INTHEBLACK April/May 2024 - Magazine - Page 37
“One of the first steps is to understand that your
happiness is your own responsibility. You cannot wait
for your colleagues, you cannot wait for your manager,
and you cannot wait for the company to make you happy.
Of course, they will influence your happiness, but you are
the starting point.”
AURÉLIE LITYNSKI, HAPPITUDE AT WORK
“While organisations should want happy
employees because they perform significantly
better than those who are unhappy,
organisations also need happy employees
because happiness is, in fact, contagious,”
says Martin Seligman, one of the study’s
authors and director of the University of
Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center.
HOW TO BOOST HAPPINESS
For Brent Szalay FCPA, managing
director of Melbourne-based advisory firm
SEIVA, investing in employee happiness
is a “no brainer”.
“We know that if we look after our
people, then they’ll look after our clients,”
Szalay says.
This philosophy has underpinned SEIVA’s
growth for the last 11 years to a business
that now employs 30 people.
Szalay sees the employer–employee
contract as a mutually beneficial partnership,
where each party helps the other achieve
pre-agreed goals. As part of this process,
each employee creates individual career
development plans, updated annually.
“We work hard to understand each
employee’s career goals and objectives,
and help them achieve them,” Szalay says.
In 2023, the business launched the SEIVA
Academy to provide employees with access to
personalised training and skills development
aligned to their career development plans.
Monthly reviews track individual progress
and create a sense of accountability.
“Genuinely following through with
what we said we’d do and making sure
employees are improving and getting what
they want in their careers, builds trust and
loyalty,” Szalay says.
Recognition and rewards also play
a role. Each week, team members nominate
a colleague who they believe has best
demonstrated SEIVA’s core values of having
fun, building trust, and showing initiative
and humility.
“We share these nominations at our
monthly values meeting and read out the
messages people have written about their
peers,” Szalay says.
A weekly pulse check tracks drivers
of motivation of happiness, such as
engagement and receiving feedback. Scores
vary, Szalay acknowledges, but “if a team
member is having a bad day or a bad week,
it allows us to check in with them”.
Szalay’s investment in culture has paid
off. In 2022, SEIVA was ranked 13th in
the Australia’s Best Workplaces™ List,
in the micro-business category.
START WITH THE INDIVIDUAL
While organisational factors such as culture
and remuneration play a decisive role in
creating happy workplaces, individual
mindset is another contributing factor.
“One of the first steps is to understand
that your happiness is your own
responsibility,” Litynski says.
“You cannot wait for your colleagues,
you cannot wait for your manager and you
cannot wait for the company to make you
happy. Of course, they will influence your
happiness, but you are the starting point.”
READ
an INTHEBLACK
article on how
to measure
the economics
of happiness
intheblack.cpaaustralia.com.au 37
