No matter how successful you are, chances are there is a team that stands behind you that helped lift you to your highest goals. Often times that team are your employees. Creating a comfortable work environment can help your employees to be more productive and encourage them to stay with your company longer.
Research has proven that the brain is stimulated by music, whether it is classical, pop, dance or any other genre. Many companies found that streaming music in the office was well appreciated by their employees. However, there is a downside. The streaming of music actually slows down the bandwidth and download speeds. While this may seem like a minor issue to some employers, it actually can interfere with productivity. Slower speeds means documents and important information is downloaded at a slower rate, therefore slowing down your employee’s ability to get tasks completed at a faster pace.
Once most companies understand that streaming music is affecting bandwidth and download speeds, they create a rule that stops employees from streaming music during business hours. Instead they opt to provide music via a stereo and speaker system that remains on one setting and plays specific music that motivates and encourages energy levels to be maintained at a good rate to keep spirits high in the office.
There are other ways you can keep your employees happy and still keep productivity levels at a good level. The following tips will guide you on your journey to creating a healthy, productive environment for your employees.

Keep Your Team Informed – One of the main topics that comes up when employees are asked what causes the most stress at work is the lack of information given by their employer. You may discuss the details and delegate the responsibility of a large project to your employees, but if they don’t know what the end result their striving to reach, it causes lack of enthusiasm and even confusion. Share the big picture and keep your team informed about work related projects that they are directly involved with.
Have Fun – There are times when everyone just needs to breathe. Choose to introduce casual Fridays, or switch it up and make it casual Mondays. Provide breakfast or lunch once a month for your employees to make them feel appreciated. Some companies choose to do a variety of things to improve team moral. Create a small team to come up with ideas that will benefit the moral of the office and actually do them!

If you are at a loss for how to keep your employees happy, ask them. You don’t have to have a big meeting and feel overwhelmed. Just simply provide a comment box in an easy to access area and send a mass email out to employees asking them their thoughts on how you can make them happier. Ask them to anonymously provide their answers by placing their thoughts on a piece of paper and dropping it in the comment box. Remember that insisting on anonymous answers provides the most truthful answers. Create a work environment where you employees are happy to arrive to work every day and you will find your productivity and success rate will rise.
 
 
 
 

As we move through our professional careers we are constantly being bombarded with change. Change is the only constant in life.  Everything evolves and progresses, sometimes for the better and some times for the worse, but always towards the future.  It is a fact that if there is no change, there is no progress.
As young professionals we are adaptable and open to new products, process and procedures, however as we mature in our careers we become resistant.  We believe that the way things have been done for the past ten years is the way they should stay.  Looking back at my own career, I would never imagine banking without savings passbooks, actual Certificates of Deposits and of course actual cancelled checks being returned to clients in their monthly statements. (If you don’t recognize some of these things- odds are they were before your time – Google them to see how far we’ve come in the past 30 years.)  A PC or fax machine, was not even a thought.  We were a well respected financial organization with CRT’s, Microfishe machines and monthly account ledger cards.  Signature cards were still housed at the Branch of account opening, and if you needed to verify a signature – good luck.
As technology grew in the late 80’s and 90’s, many bankers resisted the technological advances and were immediately left behind.  Those that excelled where the ones which embraced change the fastest, and learned to make it work. Whining and resistance led to many a demotion or termination, and invariably change happened anyway. This by no means is a call to drop things that work, but rather a call to be adaptable, open minded and progressive.
I think Mark Twain said it best, “The only person that likes change is a wet baby.” This being said, I feel strongly that the only way to make strides in life, both personal and professional, is to continuously move forward. Help your people embrace change and show them the benefits of evolving with the times. Success is never a destination, but rather a journey for which we must continuously strive, with many obstacles and hurdles, but also with many rewards.
“We cannot become what we need, by remaining what we are. If you desire growth, then you must embrace change.”   Max Depree