In a rapidly changing world, it’s important for your business to have a workplace happiness plan. While the emotional state of employees may be hard to judge, it plays a big role in things like retention. So caring about it might not be a bad idea.
Beyond building a strong employee culture, surveys have found that happy employees are 12% more productive. Let’s discuss some of the values that might make up your commitment to employee happiness.
Big Picture Concept
Sometimes you have to disconnect your happiness from what is happening in your business.
For some, this statement seems unusual. Many of us grow up loving sports, where there is a winner and a loser. We then apply that same mindset to the workplace.
But during challenging times on the job, it that healthy for you? How much impact should your job have on the rest of your life?
You want employees to care and give their best efforts. But does workplace frustrations invade their lives out of the office?
What’s in Your Control?
In business, you may have less control over your success than you think. From clients to suppliers there are a lot of factors that impact your days. And those things may not line up with your business and employee happiness.
For instance, when I worked in TV news, station ratings were a big concern. If you weren’t at the top ranked station, you spent a lot of time and energy trying to figure out how you could pull in more viewers, which would translate into more advertising revenue.
It would be frustrating to learn of research that showed one station had a huge advantage, due to people liking the hair style of the main anchor. That was the top reason why people said they tuned in. In this instance, a quirky reason separated one station from the rest.
However, that shouldn’t have stopped the other stations from pursuing quality journalism. That was something you could control. And something that could be part of a workplace happiness plan.
Salute Effort
It is a harsh modern reality that you can do everything right in business and fall below expectations. Tying happiness to success, may no longer be a smart move.
If you only have celebrations or perks when things go well, then what happens to employee culture when you hit a troubled spot? And if the good stuff feels unattainable to employees, then does the incentive serve a purpose, other than being a monument to frustration?
Instead, refocus goals and incentives on things that are challenging but achievable. Don’t try to climb the mountain in one step. Your goal is to build momentum that may ultimately lead you to the top of the mountain.
Final Thoughts
Your workplace happiness plan doesn’t have to demand smiles or see you constantly entertain employees with jokes. But don’t fall into the trap of taking employee morale for granted.
During challenging times, you don’t want negative feeling to infect your employee culture. If it gets too bad, then you’ll never turn things around.
Let’s Create a Memorable Meeting
