The Tribune

By Ian Ferguson

A relaxed workplace can, and will, benefit your business by enhancing job satisfaction and reducing stress. Stress can cause early burnout, health problems, inability to focus and workplace conflicts.

Smart companies make every effort to remove the ‘unnecessarily formal’ and the ‘stuffy’ from work engagements so as to achieve greater results. The understanding here is that the average person entering the work environment today rejects the cold and proper workplace, and would much rather work in a place where people - and the system - appear warm, friendly and flexible.

Much has been said about ‘Corporate Casual’, and many in ‘old school’ corporate Bahamas fear the consequences of a new culture where we remove the trappings of formality and the trimmings of bureaucracy. The misunderstanding perhaps comes in the thought that all standards and policies will be compromised when we usher in a new wave of contemporary casual.

We take time today, then, to encourage our readers and those who shape our corporate culture to start making steps towards shifting the atmosphere of a ‘military camp’ that we often confine our employees into, to a more hassle-free one. Here are seven simple ways to do this:

Relax the dress code:

• The formal suit, tie and jackets in most work environments are quite unnecessary. There is a trend of thought that says people act according to how they look and dress. If employees are allowed to dress more comfortably (particularly in the heat of the Bahamian summer), they might respond in a less uptight fashion with team members and customers.

Engage in off-property social events:

• Research has told us that winning teams socialise together in non-work environments. Stronger bonds of unity are established when people see and relate to their colleagues in social settings. Happy hour as a work family, party in the backyard at the VP’s house, and weekend training retreats on Bahamas Ferries can do wonders for creating a more relaxed and productive corporate culture.
  

Change the physical look of the office:

• In our attempts to manage the budget, we have made our workspaces very drab and dull. Lighten the walls, add some colour, and purchase exclusive pieces of creative art. There is no doubt that this will shift the mood of the office into a warmer one.

Address team members in less formal ways

• Losing the titles and use of surnames can also assist in shaping a new culture in the work environment. The authoritarian culture that exists (necessarily so) in the school environment, and our traditional family setting, has conditioned us into accepting that the use of first names is a sign of disrespect. Perhaps a few leaders are still challenged with their employees using their first names, but this helps greatly in changing our current way of being.

Create relaxed schedules

• Many companies have embraced flexi-schedules, and allow employees to focus on their work assignments and deliverables, as opposed to the exact time they report to and leave work. When people become consumed with clocking in, they focus more on counting hours and work, rather than being productive and completing assignments.

Less formal communication

• Our British traditions and colonial past have created a communication system that seems to still haunt us. Pursuant to, Hitherto, As we would have mentioned and other like expressions, relay a message that we are stuck in drudgery. ‘Email Casual’ is what we strive towards. Proper grammatical expression is critical; sentence structure, coherence and spelling are essential; but relaxed in necessary.

The Monarchy must GO

• Perhaps most fundamental in this whole effort to change the corporate environment to a relaxed one is the removal of the hierarchal system, where directors, vice-presidents and other senior associates become demi-gods. Leaders must be deliberate in trying to humanise themselves and their actions.

NB: Ian R. Ferguson is a talent management and organisational development consultant, having worked in both the public and private sector locally and regionally, providing interventions and solutions for promoting business and service excellence. He was educated at the College of the Bahamas, the University of the West Indies, St. Johns University and holds a Masters of Science Degree from the University of Miami.