Workforce happiness may be a term you are hearing more often nowadays. Since the pandemic, there appears to be more of a focus on workplace wellbeing and employee happiness.
Happy employees generally will be more productive, generate more success for themselves and your business and have the right attitude towards their work.
According to YouGov, many British workers’ overall happiness depends on how they feel at work; 54% say their job impacts their happiness ‘a lot’, while 39% say a little and only 9% says it has no effect.
Unhappiness in the workplace can have a domino effect. If one employee complains that they are unhappy with their peers, this could then trigger another employee to assess their workplace in a negative light.
However, from business owners’ perspective, it can be hard to measure whether you need to make efforts to improve workforce happiness.
Signs you need to focus on workforce happiness
There are some obvious signs that you need to improve workforce happiness in your organisation. Unhappiness amongst your workforce can be identified when employees:
- Procrastinate often
- Frequently miss work
- Are bugged by small things
- Show a lack of interest in things
- Don’t want to help their peers out
- Complain often about their workload or pay
Things you can do to improve workforce happiness
Your employees are likely to feel more job satisfaction if they are happy in their workplace. This could impact them working for you for a longer period. Improving workforce happiness can be achieved by specific boosting morale methods.
- Recognition: Provide your employees with recognition for the work they do and show that you truly value their work efforts. This can be achieved in several different ways. An effective suggestion is having a monthly one to one with your employees in which you can outline the great work they have done.
- Motivation: Create incentives and offer wellbeing benefits. Treat your staff when they work hard. For instance, if they hit a great target or are just generally performing well then reward them with them. Offer wellbeing benefits, such as hybrid working, flexible working and health and wellbeing programmes.
- Involvement: Organise fun team building events to improve the relationships amongst your team. A suggestion could be taking your team to an escape room or having a team lunch together.
- Plans: Wellbeing plans according to Mind are ‘an easy, practical way of helping you to support your own mental health at work and, if you are a manager, helping you to support the mental health of your team members’. Everyone can complete a Wellness Action Plan, and don’t need to have a mental health concern in order to feel the benefits. It is a means to ensure that your staff can identify some practical steps to ensure they are supported and so fee happier.
The benefits
The benefits of improving workforce happiness are twofold. Your employees will be happier, more likely to stay in their work position, will perform better and be more productive at work.
Ultimately, happy employees in the workplace will help keep your business successful.
Prioritising workforce happiness long-term
If you don’t focus on your business’s workforce happiness, then you could find that both your employees’ wellbeing and your business will begin to suffer as a consequence.
It is vital that you as a business owner, put workforce happiness at the forefront of your business and carry out your workplace happiness incentives on a regular basis for the long term.
For additional support and information on how to keep your workforce happy seek an independent HR advisor for guidance.
