Employee happiness: it’s about much more than just the employees. As a leader, you’re in the ideal position to help promote employee happiness and ensure that the people who work within your company are better positioned to enjoy the benefits of happiness in the workplace. Leaders help set the mood for the entire workplace. Not only are you in a better position to make policy changes for the good of your employees, from allowing flexibility in their work schedule to offering benefits that can help make employees happier, you’re ideally positioned to help set the tone for each day at work. Have you been promoting happiness in your workplace? If not, you’re missing out on a number of advantages.
1. Happy Employees are More Productive
Employees who are happy are more likely to accomplish their work goals. They’re more focused, and therefore more productive. On average, happy employees have a 20% higher productivity rate than employees who are disengaged or unhappy at work. If you have a team of five employees, encouraging a happy workplace could mean that you need one fewer employee to accomplish the same workload every week. Salespeople experience an even greater jump in productivity: they may see as much as 37% more sales when they’re happy in their workplace.
2. Happy Employees Increase Creativity
In many industries, creativity is vital to accomplishing daily tasks, increasing innovation, and improving the company as a whole. Creativity can be the difference that keeps a company moving smoothly. Not only are happy employees more confident, which puts them in a better position to suggest changes or let their creative sides fly, their brains are able to function at higher levels of efficiency, producing more creative solutions to problems or allowing them to produce more creative content. If your employees aren’t happy, on the other hand, they may struggle to engage with the challenges in front of them or fail to produce the high-level creative content that you need for your business.
3. Happy Employees Work Better Together
Many of today’s jobs require high levels of teamwork in order to work efficiently and effectively. Happy employees are less likely to bring personal conflict into those collaborative efforts, allowing them to work more effectively together as a team. When employees are happy, they’re more likely to take the little irritations of working closely with another person in stride, rather than blowing them up into something bigger than they are. Happy employees may even be less likely to worry about who will get the credit for a particular project or idea, since in a positive work culture, everyone is more likely to work together to achieve their goals. Unhappy employees, on the other hand, may bicker, snap, and struggle to accomplish their goals as a team, even when presented with incentive.
4. Happy Employees are More Likely to Stay With Your Company
In most companies, employees aren’t easy to replace. The cost of replacing an employee may start at around 20% of their annual salary, leaving many employers struggling to deal with low employee retention rates. Not only do you lose the employee and the time necessary to find and train a replacement, you also lose their knowledge and expertise. Companies with high turnover rates may also struggle to attract high-level talent in their fields as job seekers learn that this isn’t an environment where they want to work. In companies where employees are happy, on the other hand, employee retention is often higher. Employees don’t go looking for another job because they’re comfortable in their current positions and often willing to sacrifice other advantages, including higher salary or better benefits, to keep that position.
5. Happy Employees Offer Better Customer Service
Your customers are one of the most important parts of your business. If customers aren’t happy, they’re unlikely to stick with your business or return to it for their future needs in your industry. Unhappy employees, however, often lead to unhappy customers. Employees who aren’t happy in their jobs may not care about customer service, and they’re certainly less likely to go out of their way for a customer. Happy employees, on the other hand, tend to want to make others happy along with them. They’ll put in the extra effort needed to make customers happy, and they’ll support the company and be eager to show customers what it can accomplish, rather than remaining unaffected by a customer’s story or needs.
6. Happy Employees May Increase Profits
Happy employees don’t just make a better work environment. They may actually make a better company. The Forbes list of “100 Best Places to Work” revealed a 14% increase in profits between 1998 and 2005, while companies that didn’t make the list only saw around a 6% increase in profits. Happy employees simply do more for the businesses where they work–and when the company sees increased profits, everyone benefits.
Leadership and Happiness
As a leader, you are in the prime position to help increase happiness throughout your workplace. There are several strategies you can use to promote employee happiness, including:
Flexibility. That may mean offering employees more opportunities or being open to new ideas.
Communication. Happy employees know who they report to, and there’s an open door that will allow them to share their problems, talk about challenges, and improve productivity.
Conflict management. Everyone in your workplace isn’t going to get along all the time. As a leader, it’s critical that you know how to manage conflict to improve overall employee happiness.
Building relationships. Many employees simply work better in relationship with their coworkers–and building those relationships is part of a leader’s job.
Taking ownership. A top-down approach to employee happiness is one of the most effective ways to change the attitudes and perceptions throughout your workplace.
Are you ready to start transforming your workplace culture to make happier employees? Whether you’re struggling with that change or simply want more tools at your disposal as you make that vital shift, contact us today to learn more about our leadership training classes and how they can help you make happier employees across your company.
Motivational Quotes
Reading a positive motivational quote each morning is a great way to start the work day. It helps us stay energized and ready to inspire all those around us.
