Happiness is good for business (and people)

What makes people happy at work? Hint: It's not the amount of money earned or fanciful titles, says Richard Hartung.

“Being concerned about employee happiness is not just a moral thing to do, but it makes smart business sense as well,” says Stanford professor Jennifer Aaker.

Employees who are happy are more likely to be productive and to stay at the company, she says, and the millennial Gen Y is likely to be even more demanding for a happy workplace.

While it’s easy to see how being happy is positive for each individual person, thinking of happiness as something that creates superior business performance may be a less familiar concept.

Aaker and other researchers are finding, though, that it does indeed make financial sense for companies to make sure they have happy employees.

Life, Work balance

Author Shawn Achor even quantified the effects when he wrote in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) recently that “a decade of research proves that happiness raises nearly every business and educational outcome: raising sales by 37%, productivity by 31%, and accuracy on tasks by 19%, as well as a myriad of health and quality of life improvements".

Similarly, The Guardian reported that research from Warwick Business School professor of economics Andrew Oswald showed that “human happiness has large and positive causal effects on productivity".

Since companies are likely to perform better when employees are more satisfied, it’s also important for corporate leaders to figure out exactly what makes their staff happy.

Aaker, for example, says that spending time with the right people on the right activities, and even just anticipating pleasurable activities, will make people happy.

Some companies are “allowing opportunities for employees to fundamentally design how they spend their time both at work and outside of work - in ways that are creative and innovative,” and she says these companies are likely to have happier employees.

Meaning of life

Renowned Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen recently spoke to graduating students that addressed their request to discuss how to find meaning in their lives.

Christensen wrote in the Harvard Business Review that one theory that gives great insight on how to be sure we find happiness in our careers is from Frederick Herzberg.

The psychologist asserts that the most powerful motivator in our lives isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute to others, and be recognised for achievements.”

Taking another tack towards understanding what employees want and how they work, Yale professor Amy Wrzesniewski analysed employees’ attitudes and found that people view what they do in one of three ways: they see it as a job, a career or a calling.

A calling

While people who see their work as a job or career may not dislike what they do, people who see their work as a “calling” are happier because they are passionate about what they do, see higher meaning in their work, and feel they are contributing to the greater good of society.

In summarising Wrzesniewski’s work, writer Gerald Walsh said that she found these people “focus on the benefit they provide to people and the higher purpose of their work.” Whether it’s a doctor saving lives or an auto mechanic keeping cars safe, companies can retain these dedicated employees by creating the values and a culture that support work as a calling.

The research indicates, then, that companies that want their staff to be happier should enable staff to take greater responsibility for designing their work environment and content, recognise staff for their contributions and help staff to learn.

Author Achor’s research also shows that training staff to take steps to be more positive and happier had a lasting effect for employees who implemented the recommendations in the training programme, so actually training staff to be happier can also be effective.

While there’s undoubtedly more research to be done, the trends is already clear: companies can improve their results by making employees happier.

Analysing what will work best in a specific company, improving work practices and implementing programmes to improve staff happiness can improve not just peoples’ lives but company performance as well.