Big Idea 2014: Make Work Fun

Here's an important idea for 2014: let's make work fun.
Over the last five years we've been through one of the worst recessions since the 1930s. Companies have let people go, reduced benefits, and cut costs. We've all had exponential increases in email, phone calls, text messages, and other distractions at work. And the business world is moving faster than ever.
The result: employees are often overwhelmed, and in 2014 they're "not going to take it any more." Our research shows that engagement and retention has become one of the #1 issues for the coming year.
What can we do about this? Let's make work more fun.
Throw away all the traditional approaches to "employee engagement" and look at how you can build passion in your workplace. Do you have a flexible work environment where people can work from home and take time off? Do you have good benefits and offer great employee services? Do your managers focus on helping employees learn and develop? Do you take career development seriously?
And most importantly of all, does your team focus on doing things that make work enjoyable, fun, and stress free?
Every company I've worked for has been focused on "performance" and "results." But as you know well, when that's the only thing people talk about we lose track of "what it feels like to work here" and people get stressed out. Of course we go to work to get things done - but all our research shows that the best results happen when people feel safe (and challenged).
I remember one of the most enjoyable things we did at our company was to take the sales team out for a go-kart racing day. We had a blast. We raced against each other, banged into each other, and everyone let their hair down. After that one event I got to know our sales team better than almost anything we had done before - and we had a great sales year that year.
When you're having fun people talk more, they discuss issues openly, and they take care of customers better. Lots of research proves that happy employees deliver great customer service (flight attendants are a great example of this on every flight).
So in 2014 let's loosen up a little. Go out for lunch. Get a ping pong table. Tell jokes at the staff meeting. Bring in some donuts. Companies like Google, which have yoga classes, free food, and even a bowling alley, know what they're doing. They're building a "fun" yet "challenging" work environment - a place anyone would like to be.
2014 is going to be a growth year in most businesses so people will look around for new jobs - if you make your work environment fun, more people will stay and more people will join. And your entire brand and customer experience will benefit as a result.
(By the way, not everyone agrees with me. Oliver Berkeman recently wrote an article in the New York Times why having fun may not be such a good thing. Read it and let us know what you think.)
Josh Bersin writes and researches corporate talent, learning, leadership, and HR best-practices around the world. He is Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and founder of Bersin by Deloitte. You can follow Josh here or on twitter josh_bersin or at www.bersin.com .
Other Recent Articles by Josh Bersin:
* Learning to Be Yourself
* Why we Do Need The HR Department
* Are Performance Appraisals Doomed?
* How I Hire: Trust Your Gut
* The MOOC Market Takes Off
* Employee Retention: The Time is Now
* The Datafication of HR

Photo: Creative Commons

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