How Does Employee Happiness Relate To Worker Productivity?

Though there are countless studies showing the many benefits of a company culture that promotes employee satisfaction, it sadly remains an often overlooked area of business. On a very basic level, it seems obvious that any business would want to have happier employees. It can help with employee retention, reduce instances of stress-related illnesses, and generally encourage a more positive workplace atmosphere. When you look a little deeper, however, it becomes even more apparent that the benefits of having a happy, well-motivated workforce are even more significant and wider-reaching than you may have imagined.

The Benefits Of Employee Happiness & Wellbeing

Below we’ll look at just a few of the ways your business could improve through ensuring your employees are happier.

Shore Up Employee Loyalty

A good employee is an invaluable asset to any business, so retaining them is one of the many keys to success. If someone is fed up at work then they are not only less likely to want to continue in their current job, but they also lower the morale of the entire team they’re working with. Conversely, if someone is happy in their current position, gets on with their co-workers, and feels valued, they are much more likely to not only stay but also to encourage this sort of atmosphere amongst the other people they work with. 

We’ve all either been or worked with a person who feels that their current job is a chore that they have to get through, rather than something that challenges them and enriches their life. It normally results in the person searching for another job where they feel better rewarded, either monetarily or just in the quality of work and environment they find themselves with.

When it comes to a long term improvement for your company, the best way to do it is to make sure that your employee retention is high and the only way to achieve that is to make sure that your employees are happy.

Cultivate Creativity

There have been a huge number of studies that have attempted to draw a concrete connection between creativity and happiness. Ceci and Kumar examined the link between Creativity, Happiness, Motivation, and Stress and found that an increase in creative capacity correlated directly with more positive happiness as well as with lowered stress.

By keeping your employees happy and content in their roles, you can lower their stress while increasing their creativity. The result is a healthier workforce that is better suited to finding an innovative solution to any problems they might face. 

Encourage Team Building & Cohesion

We spend around a third of our day in the company of those we work with, so it’s important that employees feel like they are part of a cohesive team. It goes without saying that people will work better with those they like and a team headed up by a leader that effectively facilitates and supports them will have a greater chance of success. It’s also worth keeping in mind that people are more reluctant to leave a job when they are fond of their colleagues. Going to work with people you like is an invaluable perk of the job to some and can make weathering hard times and periods of unrest far more tolerable than they otherwise would be.

There are many ways to encourage comradery and foster friendships within a business setting, and not all involve paintballing. You may want to consider creating a common area in the office, where employees can socialise during breaks in a more relaxed way than they could while sitting at their desks. Organising an evening out is also a great way to encourage employees to get to know one another better; though this can be a lot more difficult than you’d expect so make sure you start planning a month or two in advance. Fantasy football leagues and sweepstakes based on sporting events or reality TV shows are also effective and affordable ways of improving team morale. 

Improve Performance & Productivity 

Productivity is something that every business strives to get the most out of their employees. Improving employee wellbeing will contribute to an individual’s level of overall productivity, and having a team that can work towards a common goal with a higher rate of performance is the dream of every employer. Improving the happiness and mental health of your employees is one of the most tangible ways to achieve and maintain an increase that will persist and push your business to a higher level, which is why we believe that employee wellbeing and satisfaction are invaluable to any and all companies.

While it might not be easy to garner instant results when it comes to improving happiness, the uptick in productivity, as well as all the other benefits, is more than enough to cement its role as a worthwhile approach to employee management and development.

How to Improve Employee Happiness & Wellbeing

There is a huge range of things to take into account when you are looking at cultivating the happiness of your employees. You need to take into account the size of your team, the roles that they fill, and the realistic constraints that your business is under. This can be a daunting task but the benefits will always outweigh the difficulties.

One of the simplest and most effective changes that you can make is to establish a more direct contact point for your employees with you. Scheduling regular meetings to discuss how they feel their job is going and any improvements that they can think of will allow your employees to develop a more meaningful relationship with you and encourage their engagement level within your business.

Another change that can be made is to make sure that every role in your company is one where your employees feel that they’re working towards something larger not just being focused on their own position and role in the business. A lot of companies now are recruiting employee experience officers (EEO), which is a role entirely focused on improving this level of integration that employees feel and working to make sure they feel happy and fulfilled in their job roles.

Interested in building a happier, healthier workplace? At hug, we’ve developed a platform to help you understand your team and build a happier, healthier workplace. It offers holistic real time analysis of your employee wellbeing and smart matches products, services and benefits to employee needs. The aggregated, anonymous data will give you a deeper understanding of your workforce, providing insights into the benefits that would best suit your employees. Book a demo by clicking here today.