Happiness At Work: Creating An Engaged Connected Workplace

In research published in the Journal of Labor Economics, conducted by the University of Warwick, it was found that happiness at work made employees 12% more productive.

The study included treating some employees to sugary snacks and movie clips, while questioning others on recent traumatic experiences in their personal lives, then evaluating how they worked after the interactions.

Happier employees think better, create better and work better, so the emotional composure of your workforce can make or break your organization, and prevent you from hitting your goals.

Although we can’t constantly lavish chocolate, movies and gifts upon our talent, what can we do to encourage happiness without affecting productivity?

The biggest challenge for the modern workplace is the need for employees to have a flexible schedule, preventing the accumulation of stress and ensuring a solid work/life balance.

As technology makes it easier for us to work remotely, more of us are checking our work emails in bed and corresponding to international clients late at night. While this is vastly improving our productivity, it is affecting the emotional state of our talent without them even realizing it!!

Encourage your team members to “switch off” at home, and stress the importance of family time or just plain and simple relaxation.

This is a simple trick that will allow your employees to take a breather, and come to work happier and more rested. You can also explore your options for remote work/telecommuting, either permanently or for assigned days every week.

Frequent and deserved praise is another easy way to heighten employee prosperity.

Reward hard work and important achievements with praise, and encourage them with incentives. While the “Employee of the Month” scheme is outdated, a quarterly incentive reward can keep your talent focused in achieving their objectives, and it doesn’t have to blow the budget. You’d be surprised how hard your talent begin to work if an incentive reward was an extra day off, or the opportunity to work from home for a week.

While allowing for a flexible schedule, talent also appreciates some flexibility in decision-making.

They don’t want to be calling their manager three times a day to double-check policies, when dealing with a customer any more than their manager enjoys constantly answering the same questions.

Delegating some power to trustworthy employees allows your team a sense of worth, and is effective in cutting down question time.

For instance, large retail coffee chains allow their employees to offer certain discounts or free drinks to regular customers or when a customer receives a difficult transaction. This can avoid complaints, establish employee/customer relationships and allows your staff to feel like they have some control over their position!

Another way your employees can feel in control is offering consistent and informative training sessions.

These can be in-office and face-to-face, or online where staff can access them remotely and in their own time.

Good employees are knowledgeable, and know everything there is to know about their roles and their company. Your staff might be struggling in silence, or not even aware of a team’s direction, if they aren’t educated in their brand values or mission. Further this by providing a wealth of information and updates, either on the company website or in regular emails and newsletters.

Don’t forget to make yourself available – if team members need you; as a verified and trusted report system is indispensable to employee happiness.

Neglecting the emotional health of your employees is a cardinal sin, and can be catastrophic to the needs of the organization!

Engage your talent and be their support system, and they will reward you with productivity, profit and an enjoyable work environment 🙂

© New To HR