How Can Music In The Workplace Improve Employee Morale?
Music in the workplace usually is a good sign. Of course it depends on what kind of business your running. You can&...
Music in the workplace usually is a good sign. Of course it depends on what kind of business your running. You can’t have music for example in customer service departments, but especially in IT firms the presence of music has become common place. I was saying that this is a good sign, because it will inevitably bring an extra element to liven up the mood, and help programmers pass the time when there is monotonous work at hand. On the other hand, making sure that everybody has a say in what kind of music you will listen to at work is pretty difficult and it takes considerable effort from the team leader. So, before considering introducing music in the workplace I suggest that you carefully analyze the pros and cons of such a measure. In general, it’s a good thing because it will improve employee morale, but you need to consider the big con, of whether the team members can or cannot decide without any conflict what sort of music to listen too. So I would suggest that you give this idea a trial period of say one week, and see what effects it has on the team. In order for it to work I would recommend following some steps:
1. Just give it a try because it will bring something exciting in the workplace. The first thing to understand about music in the workplace is that almost all studies that have been made so far suggest that it does improve both employee morale and productivity. So don’t think too much of it and just give it a trial run. At first, I would suggest you give it a shot just trying classical music for example, something that in general is universally licked. If you think it has a positive influence than you can take it a step further, and let the employees choose their own music.
2. Everybody gets to choose part of the playlist. Once you have made the decision of introducing music in the workplace and letting your employees choose it comes the tricky part. How can you prevent any sort of conflict between the employees about who makes the playlist, and who is responsible for the music? Well the short answer is to have a clear set of rules that must be implemented by the team leader. First of all, everybody must get to contribute with an equal amount of songs to the playlist. Of course, everybody is free to not make any suggestions if they don’t want too.
3. Everybody has to be tolerant with each other’s choices. This is much tougher to implement than it sounds. One idea can be that all the suggestions to the playlist have to be made anonymous, so that no one can pick on somebody else for a specific song. At the same time any kind of offensive comments in regards to a certain song shall be met with a reprimand from the team leader.
4. If anybody is disrupted form their work because of the music, than it shall be stopped. The purpose of introducing music in the workplace is the increase productivity, so if anybody has to suffer because of it, even if the other employees would be thrilled by it, the former will always have the right to veto the decision.
5. The team leader must be able to solve any kind of dispute that arises from this subject. In order to make music in the workplace something doable, you need to have the right team leader for the job. He or she must have great people skills, and at the same time should be very well respected by the rest of the team members, so that his or her decisions are final.
6. Any music has a specific rhythm that will influence how we work. The team leader will have to have the final word when it comes to the songs that form the playlist or that will be added later on. In order to make sure that the influence of the music will not be a negative one, the team leader must skim the playlist for anything that might seem like it doesn’t belong.
7. Music can calm or help expiate certain emotions. In regards to the previous point, I have to emphasize that music will have a strong psychological impact on those who listen to it. So make sure it is adequate for the type of work you do, and the emotions you want present in the workplace.
Music in the workplace is a good idea, as long as all the employees can agree on how to do make it happen, and are willing to be very tolerant when it comes to other people’s choices. I personally believe that it helps the atmosphere of the work environment a lot, so I would recommend it to any team leader confident that they can manage the whole process efficiently.
