Employers must create feeling of happiness

Do you care if your employees are happy?

You should! It is common sense that happy employees perform better than disgruntled ones. At least to me, but to confirm this impression, I decided to query numerous executives across the region. When I asked them, if it was important for their employees to be happy, without exception, they all gave me a look that the answer was obvious — of course, it mattered.

But this left me confused. Business leaders intuitively imply that it is vital for their employees to be happy, yet most organisations are not run in a happy way. For sure, there are a lot of unhappy employees. In reality employee morale is at the lowest point it has been in years.

According to Fast Company, it sounds a bit touchy-feely that one of the leading business schools — Stanford University is offering a happiness class to future masters of the universe. Yet, last fall, 80 of these type-A students signed up for a graduate-level course called "Designing Happiness" — with another 100 clamouring to get in.

Fuzzy concept

The work of happiness is gaining attention not just in academia but also in corporate America with AOL, Adobe, Facebook, and other leading companies figuring out how to use happiness to increase employees' productivity and woo customers.

Instilling happiness is one of the few ways businesses still appeal to employees in a manner that feels authentic in today's work environment. The idea of companies enabling employee happiness is powerful.

Since happiness is a very fuzzy concept and can mean many things to many people, what does it mean in the work of an employee?

It is about positive emotions, helping them live a good life. It can be simplistically defined as employees having a good day at work so when they walk away they feel positive about the day and are looking forward to returning to work the next day.

Studies have found that things like money, education, or the weather do not affect happiness the way one might expect. Psychologist Martin Seligman provides the acronym PERMA to summarise when humans seem happiest — when they have Pleasure (tasty foods, fulfilling exercise, etc.), Engagement (aka Flow, an enjoyed yet challenging activity), Relationships (social ties), Meaning (belonging to something bigger), and finally Accomplishments (having realised tangible goals).

Happiness at work matters mostly as employees spend more hours at work than at home.

So, how can leaders help employees find happiness, keep it, and use it as a resource?

Firstly, leaders should learn what makes your employees happy. This is the most obvious step but is typically overlooked due to competing priorities. One approach is to take a mental picture each day of what makes your employees happy and then rate each moment on a scale of 1 to 10 to quantify your perception of their feelings.

Soon, patterns will emerge that you can use to create happiness in the workplace. Recognising the nuances is necessary for corporations that should be trying to appeal to employees' emotions.

Another action is for leaders to create collective memories in the workplace.

Perhaps, we should start with ourselves, answering what makes us happy. If companies can leverage this to create nostalgia they can create a feeling of happiness. You want employee's to have the type of experience that they can talk about on Facebook (positively).

Employees want more from work than simply putting in the hours, possibly achieving a result and collecting a check. They want to be happy!

The writer is Vice-President of Leadership Solutions at Kenexa.