Do You Think You Understand Wellness at the Workplace Offer dignified work environs to your team, and they offer you business

With rapid increase in the number of startups looking at disrupting various sectors of society, it only becomes imminent that the demand for office spaces and offices would also be on the exponential rise. Now, at a time when there are increased office-spaces sprouting up even outside of Indian metros, the demand for an acceptable office culture and workplace wellness also cannot be ignored.

What is acceptable office culture, and workplace wellness?

"Would you join an organization where numbers are sacrificed for people, or people are sacrificed for numbers?" states Mukund Trivedy, an entrepreneur and founder at HyWe that aims at helping people having been victim of "toxic workplaces".

Merely entertaining employees does not qualify

Foremost, if you are a business leader or, work towards leading teams to success paths in the corporate world, it is vital that your employees are as happy as you when it comes to deriving satisfaction from work. At this juncture, it becomes for you to remember that by merely sponsoring team lunches (or dinners), or fun events at the office, your employees would not necessarily be happy. Neither does you handing them fat cheques helps.

What matters is to firstly not categorize your team into links (strong and weak) whilst ensuring that there is a wholesome homely environment at the workplace. This begins by considering the team as creative humans, rather than merely "hired work resources".

"Have passion in people and not in power," advises Leza Parker who is a Singapore- -based entrepreneur and CEO at SC Beauty Network Pte Ltd that is now present in 17 countries. Parker is also an angel investor with over 20 investments.

Parker recently participated in the second edition of the HyWe Workplace Movement in Bengaluru where she stressed the need for corporates to align aspirations of the team with business goals.

"Culture is the shadow of the leader," stated, Sangeetha Chacko – who is head of Corporate Communications at Percept Ltd, at the recent HyWe event.

Essentially, both Chacko as well as Parker imply that the need of the hour is to formulate a working culture that primarily works at simplifying work tasks rather than complicating these and overburdening employees. Hence, you could be the driver of change through positive work culture, as an entrepreneur.

Positive work cultures, combined with perks should make for an essentially positive work atmosphere within your offices.

Millennials could put you in spots of bother – Offer them the essentials

With India witnessing an increased number of millennials joining the workforce, and even preferring to turn entrepreneurs; this number is expected to exponentially multiply over the next 5 years; you are better-off in at least making a good working environment offer which could be the primary aspect in their job offers. Then, the remuneration offers could follow. The way in which you design the environment for your company plays a vital role in whether potential new joinees accept your job offer or not.

"66% of workforce will be millennials by 2020. They need a workplace that is home away from home," stresses Bina Mirchandani who is a Happiness Mentor.

When this is achieved, the quintessential "kranti in corporate culture" could be achieved wherein your entire team works without feeling burdensome and depressed by work, and they complete all your tasks on time as well.

"Happier employees have 47% lower health costs," said Smita Murthy who is Vice-President of Corporate Programs at The Art of Living. She infers that corporate leaders lose out on creating happier workplaces due to the absence of:

• ability to listen to people

• levers such as motivational level and

• local leaders who can inspire and challenge people

This means that you would be in a spot of bother and tend to lose out on aspects, extending to beyond money, when it comes to setting the right happy workplace standards.

Begin positivity at the workplace, from the workplace itself

Essentially, if you are amongst those business leaders looking at caring for the team which gets you the business, then ensure that you begin by designing and customizing the workplace to infuse positivity within employees automatically, rather than just customizing office to merely attract clients.

"It becomes aspirational and millennials relate easily to aspirational, cool and sexy," re-iterated Sangeetha; with respect to designing workplaces.

Hence, it should do no harm to you to be a pure driver of change, rather than a diluted influencer. Always remember that your business is only a reflection of what your team achieves.