Why is happiness at work important?
We form as businesses and organizations to achieve something we couldn’t do by ourselves. If we can’t make this process happy, then we can’t power and sustain collective performance. Here are some of the reasons why we want to make work happy.
We spend a lot of time at work
168 hours. This is the number of hours we all have in a week. We spend a good proportion of these hours at work. With anxiety, depression and burnout on the rise, we can't save happiness for the weekend or retirement. It's a moral imperative that we get better at designing work so it minmises pyschological harm and amplifies happiness. It's also a new business reality, as employee trends are showing increasing interest in the ability to rate companies based on the attention they give to well-being, social value and positive organizational development.
Moments of positivity, especially with others, nurture and energise us
Over the past decade, the study of human psychology has turned its attention to the beneficial role played by positive emotions. It turns out that emotions like joy, happiness, contentment, curiosity are not just nice-to-have. They serve a purpose. They encourage us to play, explore and learn. They help us to dream big and they motivate us to achieve. This makes positive emotions the little engines of career and culture building.
Happiness is contagious
Emotions are not very respectful of boundaries. How we feel in one space bleeds into how we feel in the next. They also spread from one person to another. This is the downside of negativity and the upside of positivity. With the right information and techniques people can get intentional about adjusting the emotional landscape of their workplace. And this benefits everyone – your team mates, your clients, the organization as a whole - and you!
Happiness predicts organizational performance
Happiness is a predictor of future financial performance. Statisticians call these types of measures “lead indicators” because they help organizations anticipate future attrition rates, sales targets, customer promotor scores, and product innovations. In its decision to explore happiness at work, your organization is joining an increasing number of companies who are bringing the critical relationship between happy employees and business success into the way their organizations are run.