If you want to keep your employees happy, there are many approaches you can take. It’s all about making sure that they have their fundamental needs met, and as it happens, this might be easier to achieve than you assume. One of the fundamental needs that most people have in the workplace is to have somewhere to relax and unwind.
That’s why you need to design a great break room for your employees as a major element of the workplace as a whole. The better the break room is, the more likely it is that your employees will enjoy the workplace and working for you, and that you’ll have a stronger team for it. It’s all about keeping that morale up. So, let’s take a look at how you can create the perfect break room for your employees.
Keep It Separate
A fundamental aspect of a break room is that it needs to be separate from the rest of the workplace. That is, it needs to be physically apart in some way, even if that just means it is a separate room. But it also needs to be apart in spirit, in that there should ideally be nothing work-related in that space whatsoever. A lot of companies use the break room as a place to put up posters relating to HR and the company as a whole, but it’s best if you avoid this practice.
The more separate you can keep it in spirit and physically, the more of a break room it will feel like. So you might also want to decorate it in a way that is different from everywhere else, too, for instance. These are small touches that really do make a big difference on the whole.
Make It Spacious
You should generally make the break room as spacious as possible. The more room there is in that room to move around and stretch out, the more people are going to feel it is genuinely a break room they are happy to spend time in. Conversely, there is nothing worse than having a break room that is tiny and in which you can’t do anything. So you should make sure that you are making that space as spacious as you possibly can.
Sometimes, this is just about finding a way to make it much more spacious in appearance if you don’t have the means to make it genuinely bigger. So you might make clever use of windows and mirrors, for instance, to create the illusion of space. That is fair enough, but be careful not to shortchange your team – as far as possible, making it genuinely spacious is the way to go.
Provide Games & Activities
A lot of people like to play games when they are in a break room, and it’s a great way to pass the time and for people to be together in a really useful manner as well. This is all really good for the morale of the team and for the ability of everyone to come together on a daily basis. So it’s a really good idea to make sure you are providing plenty of games and activities in the break room as best as you can.
This can be as simple as providing some decks of cards, at the very least. With a deck of cards, people can play poker and whatever else with one another or even some solitaire by themselves. On top of that, however, you might want to provide some board games, as well as some arcade games or perhaps a pool table, if, of course, you have the room.
As well as that, think about some other kinds of entertainment: light reading material always goes down well, as does a television and a radio, and perhaps some video games. It’s all about making it a genuinely entertaining space. As long as you do that, everyone will benefit.
Focus On Comfort
Your break room needs to be comfortable as well, because if it is not comfortable, then people are just not going to be happy with it. It can’t be thought of as a break room if there is not a lot of comfort in that space. Focusing on comfort is, therefore, a really good idea if you want to create the perfect break room, and as it happens, it is relatively easy to make this a reality.
Most of all, it’s just about providing the right kind of furniture. If your furniture is comfortable enough, you will find that it is going to be a much more enjoyable and comfortable space in general. So make sure that you have the best furniture you can afford in there. People will appreciate that a lot.
Provide A Kitchen
Good break rooms also need to have a kitchen area, but how far to go with this can vary. In truth, you should provide as much of a kitchen as you possibly can. That might mean that you have a full kitchen in there, but more often than not, it just means providing a fridge, a kettle, and a microwave. With those items in place, you’ll be able to at least make light meals and hot drinks, and that is what people are going to want to do there. But of course, if you can provide more than that, that is going to go down well with most employees.
As you can see, there are a few things that you might want to think about to make sure that you are creating the perfect break room. As long as you have included the above items, you should find that you are going to have a much better break room in no time, and that it will positively affect morale quite a lot.
Related: Enhancing Employee Experience: The Evolving Role of EOR Providers
