{"id":2921,"date":"2015-10-07T06:28:52","date_gmt":"2015-10-07T06:28:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.happiestminds.com\/blogs\/?p=2921"},"modified":"2025-12-08T08:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T08:50:09","slug":"the-cheapest-way-to-improve-productivity-make-your-employees-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.happiestminds.com\/blogs\/the-cheapest-way-to-improve-productivity-make-your-employees-happy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cheapest Way to Improve Productivity: Make Your Employees Happy"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Some employers view their relationship with workers as purely transactional: The company pays employees for their services, and staff members are responsible for getting their work done. Happiness doesn\u2019t even enter into the equation, but we now know this is a mistake.<\/p>\n

A slew of research has found that employee happiness<\/a><\/strong> has a dramatic effect on performance. A study published in the\u00a0University of Warwick\u2019s Economic Research Institute Journal\u00a0revealed, \u201chuman happiness has large and positive causal effects on productivity\u2026 Positive emotions appear to invigorate human beings, while negative emotions have the opposite effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So how can companies promote workplace happiness? Here are five best practices companies can use to promote employee happiness in the workplace:<\/p>\n

1.Give people choices.<\/strong>\u00a0People like to have a say in shaping their workday and controlling their own destiny. Daniel Pink, author of the New York Times bestselling book\u00a0Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, drew on four decades of scientific research to discover that autonomy is one of the three pillars of the \u201cmotivation formula.\u201d<\/p>\n

Autonomy means giving employees control over when they work, where they work, and what they work on. It means allowing for self-determination and flexibility, and focusing on results, rather than face-time. Choice and autonomy are proven to be powerful drivers of employee\u00a0motivation and performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found that knowledge workers whose companies allow them to help decide when, where, and how they work were more likely to be satisfied with their jobs, performed better, and viewed their company as more innovative than competitors that didn\u2019t offer such choices,\u201d wrote Diane Hoskins\u00a0in the Harvard Business Review.<\/p>\n

\"2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

2.Help people achieve emotional wellness.\u00a0<\/strong>The World Health Organization found that the\u00a0cost of stress\u00a0to American businesses is as much as $300 billion. And its estimated that\u00a0two-thirds\u00a0of visits to the doctor\u2019s office are for stress-related conditions. These visits cause costs to soar in the form of decreased productivity and absenteeism.<\/p>\n

Stressed employees do not perform at their peak level, and it doesn\u2019t matter whether the stress is directly related to work. For example, money trouble is one of the most powerful sources of stress out there. The American Psychological Association\u00a0reports<\/a>\u00a0five out of the eight top sources of stress in America are financial. If an employee is worried about their personal finances, that stress will be reflected in their work.<\/p>\n

As an employer, it is your best interest to help your employees achieve emotional wellness. It\u2019s important that employees don\u2019t feel overburdened or overwhelmed by their work. They need time to unwind, at or away from the office. And since socialization and exercise are known stress reducers, you can promote emotional wellness by encouraging employees to engage in these activities. In addition,\u00a0many successful organizations\u00a0provide confidential counseling services through a third-party.<\/p>\n

\"3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

3.Cultivate purpose and meaning.\u00a0<\/strong>One of the other pillars to employee satisfaction and happiness is purpose.\u00a0Harvard Professor Rosabeth Kanter\u00a0wrote that people want to work for companies where they feel that they\u2019re making a meaningful difference in the world. People who believe in what they are doing are happier, more motivated, and more productive.<\/p>\n

Employers can cultivate purpose in the workplace by writing a meaningful mission statement and placing it around the office. This will help remind employees on a regular basis why they are there and why they do what they do.<\/p>\n

The next step is to ensure that employee goals align with the organizational goals, which is best done through one-on-one meetings where individuals can share their thoughts with their managers, and feel that their voice gets heard. Managers can also instill a sense of purpose by giving every employee the opportunity to use their strengths.<\/p>\n

4.Spread happiness.<\/strong>\u00a0Putting someone in charge of spreading happiness \u2014 appointing a \u201chappiness evangelist\u201d \u2014 can be an incredibly effective way to foster a cultural change. Most leaders have a hefty amount on their plate, and don\u2019t have a lot of bandwidth to dedicate to \u201csofter\u201d issues like how people are feeling. Moreover, they are probably not trained to do so.<\/p>\n

A happiness evangelist (or\u00a0in Google\u2019s case, the Jolly Good Fellow) is responsible for creating an environment where people feel valued and happy. They can spearhead initiatives to improve workplace satisfaction, like catered lunch, regular happy hours, or work-from-home Fridays, as well weed out sources of dissatisfaction. This person ensures that employee happiness remains a priority and prevents issues from festering to the point where performance is compromised.<\/p>\n

\"4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

5.Reward and recognize.<\/strong>\u00a0It is human nature to respond positively to recognition and rewards.\u00a0An analysis from Gallup\u00a0that spanned 10,000 business units found that \u201cthe act of recognizing desired behavior increases the repetition of the desired behavior, and therefore productivity.\u201d Employee recognition leads to greater employee satisfaction and enjoyment of work, better teamwork, higher retention, lower negative effects from absenteeism and stress, and even higher loyalty and satisfaction scores from customers.<\/p>\n

Incentivizing employees and celebrating success makes employees feel valued and boosts confidence. It helps them feel a sense of accomplishment, which is a powerful motivator, and reinforces their sense of meaning and joy in their work. Rewards and recognition can take many forms, including from gift cards, time off, public recognition at a weekly company meeting, and of course, promotions. In any case, they inspire employees to do their best.<\/p>\n

The impact of happy employees on an organization is dramatic.\u00a0A Russell Investment Group study\u00a0found that stocks for companies on the Fortune 100 \u201cBest Companies to Work For\u201d list significantly outperformed the average. Caring about employee happiness isn\u2019t just the \u201cright\u201d thing to do, it is the smart business thing to do.<\/p>\n

Published By:<\/strong> The Next Web<\/p>\n

\n

\r\n
\r\n \r\n <\/i>\r\n <\/a>\r\n 0 <\/span>\r\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some employers view their relationship with workers as purely transactional: The company pays employees for their services, and staff members are responsible for getting their work done. Happiness doesn\u2019t even enter into the equation, but we now know this is a mistake. A slew of research has found that employee happiness has a dramatic effect […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222],"tags":[1039,1040,1127,1129],"class_list":["post-2921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-happiness","tag-employee-happiness","tag-employee-satisfaction","tag-happiness-2","tag-happy-employees"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.happiestminds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.happiestminds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.happiestminds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.happiestminds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.happiestminds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2921"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.happiestminds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15116,"href":"https:\/\/www.happiestminds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921\/revisions\/15116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.happiestminds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.happiestminds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.happiestminds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.happiestminds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}