Organisations could benefit from taking a more holistic view on employee happiness, writes Richard Goff
According to a 2010 study, only 45 per cent of people are happy at work.
If that’s broadly true, as a roving HR practitioner getting out into your business, only half of the colleagues you meet today actually want to be there. That’s a shocking figure.
What can we do about it? Construct a watertight policy on happiness? Put in some toughly-crafted performance targets (the ‘Three Smiles an Hour’ KPI)? Perhaps something this intangible, this fundamental – and so contextual that its focus rapidly becomes individual – throws into vivid perspective the skills organisations now need from HR. A move, perhaps, to more segmented and connective people strategies – people optimisation, rather than people maximisation.
We recently had the pleasure of hearing Harvard’s Shawn Achor share his ideas with some of our HRDs. Shawn states that happiness:
- can be a choice – what he terms ‘rational optimism’
- is a distinct advantage for organisations
- is contagious – it can be promulgated.
What part can HR play? Shawn says: “Social support is as much a predictor of how long you’re going to live as obesity, high blood pressure and smoking” – and of course stress is the number one reason for absence from work. So there’s a well-being strand, but also it’s an OD question: how connected are your people to each other? “The brain is wirelessly connected to others’ brains,” Shawn adds. And to extrapolate on this thought, can the different business areas be wirelessly connected too?
This is an area which fascinates us at the CIPD – and has huge implications for us, for other organisations and for anyone committed to motivation. As Peter Cheese says: “Neuro-science research shows that the thing which makes most people happy is doing something for someone else.” Shawn also told us: “The greatest contributor to the modern economy is a positive, engaged brain.” That so? Well, “AT&T got half their call centre to smile while on the phone because they ‘leaked information’ even though they couldn’t be seen. That half’s customer satisfaction rate went up.”
While this isn’t a justification for that ‘Three Smiles an Hour’ KPI, at the very least it’s a view of engagement even more fundamental, more holistic, and more day-to-day for us all.
Happiness, happiness: the greatest differentiating gift an employer brand can possess..?