Culture
March 19, 2021
Margaux Morgante
X min
Every year on March 20, the world celebrates the United Nation’s International Day of Happiness. Action for Happiness, a not-for-profit dedicated to "building a happier and more caring society," spearheads the celebration with events, resources, and ideas on how to take action.
With the reality of permanent remote work settling in for many, the distinction between work and personal life is blurred, making happiness in our work more imperative than ever to avoid burnout.
Additionally, we're finding more and more evidence indicating that organizations perform better when employees are happy. In fact, organizations with happy employees have reported increases in productivity (17%), higher sales (20%), and higher profitability (21%).
Now that I have your attention, I'll ask again, are your employees happy?
Studies show that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores. That means that before you investigate, you must consider employees as individuals or small teams vs. one large group. Everyone's experience is different.
According to Entrepreneur magazine, some signs of employee unhappiness include:
There are many ways to address and create happiness. The United Arab Emirates, for example, has a dedicated Minister of State for Happiness overseeing a "National Programme for Happiness and Positivity." Now, you may not be able to create a position solely dedicated to managing employee happiness, but you can do something equally as powerful, at little to no cost.
Make happiness one of your organization's core values.
To be clear, happiness as an organizational value does not mean employees "must be happy." It means that happiness is valued, whether it's an employee, manager, or customer. What's more, if you consider some of the more common organizational values, happiness would not be out of place. For example, "respect," "trust," "passion," and "caring" are all in the top 20 corporate values in the United States.
Values give every member of your organization a sense of direction and a definition of success in every interaction and task. But don't take my word for it; take the lead from some fantastic companies who have happiness-inducing organizational values guiding their teams; here are some examples:
Identifying happiness as a value is the first step towards enjoying all of the benefits a happy workforce can produce. According to Annie Mckee, author of "How to Be Happy at Work," there are three things that employees need to be happy and engaged:
Identifying happiness as a core organizational value will help encourage managers to prioritize the three points above, as well as your employees’ well-being in general. At the end of the day, organizational values shape culture, and in the words of Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsiesh, “If you get the culture right, most of the other stuff will just take care of itself.”
Bonus tip for improving employee happiness and engagement:
One thing everyone can do to help themselves be happier is showing more gratitude for the people around them. Recognizing others and showing appreciation does more for the ones giving the recognition than those receiving it. Amongst many other benefits, Dr. Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., a leading gratitude researcher, has proven that gratitude can increase happiness and reduce depression.
Companies can use tools like Kudos as a hub for showing gratitude to prioritize and improve employee happiness. As Shawn Anchor, author of “The Happiness Advantage”, shares in his famous TED talk, creating happiness and fostering positivity in our day-to-day life helps our brains work harder, faster and more intelligently.
Here are a few more TED Talks to inspire you and make you smile today – share with your network and make someone’s day!
Create happiness with Kudos®. Kudos is an employee engagement, culture, and analytics platform, that harnesses the power of peer-to-peer recognition, values reinforcement, and open communication to help organizations boost employee engagement, reduce turnover, improve culture, and drive productivity and performance. Kudos uses unique proprietary methodologies to deliver essential people analytics on culture, performance, equity, and inclusion, providing organizations with deep insights and a clear understanding of their workforce. Book your demo today!
Kudos is an employee engagement, culture, and analytics platform, that harnesses the power of peer-to-peer recognition, values reinforcement, and open communication to help organizations boost employee engagement, reduce turnover, improve culture, and drive productivity and performance. Kudos uses unique proprietary methodologies to deliver essential people analytics on culture, performance, equity, and inclusion, providing organizations with deep insights and a clear understanding of their workforce.
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