A job, by definition, is not necessarily fun, or enjoyable either. Work is hard. Dealing with work stresses day in and day out is exhausting. However, there are many benefits for companies to reap from creating and maintaining a happy workplace for their employees.
Many of the top performing companies in the world today have learned along the way that encouraging and fostering a happy, fun and inspiring workplace offers several key benefits to their organisations.
Benefits of a happy workplace include;
- Happiness has a multiplying effect
- Happy employees have the right attitude
- Happiness increases productivity
- Happiness encourages risk-taking
- Happy employees support each other
- Happy employees are not afraid to make mistakes
- Happy employees make less mistakes
- Happiness inspires creativity
- People like to work with happy people
- Happy employees work better with others
- Happy people fix problems instead of complaining
- Happy employees get sick less often
- Happy employees make better decisions
- Happy employees learn faster
Here’s these benefits of a happy workplace explained in more detail.
Happiness has a multiplying effect
Happiness is contagious and, when encouraged, can spread throughout an entire company.
Employees who take joy in their work make excellent role models for their fellow workers and encourage them to also take joy in their work and this the kind of leadership your organisation needs.
Happy employees have the right attitude
Having dull or unhappy employees can lead to them harbouring a negative attitude that can gradually show through their work and suppress job performance and creativity.
Happy employees, on the other hand, who have a positive attitude are more likely to succeed at their general work assignments and perform duties beyond expectations.
Happiness increases productivity
Stressed-out employees are distracted employees. This can have a devastating effect on productivity.
Eliminating stress and worry can lead to an instant productivity boost. Happy employees find it easier to concentrate on their tasks for longer periods of time than unhappy employees.
Happiness encourages risk-taking
Business is not about playing it safe – you know you gotta risk it to get the biscuit. Succeeding in business requires taking the right risk at the right times.
Happy employees are more likely to take the calculated risks your company needs to leap forward, while unhappy employees are more likely to play it safe because they are too scared to risk anything.
Happy employees support each other
Engaged employees who have a positive work mindset are more eager to help and aid their fellow staff members and to participate in collective projects.
Happy employees are also more likely to quickly ask for help and/or clarification and this the ideal attitude you need your team members to have.
Happy employees are not afraid to make mistakes
Your team is more likely to learn from their mistakes rather than fear them. Mistakes can be a significant learning tool that can lead to unpredicted breakthroughs. Employees who are scared to make mistakes will fail to recognise key learning opportunities.
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Happy employees make less mistakes
By worrying less about making mistakes happy people actually end up making less mistakes. When you’re happy at work the once-in-a-while mistake doesn’t rattle you up a lot. You recover, pick your lessons from it and continue forward.
You also don’t mind admitting to others that you screwed up and simply take responsibility, apologise and fix it. Maintaining such a relaxed or laid-back attitude means that careless errors are less likely to occur, and that you’re more likely to learn from them.
Happiness inspires creativity
Innovation is the lifeblood of any business, and happy employees are inspired, creative employees who will create the solutions your business needs to succeed. If your productivity depends on being able to come up with new ideas, you need to create and maintain a happy workplace for your employees.
If people are in a good mood on a given day, they are more likely to have creative ideas that day, as well as the next day, even if we take into account their mood that next day. There seems to be a cognitive process that gets set up when people are feeling good that leads to more flexible, fluent, and original thinking, and there’s actually a carryover, an incubation effect, to the next day.
People like to work with happy people
Happy workers are more keen to co-operate in order to achieve shared goals, more likely to foster company loyalty, and more likely to encourage the effective team bonding that is important to your company’s prosperity.
Happy employees also improve your employer brand, attracting more talent to your company.
Happy employees work better with others
Nobody wants to work with a sulker. People naturally enjoy being around happy people, both in and out of the workplace, and this often translates into more effective teamwork, smoother manager-employee interactions, and better customer experience which produces more sales.
Happy people fix problems instead of complaining
When you dislike your job, it becomes difficult to fix any problem without fussing over it or complaining endlessly about it.
When you’re happy at work and you run into a problem, however major, solutions are quick and problems are easy to resolve, hence keeping the workflow moving instead of stalling the entire process.
Happy employees get sick less often
Falling ill is gets in the way of your productivity and if you are not happy with your job you’re susceptible to catching illnesses such as ulcers, cancer and diabetes.
You also become more vulnerable to work related conditions like fatigue, stress and burnout. This is another important reason why it’s important to maintain a happy atmosphere in the workplace.
Happy employees make better decisions
Unhappy people are always operating from a mindset of crisis and disaster. Their choices are mainly driven by fight-or-flight survival instincts so they often fail to keep the big picture in mind.
On the other hand, happy people are able to stay calm and make better, more informed decisions and are better able to focus on what’s important even in the face of crisis and disaster.
Happy employees learn faster
When you’re happy and relaxed, you’re much more open to learning new things on the job and thereby raising your effectiveness at it.
If you are happy, you will be curious about whatever you come across and this is the mindset you need your employees to have in this modern setting that requires constant learning.
In Summary
Happy employees show more loyalty and this is what it takes to become an exceptional company like Google and Apple. You therefore need to pick a leaf from them: create and maintain a happy workplace so that your employees are always inspired to perform.
