Employee Engagement and Happiness at work

Is it worth investing in employee engagement and happiness at work?
With mental health high on many priority lists and mental illness being a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010,it is definitely something all businesses should have a plan for.

The Covid Pandemic made many businesses see the need for making sure that their employees feel safe and cared for. When we feel that our employer cares, we are more likely to feel engaged. When employees are engaged they will be more creative, solve problems, care for your customers, stay longer, take less sick days, and give you a greater return on your payroll investment.

But what happens if they’re not only engaged but happy too???

Think of a time when you’ve walked into an office and there’s a real buzz, an energy that comes when something’s happened to make people laugh, there’s a brightness in people’s eyes and a bounce in their step.

What if that could be there every day, what would that do for your business?

There are some innovative ideas around this, Google invest in a playful workspace with slides and fireman poles, the fish markets in London have people throwing fish around and playing it up while they work, some professional services firms have family days with bouncy castles and cake.

But that stuff doesn’t always work. You could spend a fortune only to discover that it’s not working, they’re still not happy.

Why does this happen???

Most people can’t find ‘happy’ because they’re looking in the wrong place!

Happy doesn’t come from external circumstances, money, comfy sofas or gifts. It comes from how we perceive these things. The meaning we make about these things.

We feel happy, not because we have a bonus, but because getting a bonus makes us feel recognised and valued and significant. We don’t feel happy because our office has a chill out area, we feel happy because our company is trying to make it better for us at work and that makes us feel cared for. This is known as the Hawthorn effect, from research showing that paying attention to employee needs, even if you are doing the wrong things, will still improve engagement and motivation because it feels like you care.

But how do we do this when people are working remotely?

Each of us has a happy place. We might not know it, we might not have thought about it like that but there’s a space, a place we can go either physically or in our imagination, that allows us to let go, be our true self, feel at ease and relax.

Inviting your team to go to their happy place before they take on a task, start a project or host a meeting will shift their internal chemistry and hormones into a more grounded, calm and open minded state that will add real value to what they do.

There is no cost to your business but there are huge benefits.

People will feel like you care, they will be able to keep the stress chemicals (cortisol) under control and their brains will be more creative and innovative, and that’s got to be good for your business.

What to think about…

• What can you do to help people find their happy place?
• What permissions do you need to give to allow people to access that state of wellbeing whilst at work?
• How can you involve your employees in that thinking process?

Ask your team, let them guide you. What do THEY need to be able to get that happy, engaged feeling when they’re at work. After the usual answers of more money, better tools, more holidays and chocolate and wine, invite them to really think about what they need to be able to access their best selves when they’re at work.

And if they really do need better tools, properly fitting uniforms and basic requirements to do their jobs, you might want to get them those things first, as without the right tools to do their job, you are not likely to inspire and engage their best selves.