1. Choose to be happy

Happiness is a state of mind. It’s largely a conscious choice. It comes naturally for some people while others have to make a grueling effort to be happy. Nevertheless, it’s still something that you can choose to be. Find the things you like about your work and focus on them instead of the things that you constantly complain about. If you find nothing that you like about it, then that’s the only time you can go and look for another that will make you happy.

2. Do something enjoyable every day

If you really despise your job, do something that you love every day such as every after work. If you do this, your current job won’t seem that bad. Find a hobby that will allow you to de-stress and take pleasure in life. Make sure that it’s something productive and healthy. Find something that will relax you and ease your tension.

3. Improve your work performance

Sometimes, the reason people are unhappy with their work is because they don’t think they’re growing anymore. But how can they achieve growth if they are not doing their best? You can’t expect your boss to promote you if you’re still the same capacity you are ten years ago. Improve your work performance by acquiring new skills and broadening your horizons.

4. Make friends

Another reason for employee unhappiness is lack of social interaction. But if you’re able to meet people and make friends with clients or co-employees, you’ll have more reason to get up every day and go to work with a smile on your face.

Strong Work Ethic

Working hard and working smart—these are the components of strong work ethic that all employees should possess. Encourage your employees to learn the most efficient way to complete tasks on time. Motivate them to care for their job and to love what they do as it would be much easier to adopt a strong work ethic if they are passionate about their career.

Responsibility and Dependability

A good employee never lets his employer down. He comes to work on time, finishes tasks on their due dates, and acts responsibly each and every time. If there are any problems or conflicts that may arise, this employee informs the employer right away. These two values show how much an employee loves and values his job.

Positive Attitude

It’s also a must for employees to have a positive attitude not only about work but in life in general. Employers should motivate employees to adopt a positive attitude through a positive working environment. You can’t expect your employees to be optimistic if you’re a big pessimist yourself. Those who have positive attitudes are able to excel in their careers more easily than those who are negative thinkers.

Adaptability

Employees should learn to adapt. They should be able to learn how to work under pressure. Train your employees to do this by simulating pressure and stresses at work. Then reward and give compliments to those who are able to maintain productivity even when put under pressure. They should also learn to adapt to new situations and circumstances and adjust accordingly.

Reasons to Monitor Employees

The AMA listed down five reasons given by the companies as to why they have decided to monitor their employees:

1. Legal compliance – In some regulated industries such as those that involve telemarketing, taping conversations between the employees and the consumer provide legal protection for both sides in case of conflicts or problems.
2. Business ethics – It’s difficult to track what the employees are doing so it’s possible that they may be engaging in unethical practices without the employer knowing. Monitoring ensures that things like that don’t happen.
3. Performance review – Employees are monitored so that their job performance may be evaluated and improved as necessary.
4. Productivity – Many employees take advantage of access to the internet or telephone for their personal purposes. Monitoring them ensure that their productivity is not hampered due to these non-business related distractions.
5. Security – It’s also of vital important to protect corporate information. This is a big concern since information transmission is as quick as a few clicks of the mouse because of email and internet.

The survey also found that 90 percent of the companies that monitor their employees inform them of the monitoring procedures. Most of the monitoring done is a random spot-check and not ongoing for the entire work period. Technologies have made it easier for employers to monitor their employee’s performance at the workplace.

In order to make it last, apart from achieving regular success in business transactions, it’s also crucial to maintain the integrity of your company. This means that you always have to keep your head up when it comes to business ethics.

Corporate governance, which includes business ethics, transparency, compliance to law, and risk management activities, refers to that legal obligation to be a socially responsible company. It’s vital that you’re able to practice all these not only because it’s a legal obligation but also for you to maintain the credibility and integrity of your business.

As you probably know, businesses with untainted reputations are those that last the longest in the industry. Those that are smeared by unethical practices don’t take long before they come crumbling down. That’s because trust is an essential component in business operations.

People, whether suppliers, investors, partners, or clients, never like to engage in business transactions with companies that they don’t feel they can trust. If you have a tainted reputation because of your unethical practices, you can’t expect people to have their full faith in you when you’re dealing with them. They would probably take their business elsewhere where they can find the trust that they are looking for.

With this said, it’s a must for you to oversee that business ethics are practiced in the company at all times. Code of ethics should be developed to serve as a guide for everyone in the company with regards to working and making business decisions, among many others.

Trustworthy

You and your company should be worthy of people’s trust. Customers would always want to do business transactions with companies that they can trust and rely on. They wouldn’t want anything to do with anyone that would let them down. To be trustworthy, you need to provide assured reliance for your ability, character, strength, and honesty.

Open mind

For a company to continuously evolve and improve, the owner should always have an open mind. New ideas and concepts would be constantly flooding your door. If you dismiss those you think are out of this world, you might be driving away brilliant ideas that would have made your company even bigger than it is now.

Legal compliance

It’s imperative that you follow the law down to the smallest detail. Companies establish good reputation by showing its strong compliance to legal obligations and responsibilities.

Involvement in the community

Another crucial part of business ethics is involvement in the community. Participate in community-related activities and issues to show everyone that you are a responsible member of the community. People don’t like to deal with companies that appear to only care for their personal interests.

Respect

Always treat each other with utmost respect. Conflicts are inevitable in companies. Even though you strive to maintain harmonious relationship with everyone in the company, there would still be those people that won’t see eye to eye with you. Nevertheless, respect should never be lost whatever happens.

Corporate ethics

Corporate ethics would tell you that greed is not good. It is a must for companies to adopt ethical business practices in everyday operation. The company should provide a detailed code of ethics to serve as a guide not only for the employees but also for the superiors. Make use of the guide downloadable from the website of Institute of Business Ethics to create the code of ethics.

Legal Compliance

The law states that business operations should be carried out in a manner that will not harm the society in any way. Specific treaties with indigenous populations are created in relation to use of land. There are also certain workplace safety measures such as risk assessment procedures that need to be followed in accordance to the law. Measures to ensure that companies do not practice discrimination are also being overseen. Finally, there are also guidelines related to environmental impact that are imposed.

Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance

Companies in the United States are required to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002. It was enacted following the collapse of Enron due to poor corporate governance and audit practices. The act imposes companies to file annually a disclosure document with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It also requires financial statements to be certified by the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of the company.

Strong corporate governance within a company is contributory to its long-term success. If you own a company, this is one of the things that you should always remember.