Jobs and teams

Create an inspiring working environment and improve your employees’ every-day work routine - Part 2

Non-Monetary

At the workplace it is essential that staff work under optimal condition and to do this, companies must commit to offer not only adequate economic conditions but also a peaceful and stimulating working environment. The use of music or the permission to use comfortable dresses can help to achieve it.
What might work for one business or team, may not work for another, for this reason it is important to find the ideal solution to ensure that the staff are in the best environment to work as effectively and efficiently as possible.

What is the Dress down day and why listen to music at work?

Like the shared kitchen, the furnishings with refined colours or a team building activity, music, as well as dressing comfortably, contribute to improving the work experience.

Dress Down Day is that day of the week in which employees can dress as they prefer, showing their personality and feeling at ease. For businesses requiring more formal business attire, dress-down days give to employees a break from the usual working routine and enable them to feel more comfortable at work.
Music is a great way of putting people in a good mood. If your staff feel full of energy and comfortable, it may put them in a positive frame of mind to work. An effective way to uplift spirits and give people the motivation to carry on. Music boosts productivity, as well as improves team interaction.
For example, there are types of jobs which require a considerable amount of time typing on a computer, and sometimes it’s hard to keep attention if the employee feels lacking in energy and feel the work monotonous. Therefore, music in the office could help to write quicker and obtain a more solid level of concentration.

If music in the gym makes people train harder, run faster and more determined to succeed, surely the same can be said for the office. No matter the environment, people are more likely to reach a certain goal, whether it is meeting a deadline or accomplishing tasks, if people have music it gives a positive push.

Allowing to dress comfortable and listen to music, can be a good method for leaders to communicate that they are attentive to their employees and their work, offering a more relaxed, cheerful and festive atmosphere.

How to create a more comfortable and inspirational working environment?

Implementing this workplace innovation does not require too much effort or steps, but at the same time it enables to create a more enjoyable workplace. Listening to music and dressing comfortably can boost the moral and the productivity of the company.

During immersive tasks in which it is necessary to stay well concentrated, listening to music is a good way to achieve it. However, research has shown that there are certain types of music that can best suit to ensure productivity. In fact, music helps in some cases, but in others it can be harmful. In activities where understanding a text is required, for example, pop music does not help. For this reason, it is important to choose the music that best suited to the activities that must be performed.

For example:

Classical: Classical music rarely contains lyrics and because of this, is extremely popular within people that really need to concentrate, to understand or write a text.

Electronic Music: There are many sub-genres of electronic music. This type of music it is advisable for more manual or repetitive activities, in order to stimulate motivation and speed the achievement of tasks.

Like listening to music, dress down day t might not work for every kind of business, but it is beneficial for many companies. Before implementing it, it is essential to consider if it would be appropriate and the frequency at which do it. For some kind of business employees can dress comfortably everyday without undermining the image and the professionability of the company. For other type of business, such us in close contact with customers, it would be better limiting this practice only once a week, for example.

It is important to set boundaries. Dress-down days does not mean be free-for-alls. it is important to clarify to employees what is appropriate for your business. Too short skirts, button-down shirts may not suit the company’s culture or clients support .Determine what is appropriate for your kind of business and whether employees will be interacting with customers on casual days.

Necessary resources

Skills that managers & employees need to develop in order to implement the practice
Implementing this practice does not require many hard skills, just a few tricks will make the work environment more motivating:

Music knowledge, to choose the type of music that suits better to the activities that must be played;
Comprehension of the needs of employees to ensure a better experience at work.

Expected impact

Listening to music has positive effects on productivity, because it increases the positive mood.
The results underline how the positive mood plays a fundamental role and the quality of the work performed is higher with music. Furthermore, the time taken to complete a task was more when the music was removed.

Music could also play the role of anxiolytic: music as an effective tool against the onset of anxiety or as a reductive measure of it.

With regard to music and work, another significant fact emerges. 85% of Italians say Researches show that for 9 out of 10 workers, listening to music while working is a powerful antidote to stress.

Wearing casual clothes employees have a chance to express their individuality. This helps create a workforce that feels more connected with the business culture, thereby increasing loyalty and productivity.

By listening to music and dressing casual staff is put at ease, improving the work environment and the relationship inside the team. This leads to higher staff retention rates since friends for colleagues make the workplace much more enjoyable.

Example(s) of prior application

Company name: LINK Consulenza

Number of employees: 4
Location: Catania, Italy

How the WPI was implemented?

LINK is a sicilian SME established in 2005 providing training and technical consultancy in the field of security at work and other services for business. It is a young and dynamic company that has among its core values, the aim to improve corporate welfare and to innovate workplace by implementing a series of best practices. One of them is to listen to background and soft music during working hours to create a more pleasant atmosphere and relieve stress. Although everyone has different musical preferences, music makes any work activity more relaxing. Another habits used in LINK is to wear comfortable clothes based on their personality and preferences, instead of observing a specific dress code. Their motto is “stop jackets&ties and uncomfortable shoes… at the LINK it’s always a dress-down day!” This is a way to make employees feel comfortable during the working day and therefore more productive.

Results obtained

Within a more comfortable climate the employees gave positive feedback and it emerged that they carry out the activities and reach daily objectives without high levels of stress and wasting time. This is a huge result for LINK in terms of company reputation and reliability, even if is a small enterprise.
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Reference (website) :
http://www.linkconsulenza.it/