The Break Room: The Employee's Guide to Organizational Health

• In Event: The Breakroom and The Corner Office: We All Drink the Coffee

Short Description

Does your work environment inspire employee engagement or diminish productivity? Employees continually observe their environments to assess the organization’s values and leader interest in employee well-being. This seminar explores clues gathered from the break room to the boardroom and provides recommendations for changing the workspace to improve employee satisfaction.

Detailed Abstract

Two employees converse around the coffee machine in the break room when one exclaims, “this is the worst coffee, ever!” to which the other person responds, “at least we still have coffee!” When companies and the market environment are steady, this conversation can appear innocuous, but when an organization is going through turbulent times because of internal or external factors, these comments are anything but inconsequential. Employees recognize when leaders stop paying attention to what they may deem as the “small things” when those small things are the biggest things for the employee.
Employees continually seek clues to assess the health of the organization, clarity of vision, and the sustainability of the culture. When a change is introduced, employees look not only for the value of the change but how that change will affect them personally. These members also seek clear communication, demonstrated company commitment, and connectivity with the direct manager. Harter, Schmidt, and Hayes (2002) posited that there is a correlation between changing management practices for improved employee satisfaction and organization results (p. 268). These changes can be as simple as making certain the break room is stocked with the expected products or may be enhanced by adding treats, motivational sayings, or managers engaging in conversations by meeting employees “where they are.”
This seminar synthesizes workplace environment research and identifies critical action plans for the organizational leader. The seminar builds from foundational elements from the research of Buckingham and Coffman (2014), who challenged leaders to think and act differently with their employees or members to improve engagement, reduce attrition, and improve productivity. Once the foundation is set and the commitment is made, leaders must next know how to maintain or change the environment to address the whole person. Practical ideas are synthesized from Blanck, Yaroch, Atienza, Zhang, and Masse (2009); Largo-Wight, Chen, Dodd, and Weiller (2011); Macey and Schneider (2008); and Roy (1959). Each of these studies identified areas of improvement to address the whole person or employee by creating or maintaining a physical environment that enhanced employee morale.
How does an organization remain focused on the whole employee when the leaders are focused on external or internal challenges? This seminar provides an awareness of the impact of changes in the environment and provides leaders with practical approaches to managing the workplace environment. The seminar is divided into the three themes of establishing the importance of the physical workspace as a non-verbal clue to employees and recognizing those clues are formulated by not taking care of the environment or radically changing the environment. Once these have been established, we explore employee engagement and productivity improvement by implementing workplace environment improvements or standards. In each section, the speaker will present the core idea, support the idea with research, and provide a practical example to illustrate the point. From this seminar, participants will understand why these workplace environment clues matter to the employee, how to change the story these clues may have been telling, and how to sustain productivity through turbulent times by maintaining a positive and consistent environment for the employee.

Participant

• Gwyn Schramm, Indiana Wesleyan University