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Neuroscience in your workplace (5)

Neuroscience in your workplace (5)

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Start Using Neuroscience in Your Workplace

As this information and research sinks in, two questions form in the mind of many managers or HR professionals, and they are:  How does this translate into my everyday activity and how can I use neuroscience in a practical way? Here are some starting points:

Turn the Business into a Story

Stories help us connect with other people. When the brain is activated by a story through emotion, oxytocin is released. This neurotransmitter helps to form connections in the brain that help us build trust and bonding. The release of oxytocin through emotional stories also help us empathise with others.

These stories can help teams connect and help employees connect with the company mission and purpose. The ‘Why’ the organisation exists.

Leaders can use analogies, metaphors, or even classic themes in literature like the hero’s journey to illustrate how the company has evolved, overcome challenges, and become what it is today.

Get Them to Tell Their Own Story

Employees also often have stories about themselves and their work performance. Help them build a better connection with the company by having them tell their story of where they fit in and what motivates them.Internal communications People and digital internal communication methods

While no employee (or company for that matter) is perfect, it is important to help the employee create an overall positive story about their work performance. This starts with avoiding blaming and shaming language. It also includes sharing positive statements along with negatives.

Research has found that, for optimal performance, it is important to balance every negative comment or criticism with around 5 positives.

Keep it Comfortable

Most of us have probably had the experience of something in our environment either helping us focus or distracting us from something we were doing. It is important to create a workspace that allows people to focus. Different strategies for improving the space may include cleaning up office clutter, reducing crowding by increasing the space between workstations, providing private spaces for more complex tasks, making comfortable seating and ergonomic office products available, and helping people organise their physical spaces as well as their virtual and electronic spaces.

A mind that is made more relaxed by a comfortable, safe, and structured work environment is a more productive mind.

Make it Fun

When trying to change employee behaviour or teach people new skills, fun is an important aspect of the equation. Using games and experiential learning can activate emotions and thoughts. This type of learning can create multiple pathways and increase connections in the brain as it activates the body, the limbic system, and the information processing aspects of the brain. Activating multiple pathways helps people focus and retain information better. 

Companies like Zappos and Google are known for how fun they try to make work and how much they encourage friendships.

Overall, they are trying to improve engagement and company culture using the social brain. Learning and change management can also use relationship, fun, and the social brain to improve results. Leaders can facilitate this by:

  • Creating hypothetical work situations
  • Roleplaying different scenarios
  • Using fun videos, songs, or movie clips
  • Finding hands-on exercises that reinforce skills
  • Using a gamification approach to review learned information

Stay Structured

In order to ward off the threat signals in the brain, leaders need to be consistent in how they behave and how they create the office environment. Leaders should apply all rules and expectations equally, exhibit coping, and treat employees fairly. They should prepare employees for changes in the company and the physical work environment and provide them with strategies to adapt to the changes.

The brain is less likely to stay on high alert when the environment is regarded to be predictable and safe. Structure comes from the physical environment, the company culture, and the leaders that express and control both. When all three are valued, satisfaction and engagement improve.

Let Them Speak

Some leaders may be cautious to let their employees speak freely about the company, but employees are already talking, you may just not know about it. With the rise in popularity of employee led reviews on websites like Glassdoor their experience as an employee good or bad, is available for the world to see. These reviews, however negative or positive may have a significant impact on your employer brand and reputation as a potential place to work and therefore the success of your recruitment efforts in attracting as well as retaining key talent.

Providing employees with an open forum where they can raise issues will help improve emotional intelligence, empowerment, and provide opportunities to talk about conflict resolution and coping mechanisms. Employers can create this type of atmosphere by encouraging some simple, yet effective, practices.

  • Create an open door policy where employees can address any concerns with leadersAbout us overview team illustration
  • Hold discussion sessions where employees can come together to talk about issues
  • Create a suggestion box or use online surveys
  • Offer lunch times with management
  • Acknowledge and reward open discussion and change through larger forums or communication platforms

Encourage Healthy Eating and Behaviours

Companies can help promote brain health by helping employees have better overall physical and mental health which improves their personal life as well as their professional one helping them perform better in all aspects of their life.

The different foods we eat can have a positive impact on brain health so providing healthy snacks, having seminars or talks about health topics, providing or incentivising gym memberships are all ways to help employees have better physical, mental, and cerebral health.

Get Moving

Many companies are now including exercise in their daily work routines. This can be as simple as having a walking meeting or providing employees with standing desks or fitness ball seats. Employees in many companies feel more effective when given the opportunity to take breaks and get some free time to get up and move.

Part 5 in a new series about The Role of Neuroscience in Business.

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Engage & Prosper have recently launched their Employee Mood Monitor, an effective tool designed for organisations to help gauge their employee’s mood and mental health proactively, and ultimately, provide helpful resources for those that may need help or further support.

All organisations have a duty of care to the people that work for them, and the Mood Monitor is designed to help you engage with your staff, finding those that most need help or advice.

To find out more about this innovative new tool, visit our website here.

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Engage & Prosper is a UK based privately owned Employee Engagement Consultancy and Social Enterprise, on a mission to help organisations develop a highly productive and fulfilling workplace culture, with their people, through enhanced employee engagement strategies, fabulous and effective internal communications platforms and tailored reward and recognition programmes.

For more information on Engage & Prosper or to discover how we can help you achieve your organisational and people goals please call +44 (0) 330 223 0464 or find out more at www.engageandprosper.com