How to Keep Employees Happy: A Guide for HR & Office Managers
- By Lex Flamm
- Reading Time: 5 mins.
Working in HR or office management can feel a little bit like trying to read the minds of the employees around you. What do they actually want? What would boost their wellbeing? Make them smile? Keep them productive? You can’t really read your coworkers’ thoughts (at least not yet—someone is probably working on that) but there is a place you can turn to learn how to keep employees happy: Survey data.
To give you a leg up, our team crunched the numbers from the Arbinger Insititute’s 2025 Workplace Trends Report (based on a survey of 350 professionals, from executives to non-supervisory employees) and Qualtrics’ 2025 Employee Experience Trends Report (based on a survey of over 35,000 employees).
Based on those survey findings, here are five ways to keep employees happy in 2025.
1. Focus on Mental Health and Wellbeing
More than a third of non-supervisory employees feel their workplaces aren’t “taking adequate steps” to address their wellbeing and mental health, and 49% feel their employers don’t support their work-life balance. This is a huge opportunity for improvement, and it’s largely invisible to executives, who tend to feel much more supported than their teams.
Supporting mental health and wellbeing can be complicated, but there are easy ways to move in the right direction. Here are a few strategies we use here at The FruitGuys that you can steal for your office.
- Encourage microbreaks throughout the workday (snack breaks count)
- Offer mental health resources like counseling sessions or meditation app subscriptions
- Stock your break room with fresh fruit (it’s linked to a lower risk of anxiety and depression)
- Implement more flexible work schedules and PTO/sick leave policies
- Create opportunities for coworkers to connect
- Show employees your workplace is a safe space for mental health discussions
2. Take Steps to Boost Engagement and Morale
Among non-supervisory employees, 41% feel that “low morale/engagement” is standing in the way of their company’s success. In fact, they pointed to it more than any other issue—including things like communication/collaboration and leadership development.
This is another thorny problem for HR to tackle, but there are some data-backed solutions. The 2025 Employee Experience Trends Report found that companies could do three specific things to boost engagement.
- Create more streamlined, effective processes
- Encourage employee creativity and innovation
- Continually improve workflows and procedures
Other studies show perks like free food and employee gifts can have similar benefits.
3. Encourage Managers and Peers to Show Appreciation
Did someone say gifts? They’re more important than you might think.
According to one report, 62% of employees feel stressed and burned out at work in part because of a lack of appreciation or recognition. If you’re wondering how to keep employees happy, implementing things like regular appreciation gifts, praise from managers and peers, and other forms of positive feedback in 2025 could help.
Here at The FruitGuys, one way we do this is through our 5Rs Awards. When a manager or employee notices a coworker practicing one of our company values (the 5Rs) they can let leadership know by filling out a quick Google form. Then, our head of HR reads the note in our next company meeting.
You can try a similar strategy at your office, or simply carve ten minutes out of your next meeting and ask your coworkers to thank anyone who helped or impressed them in the previous week.
Giving appreciation gifts is another great solution. To learn more about it, check out these five benefits of employee appreciation gifts and seven key times to give gifts throughout the year.
4. Optimize Employee Workloads
Survey data shows that heavy workloads and long hours are major contributors to employee stress and burnout. That means adjusting them can have a big impact on employee happiness!
In the 2025 Employee Experience Trends Report, lead researcher Dr. Antonio Pangallo said that “employee wellbeing is at its highest when work is not unnecessarily burdensome — that’s not to say they want the easy path, as they have positive wellbeing when their job makes good use of their skills and capabilities, but people also need their workplace to adapt to new ways of working, help maintain a manageable level of stress, and ensure they are respected and safe when they are at work.”
Consider shifting work between employees, automating repetitive tasks, leveraging AI, or even hiring additional talent to help the 51% of employees stressed or burning out from task overload.
5. Strengthen Employee Connections with Leadership
Employees want to feel recognized and appreciated in 2025. Strengthening their connections with leadership can help make this happen, especially if your company’s leaders are trustworthy, reliable, and ready to genuinely listen (all traits employees say are valuable).
According to the 2025 Employee Experience Trends Report, “Exceeding employee expectations is ‘not just about communication or pay—it’s about partnering with employees to understand, help them navigate, and respond proactively to the everyday chaos they experience at work.”
Bonus: Improve Your Candidate Experience
One report found that employees who have been with a company less than three years are more likely to leave than more tenured employees, in part because 34% rated the candidate experience “below expectations.” To help keep your new employees as happy as your old ones, consider revamping your interviewing and hiring process with tips like these.
Top HR Priorities In 2025 (According to Survey Data)
After reviewing the employee survey results, we noticed a disconnect between what employees want from their employers in 2025 and what HR leaders plan to prioritize. According to a 2024 Garter survey of more than 1,400 HR leaders, most plan to focus on these five things.
- Leader and Manager Development — Supporting leaders as they take on more responsibilities.
- Organizational Culture — Aligning managers and other leaders with the company’s culture and values.
- Strategic Workforce Planning — Making sure the right people are in the right roles on the team, and planning for future hires.
- Change Management — Helping managers and employees navigate new policies and other changes sustainably without burning out.
- HR Technology — Investigating technological solutions for productivity and efficiency in the HR department, like generative AI.
What HR Is Getting Right (and Could Get Wrong)
Based on this priority list, HR leaders seem poised to strengthen employee connections with leadership, optimize workloads, and potentially help managers show appreciation to their teams in 2025. That’s great news, as all of those things align with what employees want.
However, this strategy comes with a risk. If you zero in too closely on helping managers and HR teams, you could miss out on making changes that benefit everyone. To keep all of your company’s employees happy in 2025, remember to prioritize improvements for mental health, wellbeing, morale, and engagement, too.
For more tips on creating a happy, healthy, eco-friendly office environment, click here.
