“Don’t worry, be happy”, say the lyrics of a well-known song written by Bobby McFerrin and popularised by Bob Marley. Surely a simple aspiration for both our home and working lives, yet according to a recent survey by recruiter Robert Walters, just 54% of UK professionals are happy at work.
The survey quizzed professional workers from across the UK on factors such as pay, workplace benefits, longevity in a job and job satisfaction. Happiness levels were highest (64%) in the West Midlands and lowest (46%) in the North East and Wales. When asked specifically about workplace benefits, only 33% of respondents said their current employer’s workplace perks suited their needs.
When we’re not sleeping, the greatest proportion of our time is spent at work. As employers, it’s therefore incumbent on us to take every step possible to ensure employees are as happy as they can be at work. Not only will this be good for them, it makes good business sense too: according to one survey by the University of Warwick, happy workers are up to 12% more productive than unhappy ones.
So what can we do? Some global organisations, such as McDonalds and Google, employ specific ‘Chief Happiness Officers’ to take responsibility for spreading positivity and maintaining staff motivation. Others employ an office dog to increase staff morale. These measures may seem extreme and / or impractical to most employers, but there are simpler steps that all employers can embrace.
Action for Happiness (AfH) helps members to take action to increase wellbeing in their homes, workplaces, schools and local communities. Its vision is a happier world, with fewer people suffering with mental health problems and more people feeling good, functioning well and helping others.
In a work context, AfH suggest that there are three fundamentals to work happiness: Autonomy (employees having choice about their behaviour and actions); Mastery (employees feeling competent to do the job at hand) and Relatedness (employees feeling connected to and cared about by others). The extent to which employers can help to satisfy basic needs will influence how much employees enjoy their work and hence how happy they feel. The happier employees are, the more productive they will be.
There are many other theories around what makes for a happy workplace. For example, recognition for a job well done, participation in social and team building events, variety of work undertaken and access to constructive feedback. Financial incentives and good employee benefits have also been shown to make a real difference, but are only one part of the picture.
Creating a positive, happy working environment is the result of a number of inter-connecting factors.
There is no silver bullet or quick fix solution. The best we can do as employers is to listen to our employees and take all reasonable steps to keep them happy.
Source 2:
https://positivepsychology.com/happiness-at-work/
Source 3:
https://www.actionforhappiness.org/
Brunsdon Financial is not responsible for the content of third party web sites.
