As we've said before, success doesn't necessarily bring happiness, but happiness is an underlying factor for success. Happiness leads to more successful relationships, parenting, better jobs, and higher earnings. As a work-life balance expert, I've been telling employers and managers for many years that happier (better balanced) employees will bring their organisation or team greater productivity and creativity, higher levels of commitment and less sickness absence and staff turnover. Despite the evidence, it can be a hard sell. Some bosses already know it intuitively and have been working in a people-centred way all along; others really find it hard to believe that the wellbeing of their staff is anything more than a "soft" issue, promoted by HR for the wrong reasons.
In Jessica Pryce-Jones' well-researched book called Happiness at Work: Maximizing Your Psychological Capital for Success, she demonstrates, with convincing examples, how employees who are happier at work achieve their highest potential, earn more, are promoted more readily, and are much more productive than unhappy staff members.
Having interpreted the data of a four year research project, in which she interviewed at one end of the scale CEOs, like Willie Walsh, of British Airways, and at the other, a refugee server in Au Bon Pain, Boston, and Brother Paulus Terwitte, the Capuchin Friar who was passionate about enabling everyone to finding meaning in what they do, Jessica found that "at some core level, people believe that happiness at work is a mindset which helps you maximize your potential. You do that by being aware of the highs and lows when working alone or with others. In other words it’s the way you approach things, manage yourself while understanding that your happiness as a valuable resource."
She makes the case that happiness is indeed very closely associated with productivity, so if organisations were to start to drive it through addressing what makes their workforce happy – which need not be difficult or costly to do - workplaces could be very different, and more successful, environments.
For those people who still believe that workplace wellbeing is a soft and fluffy subject, or indeed for those who are trying to convince them otherwise, here are some useful statistics:
People who are happiest at work are 47% more productive, take 300% less sick leave and intend to stay about 200% longer in their jobs. In other words there’s a high price for low happiness.
Individuals who are happiest at work have a host of benefits. They:
• are 180% more energised
• experience 155% more happiness in their jobs
• find 108% more engagement
• feel 50% more motivated
• find 50% more belief in their potential
• are 40% more confident
• think they have 35% more control over what they do.
People who are happier at work will also be happier with the home lives too; their general happiness scores are 150% higher than their least happy colleagues.
Jessica Pryce Jones said that two of the things that surprised her most from her research were: the importance of listening for happiness at work and enabling great performance; and the research data that showed money has no effect on overall workplace happiness (although it does affect overall general happiness).
She claims the five Cs for happiness at work are:
Contribution, which is the effort you make and your perception of it
Conviction, which is your motivation in good times or bad
Culture, which is about how well you feel you fit
Commitment, which is about your level of engagement
Confidence, which is about your ability to take a risk
"They matter because they affect everything you do and without them your happiness levels will take a dive – fast, and in turn your performance will plummet too... There’s a clear line of sight between happiness and performance"
If you are not happy in your work and are not sure how to make changes, a good place to start is with yourself. By following the Steps of The Real Secret, or identifying those which relate to your situation, you can raise your personal happiness levels, which will impact on those around you at work and at home. You can also learn how to listen better (empathic listening), improve relationships at work and at home, as well as build confidence and deal with difficult people. It is available in paperback and kindle on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon. com
Posted by Lucy
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