THE letters by Dr William Wan ("Happy workplace, happy workers, greater productivity"; March 16) and Mr Edmund Khoo Kim Hock ("Help firms develop contented staff"; Wednesday), as well as the Singapore Human Resources Institute's 2014 survey findings ("S'pore workers less than happy: Survey"; Nov 13, 2014), underscore the importance of creating a conducive, trusting, gracious and enjoyable work environment.
A person spends at least 50 per cent of his waking hours a day at work, so he must feel at ease and happy with the environment.
Crucial factors that contribute to workplace happiness include the following:
How do we achieve these things?
It rests with the chief executives and senior management.
Creating a conducive and happy organisational climate is their responsibility and they are empowered to do it.
Sadly, many, except the enlightened ones, do not bother.
A possible reason is that they are also employees, who are sometimes unsure of their own tenure in the organisation.
Therefore, they are not sufficiently motivated to devote much energy and resources to this matter. They would rather leave it to the next person who takes over.
We need enlightened top and senior managements to be aware of the goings-on on the ground, and take a genuine interest in creating a conducive and happy work environment.
Lawrence Loh Kiah Muan
A person spends at least 50 per cent of his waking hours a day at work, so he must feel at ease and happy with the environment.
Crucial factors that contribute to workplace happiness include the following:
Absence of office politics.
An objective, fair and rational target-setting, appraisal and reward system.
Absence of favouritism, which means that targets are equitable and rewards are based on work performance.
Office bullying must not be condoned.
Prima donnas have no place in an organisation and must be reined in. Often, in organisations that are overly obsessed with the bottom line, good performers are allowed to be arrogant, disobedient and disruptive.
Staff loyalty should be valued. It is common to find that staff who left to join the competition are re-employed after failing to make it at the competing organisation. This devalues the notion of loyalty.
How do we achieve these things?
It rests with the chief executives and senior management.
Creating a conducive and happy organisational climate is their responsibility and they are empowered to do it.
Sadly, many, except the enlightened ones, do not bother.
A possible reason is that they are also employees, who are sometimes unsure of their own tenure in the organisation.
Therefore, they are not sufficiently motivated to devote much energy and resources to this matter. They would rather leave it to the next person who takes over.
We need enlightened top and senior managements to be aware of the goings-on on the ground, and take a genuine interest in creating a conducive and happy work environment.
Lawrence Loh Kiah Muan
