Why it matters to be Happy at Work

Hopefully you’ve read our last blog ‘Do You Really Love Your Job?’ so you’ll know we have a fab Flourish at Work assessment tool that can help you work out if you do. But we thought you might like to know more about why it matters to be happy and love your job.

Denmark based, Woohoo Inc’s Chief Happiness Officer, Alexander Kjerulf, says that happiness is the "ultimate productivity booster," because happy people:

* have more energy

* find solutions rather than complaining

* work better with others

* are more optimistic, motivated, creative and take fewer days off sick

* learn faster

* make better decisions

Teresa Amabile, researcher and professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, has found that creativity is vital to business success and creativity cannot thrive in a negative environment – haven’t we all had days where we just can’t be creative because we’re in a bad mood, the office politics is in overdrive or someone in the team has fallen out with someone else? - The research shows that small daily events directly influence your feelings, which has a profound effect on your job performance. A Gallup poll says that "only 13 percent of employees are engaged at work worldwide" and that in order for your business to grow you should "win the hearts and minds of [your] employees" so surely happiness should be a higher priority for all employers.

If you haven’t cultivated a culture of happy, healthy employees for your business, why is that? Perhaps it’s because you're just too busy to make it a priority, or simply because no one ever told you how much your employees' happiness really matters? You can no longer say it doesn't pay to invest in your employees' happiness. The research clearly shows that happier employees are more productive, Richard Branson sums it up well and it really is a simple formula:

Happiness = Productivity = Profitability

If you don't know how to make your employees happier, two easy ways to begin came out of a 2014 UK study at the University of Warwick.

1. Watch a comedy clip

2. Give praise freely - and free chocolate, fruit, or drinks!

This doesn’t mean you have to give your staff a treat every day, but why not get into the habit of starting your team meetings with a humorous video from YouTube, or perhaps you can play short comedy videos to lighten the mood when your team gets stressed – every Christmas time my old team used to watch an old TV show which was huge in Germany at Christmas but barely heard of in the UK. It was always a great way to get everyone laughing and in a good mood. Perhaps encourage people to bring in and share jokes. The idea is not to repress negative feelings or ignore problems, but to keep people from getting swallowed up by them. You should also make a regular habit of simply praising someone for doing something well. Not just by saying “good job” but by picking out specifically why it was good and letting them know why you think so.

Success does not come before happiness; happiness comes before success and helping your employees find joy and meaning in what they're doing will benefit them and enrich their lives – and your profit margin. All you need to do is appreciate them, let them know you support them, allow them to be heard and empower them to use their strengths. Simple.

Employee engagement