Why Your Employees Should Read More Often



Books can have such a positive & lasting impact on both personal and professional development. By encouraging employees to read more, we can help build a strong and educated workforce that will help our organization grow and become successful. While it may be true that not everyone is a fan of reading, it is important to acknowledge that we do work in a library interacting with adult learners on a daily basis. So, we might as well take advantage of the excellent and vast book selection that is available to us for free. This will create a more knowledgeable workforce. Perhaps, try starting out in baby steps by first introducing your employees to books with entertaining and relatable material. The more fun the book is, it is likely your employees will enjoy reading. 


There are also books that contain helpful information about other departments in your organization. Sometimes, we may work in a company for so long and yet still know very little about how the other departments operate or the important role they play in our jobs. We can help overcome this challenge by reading books that help us become more aware and educated about the work that other departments do everyday. This in turn makes us understand and appreciate the work that our fellow coworkers do in all departments daily and builds bridges between departments. We take our coworkers less for granted through reading. Reading books also encourages people to interact and share ideas. For example, let’s say a group of coworkers don’t usually interact with one another because they probably think they do not have much in common. However, if they have nothing in common in terms of work, they probably will through a shared love of reading. If they find out they read the same type of books, they’ll discover they enjoy reading the same kind of topics. This serves as an easy icebreaker or way to help strike up a conversation with employees. It is recommended to create a space for employees to discuss the books they read and to organize a book club meeting to discuss the material. If your job is too busy to squeeze in time to read during work hours, you can probably read for at least ten minutes during your lunch break. This will allow employees to take a break from their normal work routines and find the time to recharge their brains and relax. This brings us to our next benefit of reading which is a form of relaxation, better sleep, decreased levels of depression and less stress. Reading books allows us to escape to another world for a short period of time and help us forget about our own problems. It has been proven countless times by scientists that those who read a book before going to bed get a better sleep and are more focused at work the next day, compared to those who use their phones before bed. So, take a break from screen time and enjoy a good book before bedtime.

Books can reinforce core values, inspire innovation, and encourage community engagement. By recommending a title that exemplifies or expands upon one of your organization’s core values, employees can reiterate to other staff the principles that are important to your workplace. Choosing a relatable book that provides this material can make your company’s corporate culture stronger as well as promote a healthy work environment for your team members to thrive together. Books are an excellent refresher and help challenge employees to think beyond their day-to-day tasks with critical thinking and offering a new fresh perspective. Reading helps stimulate your coworkers’ brains and allows more room for creative thinking. Reading books at the workplace allows employees to start thinking outside the box which is sure to be an excellent benefit to the workplace. Which employer wouldn’t want their employees to learn something new and work different areas of their brain through reading? So, go ahead and start planning a book club for your workplace.