Gretchen Rubin, author of the bestselling book The Happiness Project, recently sat down with OPEN Forum contributor Barry Moltz to talk about her experience learning to make her own happiness. While Rubin's book explores many methods of achieving personal happiness, her findings can also be applied to keeping employees happy in the workplace. First, the reasons happy employees are good employees:
- They're more productive. When you're happy, you're not spending half your workday worrying and taking personal calls. Happy employees are also less likely to miss work..
- They're better leaders. Happy people tend to be more engaging, more confident, and less risk averse. Plus, they're just more enjoyable to work with.
- They're more creative. Employees who aren't bogged down with stress are able to think more freely and openly.
- They're better team players. Happy people are more willing to help other people and to tackle tough work problems.
Now, here are seven things Rubin learned from her own happiness project that you can apply to your organization (and your home life too!):
- Recognize progress and achievement. Notice when your employees are performing well, and don't forget to say thank you.
- Encourage a sense of belonging. Employees are more likely to be happy if they feel like they work with friends, for an organization they can believe in.
- Get to know your employees. Ask them about their families, their hobbies, or anything else that shows you are interested in them as a human being.
- Be "light". Not everything is a big deal - it's okay to laugh, or to shrug off a mistake. Anger or frustration is an "easy" emotion; keeping things fun is actually pretty hard.
- Allow people to disengage. Having a smart phone that lets you be "on" all the time can be stressful for employees. Let them have time to unwind and deal with their personal priorities.
- Get enough exercise and sleep. Let your admin assistant leave early on Tuesdays to go to spin class. Think about implementing an employee benefit program encouraging health and wellness. And if you do have a late night in the office, remember to give your employees some leeway the next morning so that they can recharge.
- Stop calculating everything. Rubin made a conscientious effort to stop keeping tabs of household chores ("I washed the dishes every night this week and my husband only took out the trash once!") and found that everyone was happier for it. Don't keep score in the workplace either; it only makes for winners and losers. Just do the right thing, and hopefully others will follow your lead.
If you're not sure how happy your employees are, it might be a good idea to administer an employee satisfaction survey to find out. Cvent can help you determine the right questions to ask ("Are you happy?" probably isn't going to get you the sort of responses you're looking for here), as well as the formatting and analysis.