INTHEBLACK April/May 2024 - Magazine - Page 35
Happy employees
are more productive
in the workplace.
Employee happiness
relies on a sense of
achievement and healthy
workplace relationships.
Governments are
increasingly investing in
wellbeing initiatives to boost
economic performance.
The
Happiness KPI
As workplaces start to embrace the idea that happy employees make
productive employees, the challenge for employers is to figure out what
makes employees happy and find the best way to implement them.
Words Nicola Heath
Aurélie Litynski became interested in
workplace happiness six years ago when
a challenging experience in a toxic workplace
left her questioning her career.
“I was completely lost,” says Litynski in
a TEDx Talk on how to be happy at work.
Today, she is a positive culture expert who
works with teams to create strategies that
embed happiness into the workplace culture.
“It shouldn’t be an exception to feel
good at work,” says Litynski, who is also
the founder of Happitude at Work.
“We know that when employees are
happy, they are more productive, creative
and engaged. They also support each other,
are better leaders, innovate much better and
have better health.”
A growing body of research confirms
the link between happiness and productivity.
According to a 2022 study published in
the Journal of Happiness Studies, happiness
predicts performance.
The study measured the relative happiness
and optimism of nearly 1 million US
Department of Defense employees over
a five-year period.
The study’s authors found that participants
who reported higher levels of happiness
performed better as leaders, showed higher
motivation levels and recorded lower rates
of absenteeism.
Yet what makes employees happy is
difficult to define – and something many
organisations get wrong.
David Burroughs, principal psychologist
of Australian Psychological Services, says most
wellbeing workplace initiatives that focus on
individual employees have “zero impact”.
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