What role does happiness play in your workplace? A recent article from Talent Management.com contributors Dan Bowling and Shannon Polly question whether or not happiness drives results in the workplace. According to the article, encouraging happiness at work is a scientifically proven practice that increases profits and productivity.
Happiness has several names in the work environment, and one familiar description is engagement. Regardless of your organization’s definition of happiness within the work environment, studies of this have become quite popular. Big-name universities like Harvard are working with happiness studies. What are they finding?
Optimism increases life satisfaction and creates positive business outcomes, that strong human relationships have a direct impact on the quality and length of life, and that developing strengths is more powerful than trying to fix weaknesses.
While there is no directly proven link between employee happiness and high stock prices, there is evidence that positive practices have an overall positive effect. Performance management practices often focus on weaknesses. A new tactic for talent and performance management should focus on happiness and positivity. Focus on your employees’ strengths instead of weaknesses. Using a strength-based approach increases engagement substantially. Research the “appreciative inquiry”, according to the article, it’s a team-based approach to discovering and building upon strengths as opposed to fixing problems.
Focusing on strengths is an all-around good idea, but it needs to be implemented from the on-boarding process. Considering ‘soft skills’ like honesty and respect for others alongside technical and business skills during on-boarding can help this strength-focused mentality spread through the work force from the ground up. And in the long run, this will lead to a more engaged and productive workforce. Focusing on resiliency is also a great way to influence employees. Implementing resiliency training will teach your employees to focus on the positive during times of distress and change.
Here are a few pieces of advice to keep in mind:
– Teach new thinking skills to prepare for future challenges and change.
– Change focus from fixing problems to building strengths.
– Rely on empirically proven methods to increase employee happiness.
To read more about how positivity and employee happiness can benefit your organization, or to read a few examples of organizations that have made these tactics work for them, click here to read the full article.