With the right strategies, everyone in any organization can easily become happy. Research shows that happy employees perform better and are better rated as teammates. But you can always sit together and check online blackjack.
The implication for managers must be to make their team as happy as possible. And that doesn’t have to cost a lot or be complicated.
According to experts, there are a number of simple strategies managers can use to improve the well-being of their employees – such as setting a good example and modeling optimism.
Happy employees bring success. Those who are happy when they start work perform better than those who are less happy. This is shown by the results of a study conducted in 2022.
According to the study, satisfied employees were promoted faster, received more recognition and awards, scored higher on performance appraisals and were better rated as teammates. Nearly one million soldiers in the U.S. Army, the largest employer in the world, were studied for the study.
SATISFACTION IS NOT HARD TO ACHIEVE
That may sound like companies with dissatisfied employees are doomed. Happiness, he says, is a combination of nature and nurture – and correcting it in companies doesn’t have to come at a high cost.
Almost one in two feels stressed and burned out:
As for the state of the job market in this regard, the quarterly Future Forum Pulse survey of more than 10,000 office workers in the U.S., Australia, France, Germany, Japan and the U.K. shows disturbing results: 42 percent of workers there reported very high levels of stress and feeling burned out on the job.
Last year’s Gallup report paints a similarly bleak picture: here, too, many workers said they were stressed, anxious and sad at work. Unfortunately, many managers perceive employee happiness as a costly or time-consuming task, even though it would have a critical impact on their employee satisfaction. Many experts encourage managers to remain optimistic. With the right focus and strategies, happiness could become an easy and cost-effective pillar in any organization.
HIRE HAPPY APPLICANTS
Some companies already use psychometric testing as part of their hiring process. According to experts, adding a survey to measure an applicant’s baseline satisfaction and optimism could be a relatively straightforward and inexpensive way to boost happiness at the company.
All factors being equal, it makes sense to hire the happier person. Happy applicants walk in the door with a great attitude.
That doesn’t mean recruiters should prioritize applicants’ satisfaction over their knowledge or skills, he said, but instead use satisfaction as a criterion. It’s important, he says, that these measurements are based on scientifically proven assessment tools, such as the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PNAS), and not just a manager’s hunch.
CULTIVATING HAPPINESS IN THE TEAM
When it comes to fostering an employee’s emotional well-being, there’s very little a boss can do. But he does have some influence and some options.
And those opportunities don’t require a lot of money. It is recommended that managers implement team exercises that improve employee well-being. They said they particularly recommend the “three good things” exercise, in which employees write down three things that went well each day for a week and the reasons those things happened.
Also said to be recommended is the “Using Signature Strengths in a New Way” exercise, in which employees complete an online survey about their strengths and then commit to using one of their key strengths in a new way each day for at least a week. Studies showed that this approach led to greater satisfaction and less depression in six months.
