough appointments to go around and no call-center where seniors and their families could get their questions answered. Let’s just say people were frustrated.

The COVID-19 vaccination program that had been plodding along since late December appeared to get its own shot in the arm when Baker announced Monday that by mid-February 165 new vaccination sites would be open with the capacity – key word being capacity – to administer 305,000 doses a week.

With the new sites coming online, including new mass vaccination sites in Springfield, Danvers and Boston, Baker said he would open the vaccine pool to people 75 and older beginning Feb. 1. The expansion and beefed up website where people could find a site close to home and sign up appeared designed to address growing concerns that the vaccination plan had become too confusing.

What got lost in that headline, however, was that the state has only been receiving about 80,000 doses a week. And even with President Joe Biden promising this week to juice the supply chain for the next three weeks, Massachusetts will only receive about 100,000 shots next week.

The result was that the website – www.mass.gov/COVIDVaccineMap got flooded on Wednesday with people trying to make appointments, and many found there were no appointments to be had. Sure, some got through. But Sen. Julian Cyr described it like trying to get tickets to a Beyonce concert through TicketMaster. Translation? Good luck.

By Thursday, Baker admitted that the state should have had a call center set up to help senior citizens and anyone without a computer navigate the system. The state is working to have that operational by next week.

But there are still no plans for a one-stop vaccine registration site, like other states have deployed. Sen. Eric Lesser filed a bill to force the administration to set up such a website, and it’s been co-sponsored by more than 57 Democrats and Republicans so far in the House and Senate.

Attorney General Maura Healey, who many are looking at as a possible gubernatorial candidate in two years, said people should be able to go online, sign up once and get notified when an appointment to be vaccinated is available.

“You can’t have seniors waking up at midnight to see what’s been refreshed on some of these systems,” Healey said during an interview on WGBH’s “Boston Public Radio.”

Baker can’t afford many more weeks like this one.

The vaccination vexation largely overshadowed Baker’s filing of a $45.6 billion state budget proposal that relies on $1.6 billion in reserves and actually proposes to spend less money than in the current fiscal year, which has been floated with federal dollars.

He also refiled a sports betting proposal with his budget, and is proposing to move forward with the 2019 Student Opportunity Act by providing $246.3 million in new spending on public schools.

And to think the week started with so much promise.

Baker was gearing to deliver his fifth (plus two inaugurals) State of the Commonwealth address as new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations were declining. The White House promised governors in a call with the National Governors Association that more vaccines were on the way, and people were excited that vaccine eligibility was being expanded … except maybe teachers who didn’t like being bumped down the priority list behind 65-year-olds.

Recently, Baker had said “when I really want to get depressed” he would go back and read his speech from last year, before COVID-19 checked in to the Marriott Long Wharf. We’re not sure why the governor has moments when he really feels like getting depressed, but that’s a discussion for another day.

The bottom line is he likely didn’t have the same problem with this year’s speech. Because he didn’t promise or set out to do much of anything over the next year, at least nothing specific or written down on paper.

The speech was largely an exercise in trying to lift up a weary state, almost like a timeout pep talk designed to give the players on the field that boost of adrenaline they need to finish the game. Actor Jason Sudeikis featured far more prominently than anyone could have ever guessed. And the most tangible policy goal he laid out was the need to rethink “the future of work.”

“Know this – we will beat this virus. And life will begin to return to normal,” Baker assured.

One of the goals he laid out in last year’s State of the Commonwealth was to go carbon neutral by 2050. He’ll get a second chance to sign a bill that would require just that, though it’s unlikely to be that simple.

The House and Senate, as promised by Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka, sent the same climate and emissions reduction bill that Baker vetoed a couple weeks ago back to his desk Thursday.

Despite Baker laying out his objections in a lengthy veto letter, the Legislature incorporated none of those changes. Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Kathleen Theoharides described it as a “rather one-sided conversation” with the Legislature.

Baker has been accused by Democrats of creating a false choice between the economy and the environment, while Theoharides said, ” … I’m not sure the Legislature has any cost estimates for what their bill would cost or the benefits that would provide.”

The difference between this climate bill and the end-of-session bill that the governor vetoed is Baker has time to return the bill with amendments. And if the Legislature says no to those amendments and Baker vetoes the bill again, the Legislature can and almost certainly will override.

