Creating an Atmosphere of Fun in the Workplace
Updated: Feb 11, 2021
We hear a lot about the concept of culture in a workplace. It is a topic many articles, books and keynote speakers have made their focal point. Why? Because the culture of your business is not only the foundation of your success, it sets the tone for your entire organization. At the top your list should be respect, professionalism, excellence … and fun! Now, I am not telling you to go put slides and playgrounds in your business. What I am suggesting is to create a culture similar to Christmas Day.
Christmas Day is filled with anticipation, excitement, presents, family, food and decorations. It is a day which softens even the most hard-hearted protagonists like Ebeneezer Scrooge and the Grinch; creating hearts of cheer and a willingness to give. Let’s dive deeper and take a closer look so we can catch a real glimpse of instilling fun in the culture of your business.
Anticipation can be defined as looking forward to something; a foreshadowing of something to come. In business that can take the shape of employee challenges, crazy offers for your customers, or launches for new products. Excitement is what anticipation creates. You want a culture of excitement to keep your employees and customers from experiencing lulls. Lulls create opportunity allowing them to shop around for more interesting job prospects and product offers.
Presents are a big part of Christmas morning and should be a big part of your business culture. Gifts are personal and thought out. They are intentional in their meaning and purpose. Presents reward the receiver for the place they hold in your life. Similarly, the best way to retain your employees is to reward them. In our business, when we catch our employees going above and beyond, they receive a gift card to go do something fun or buy something they have been wanting. This means you must have the type of relationship with your team to know what they like.
Create an atmosphere which awakens your clients’ senses similar to how food and decorations at Christmas time produce an atmosphere of celebration.
● Your eyes feast on the colors of red and green as well as textures of flannel and silk
ribbon.
● You smell the aromas of homemade annual classics like glazed turkey and cinnamon
apple pie.
● You feel the atmosphere of love and unity as the family puts away phones and work
to have dinner and a game of flag football.
● You taste the goodness of all your favorites like sour dough rolls and cranberry sauce.
● You hear sounds of Christmas playing on Alexa, a Hallmark Christmas Movie playing
in the background, or maybe it’s the bolstering laughter of the uncle who makes it his
mission to be heard over everyone else … yet you just can’t help but laugh.
Community is good, culture is better … but family is the best!
If you work hard to create a culture of family in your business with staff and customers; you will never have to worry about your competition. Too many times companies concentrate on getting new clients and not enough time on client retention; creating a family. Companies are reaping the expenses of constant employee turnover instead of cultivating a work environment in which employees can grow and be happy in. With just a few changes and lessons learned from the greatest season of all, Christmas, your company can create an atmosphere everyone will thrive in as well as become one of employee longevity and customer loyalty.
