Here's one equation that leaders can't forget: happy employees = productive employees. Open Forum offers seven easy ways to keep your employees feeling happy and appreciated. For example:

• Recognize when employees are making progress. Pause and highlight milestones that people hit or challenges they have overcome. Ensure that people feel their contributions are rewarded by simply saying "thank you."


• Make employees feel like they belong. To be happy at work, it’s important to feel like “you have a friend.” This gets challenging especially when the company gets busy. People need to feel like they know each other and so time like this yields positive results.