The early showdown between the Legislature and governor in the new session is unusual in that the House and Senate haven’t even set up a full committee structure yet. And Mariano efficiently punted what could have been a contentious rules debate for the new speaker until the summer by asking House lawmakers to extend the existing emergency pandemic rules.

The extra time, Mariano said, will give the Rules Committee time to study new transparency measures, and also look at best practices for dealing with what the speaker described as “unregistered, or vaguely-affiliated, advocates and coalitions.”

The unusual request of the Rules Committee was interpreted on Beacon Hill as a shot across the bow of rules reform advocates like Act on Mass and amorphous groups like Raise Up Massachusetts and MassFiscal, which have been growing in influence on both sides of the ideological spectrum.

Speaking of influence, Joe Kennedy announced that he’s going to try to hang on to some in the post-Congress chapter of his career by creating a new political action committee, the Groundwork Project, to invest in grassroots organizing efforts in Massachusetts and non-traditional battleground states around the country to lay the foundation for an expanding Democratic map.

There’s not much fear that Democrats will lose a legislative seat in Revere and Winthrop, but it won’t be Marc Silvestri filling former Speaker Robert DeLeo’s seat. The Revere Democrat filed a lawsuit in the state’s top court this week after he failed to gather the necessary 150 signatures.

Silvestri was hoping the Supreme Judicial Court would cut down on the signatures required to qualify for the ballot, as it did last year as the pandemic raged, but he struck out with Justice Elspeth Cypher who promptly dismissed the case.

The Commonwealth Dispensary Association didn’t even wait for a judge to rule in its lawsuit challenging marijuana home delivery rules in Massachusetts, dropping its lawsuit filed just earlier this month as member retailers pulled out of the effort.

Shoptimism is a term being used to describe purchases made from home during the pandemic. You are stuck at home and suddenly begin to see every flaw, paint chip and cluttered closet. So, you buy things to fix the situation — or you buy things to make you feel better about it.

When consumers buy things they don’t need, such as luxury items, in the middle of a public health crisis, it’s called “shoptimism.” This term was coined by Lee Eisenberg in his 2009 book of the same title.

Why Do We Buy Things?

According to Eisenberg, people buy things to provide emotional relief from the anxiety of living in a pandemic and economically uncertain times. He describes two kinds of buyers. The classic buyer compares prices, deliberates on whether they need a product and then makes a purchase. The romantic buyer shops emotionally, purchasing trendy or “cool” items that boost their emotional state. In general, the romantic buyer cares about the emotional satisfaction of the purchase rather than the utility of the product.

E-commerce and M-commerce

Consumers are used to the convenience of online shopping (e-commerce), especially via their mobile devices (m-commerce). The click-and-collect culture isn’t going anywhere soon. Not only is it safer but the convenience and faster delivery times make it easier than shopping in stores. Generous return policies sealed the deal.

The rise of in-store pickup makes it easy to order online, drive up for contactless service and refuse any items that do not meet your expectations. This frictionless experience has risen due to the global pandemic, but consumers are likely to demand it for long afterwards.

Savvy brands will continue to capitalize on this moving into 2021. Even shoppers who do visit traditional stores now pre-research products and services online. Vendors who cannot meet consumers in cyberspace may find themselves pushed aside by competitors with a strong digital presence.

Contactless Shopping

Contactless shopping and payment provide a safe way for consumers to purchase online and pick up at participating stores. Consumers can also use the technology to shop or pay for items at retail stores.

Using biometrics and Amazon One technology, consumers scan one palm to make purchases at participating stores. Privacy advocates are watching the new technology as closely as facial-recognition software, which raised concerns with the ACLU and other advocate groups.

The technology does not require physical contact and palm images are encrypted in the cloud rather than on local devices. Users can delete their Amazon one account if security becomes a concern.

Younger Generations Are Exhibiting Shoptimism

Generation Z has been hit hard by the pandemic employment situation. The youngest generation in the workforce is often the first let go in a downturn and those graduating from college may have a harder time finding employment in their field.

Research from Smart Company, an Australian publication, showed a rise in purchases among Gen Z shoppers from shopping platforms offering payment plans. These shoppers appreciated the safety, anonymity and speed of online transactions. Perhaps that’s why usage of e-commerce and m-commerce is increasingly popular among demographically younger shoppers.

Shoptimism goes beyond the recent tendency of homebound consumers to make frivolous purchases online. New technology and changing consumer expectations make it imperative that businesses take their brands to the internet if they want to attract consumers away from competitors.