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Employee productivity is an essential factor for a business looking to thrive in today’s competitive business environment. A business’s workforce provides the necessary input to ensure its success. But then, employees cannot deliver to the desired levels if they aren’t satisfied and happy.
This explains why there’s a proven link between employee happiness and business success. However, this surprising connection only exists for businesses that have invested in employee motivation. This article explains this connection and how a company can create happiness for its employees.
Here’s everything you should know.
Happiness and Its Relation to The Workplace
It is best to start with defining what happiness is before getting into its relation to a business. Well, happiness is a state in which one feels joyful, satisfied, and content. At the workplace, this state gets linked heavily with good employee relations and high productivity.
Happiness brings about employee integration and teamwork in a business. This also positively impacts individual employees, motivating them to work better. In the end, this translates to lesser workplace conflicts and also helps in maintaining an outstanding work-life balance among employees.
Global brands such as Zappos and Google understand the need for workplace happiness. The companies are building a culture that encourages happiness among employees. This is to ensure greater job satisfaction, enhance decision-making, and help employees cope with organizational challenges.
How Can Businesses Cultivate Employee Happiness?
Employees cannot deliver to your expectations if they are unhappy. Some may feel frustrated and leave if your business doesn’t provide an enabling environment. People management statistics show that many employees leave an organization because they’re unhappy and frustrated.
These statistics cement the fact that happiness is essential for business success. And, employers have a significant role in ensuring that their employees feel happy and motivated to work. This is mainly by providing a suitable working environment. But what are some of the ways to create such an environment?
Let’s look into a few of them.
1. Let Employees Know They Matter
Employees want to feel valued by the organizations they work for, and that’s one thing you must ensure. You should appreciate them for good work and also hold them accountable. They feel happy and motivated to help the company achieve more incredible things when recognized for their efforts.
2. Be Present and Listen to Them
It is vital to show employees that you care for them. This is because they have various needs that affect their well-being if not met. As a business owner or leader, showing them empathy and listening to them can bring positive feelings. This is an excellent act of leadership that will contribute to better productivity.
3. Provide Choices
According to research, people are happier when they can make choices and plans to help them achieve their goals. Therefore, you should give employees a chance to decide what they want to do at what time. You will be surprised by how happy and dedicated they will be when granted this freedom.
4. Encourage Teamwork
People are happier when they have good relations with others. Reinforcing teamwork is one way to encourage collaboration and reduce conflict at the workplace. You can organize social and team-building events that bring together different teams and boost engagement.
5. Contribute to Happiness Beyond the Workplace
People are more than what you see at the workplace. There’s more happiness and energy at work when everyone comes into the office with a positive feeling. The best way to do this is by focusing on every employee as a whole person. Offer them help when they need to solve personal or family issues.
6. Help them Develop
Employees feel happier when they can grow and learn at their workplaces. Your business needs to provide them with challenges that can make them work harder, stretch and learn new things. This will help them gain skills that will be helpful within and outside the work environment.
A Happier Business is a Healthier Business
As mentioned before, the evidence that happiness impacts success is overwhelming. As a business leader, you must build a culture of happiness, which will bring your company tremendous success. Remember that employees are assets for your company, and you need to ensure that they are as happy as possible.
Happiness in business not only boosts productivity but also increases employee retention. In addition, it reduces conflicts in the work environment and ensures less absenteeism. You will also enjoy lower health care expenses as a business because your employees will enjoy better mental health.
Those are the reasons why you should consider building a culture of happiness in your business. But then, many business people don’t know the best strategies to employ when developing this culture.
Here are some helpful strategies used by big brands to ensure employees are happy and motivated.
- Research on the current level of employee happiness in your company. You can interview a few employees or use questionnaires.
- Create an employee-friendly work schedule that allows employees to rest.
- Invest in technology that can simplify employee work and save them valuable time.
- Utilize social media to boost business-employee engagement.
- Encourage employees to be creative and innovative so that they find the best solutions to their problems.
- Regularly promote your employees when they develop and improve their skills. You can also build a program that helps them advance their skills through learning courses.
- Involve employees when creating policies that affect them.
- Start welfare programs that cater to employee happiness outside the work environment.
- Motivate employees when they meet their target and help your business meet its monthly, quarterly, or yearly objectives.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt that employee happiness has a connection with business success. Businesses must create a culture of positivity among their workers. A happy workforce is likely to have fewer problems, and so is the whole company, including its customers.
This article has explained the link between employee happiness and business success. It has also looked into how business leaders can create happiness among their workers. These insights will help you boost your employee’s productivity and achieve more success as a business.
You may also like: Science-Backed Methods For Inspiring Your Employees
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