13 Apr 2016

Why being happy will make your employees achieve more

Do you need to be happy to be productive in your job? It’s a question that up until fairly recently might have been considered somewhat trivial; after all, what could a basic human emotion possibly have to do with your output at work?

Happy workers do more

But according to Happiness and Productivity, a study by a team of economists at the University of Warwick published in February 2014, the answer is actually a great deal. They found that happy workers delivered a 12% increase in productivity, while unhappy workers were 10% less productive. The conclusion was that human happiness does have significant positive effects on productivity, and that positive emotions do indeed appear to invigorate people.

We know that happier employees tend to be more engaged, so happiness, engagement and productivity in the workplace are intrinsically linked. And at a time when the UK is lagging behind many other developed countries in terms of its productivity, keeping employees happy is a workplace priority.

What is workplace happiness?

Some organisations have been described as fun places to work, with their chill out zones, flexible hours and football tables, but is having fun at work the same thing as being happy and engaged?

People engage with their job and their organisation based on things like the type of work they are asked to do, their work environment, their career prospects, and the way their boss speaks to them.

Put the basics in place - and then build on them

If organisations are serious about employee engagement and happiness, these are the basics that need to be in place. Then there are the extras, the incentives they can offer their staff, such as employee benefits and voluntary benefits, and this is where benefits providers can play a vital role in the happiness, engagement and productivity equation.

Benefits providers can help with the little things, for example, making people’s pay go a little bit further by providing them with a shopping discount, or enabling them to use an app to book their family holiday immediately and get the deal they want. It’s those feelings, the personal touches and emotional attachments, that make people feel happier.

If you want to increase engagement, and unlock discretionary effort among your employees to boost productivity, you have to provide them with a workplace and a culture that will make them feel happy.

This article was provided by Personal Group.