What is Happiness at Workplace and Why It Matters?
4 minute read
Long are the days when happiness at work was considered not to be such a relevant factor in the workplace. A few decades ago, business owners and managers started to realise the immense importance of creating a happy working environment – they discovered that happy employees serve customers better, which ultimately leads to higher growth.
What is Happiness at Workplace?
Do you know what the word arbejdsglæde means? It is a Danish word for work-happiness which says much about the way Danish people treat their business culture and how much they contribute to it.
When you think about it, focusing your efforts into building a happier workplace makes sense. At the end of the day, since we spend two-thirds of our life at work, we should do everything that’s in our power to make our work meaningful and feel happy during our working day.
However, there are a few keys to happiness at work you need to be aware of. To feel truly happy at work, you need to:
- Be motivated and energised
- Feel comfortable with people you work with
- Have fun
- Always be ready to take responsibility
- Feel that what you do makes waves
- Feel that your work is recognised, praised and appreciated
- Be proud of the results you achieve
- Feel that you are moving up the career ladder
- Be able to gain knowledge and improve your skills
- Enjoy the benefits your company offers
- Feel like you are contributing to a higher cause
Why Does Happiness at the Workplace Matter?
According to international leadership advisor and author Annie Mckee, when we feel unhappy, our brains tend to disengage, which decreases our capacity for critical thinking, creativity and a broad range of our core functions. In other words, negative emotions can lead to temporary or even permanent disengagement. Plus, an unhappy team can create a domino effect causing our business to suffer.
This brings us to another important fact regarding happiness in the workplace – it is infectious. While one happy employee can lift the spirits of the others and encourage others to bring value on all levels reciprocally, an unhappy employee can have an adverse impact on their colleagues making them feel disengaged and unwilling to contribute to the company or work on themselves. However, keep in mind that unhappiness spreads at an enormous speed and is much more contagious than happiness.
That’s why a fundamental goal of every business culture looking for ways to thrive in today’s ultra-competitive market is to increase happiness at the workplace. In his book “Leading with Happiness“, Alexander Kjerulf, one of the world’s leading experts on happiness at work, points out that happiness at work is the ultimate productivity booster. “If you want employees to care about the company, the company has to care about them”, says Alexander.
Here are some of the top reasons why happiness at work is essential:
- It means a healthy life
- It reduces stress
- It multiplies success
- It builds positivity
- It increases likeability
But, where to start?
Heartcount as a Means to a Goal
To be able to make any changes to your ecosystem and build a healthy working environment and a thriving business culture, you need to know how your employees feel and what they think at work. One way to do that is to simply ask them. By asking your employees to do a happiness survey once a week, you will be able to measure their pulse and keep track of the level of happiness in your company. And this is what Heartcount is all about.
Heartcount, one of the keys to happiness at work, is an AI-powered tool that gives you immediate feedback and operational information about everyone in the ecosystem. Most importantly, you can use these resources to react on time and make a positive change.
Don’t waste your time head counting and start heart counting today!
Talk to us and learn how we can help you build a culture of happy employees!