7 Ways to Keep a Male Workforce Happy
As a professional woman in a male dominated workforce I am very much outnumbered. Often, there can be a strong element of âguys sticking togetherâ in a male dominated workplace. However, I work hard to ensure that my company is not like that. Instead, as the leader of my company, it is my responsibility to create a positive work environment in which my employees can thrive. Below are some of my top tips for keeping my male workforce happy.
Encourage Positive Behaviour and Relationships
A powerful tool for encouraging positive behaviours among men is the use of targeted positive reinforcement. Building a positive workplace culture is highly effective. As humans, we are social creatures and whether you call yourself an introvert or not, research has found that people who have a best friend at work are far more productive and engaged. However, real relationships can be hard to foster in a professional environment, but relaxed interaction can breed familiarity over time. Encourage your employees to develop relationships by organising more social events.
Foster Transparency
Men like to be kept in the loop of whatâs happening. It is best to be completely transparent so that jealousy or whispered remarks arenât started within the workplace by disgruntled, unappreciated employees. The more transparent you can be, the better improved your workforce will become as they will feel involved. After all, honesty really is the best policy.
Ask for Feedback
A fool-proofed way of ensuring your male workforce are happy is by listening to their opinions and advice. Whoever said women can talk a lot, perhaps did not realise how much men will talk when given the opportunity. Asking your employees for their feedback and advice is a great way to help them feel appreciated and involved, boosting company morale and giving employees a sense of importance and responsibility within the company. This is especially effective for men who like to feel like they are in control, even when theyâre not.
Make the Work-Life Balance a Priority
When you tell your employees that the work day is 9-5, be sure to enforce it. A lot of employees will feel like they should work late in order to impress their boss. However, this is simply not the case and itâs far more beneficial that they donât work constant overtime as working normal hours, instead of copious amounts of overtime, will increase their productivity. Encouraging a work-life balance is good, not only for your male workforce, but also for their wives and girlfriends who will appreciate them getting home at a normal time every night instead of constantly working late.
Exercise and well-being
Generally, men like to keep active and occasionally just need to let off a little steam. Encouraging fitness in the workplace is extremely beneficial for everyone involved, as it can mean that employees have more self-confidence and energy. Thus, their attitudes are more positive and their stress levels are often reduced. Employees that keep fit are also less likely to get sick. Therefore, encouraging exercise among your staff could lead to a fall in the number of short-term absentees. Many professional environments are going green and giving their employees a paid bonus at the end of every month if they walk, cycle, or carpool to work. This is a great way to encourage health and wellbeing among your employees as well as advertising your company as caring for the environment.
Opportunities for Growth
For your employees to feel satisfied and engaged in the workplace, it is important that you offer them opportunities for growth and progression. Career development is one of the biggest influences on employee satisfaction and can come in the form of training courses, funding education and making it clear that there is potential for promotion within an employeeâs job position. Often, the happiest and most productive days are those marked with a sense of progress. People want to be able to see the future and understand how they fit in.
Work That Challenges You
Research has found that people are happiest when they are kept engaged by a difficult but doable task. They become so absorbed in their tasks that time ticks by without them noticing. Challenging work can be a great motivator and most people agree that they would rather a challenging job than the boredom of an easy, unchallenging job. By setting employees attainable challenges, you should have a workforce that is enthusiastic and motivated. Men also thrive off of the opportunity to prove themselves so, challenging yet attainable tasks are a positive way to encourage and grow them.
Are you a woman working in a predominantly male workforce, like me? I would love to know your thoughts! Leave me a comment below and let me know how you are coping.