How to find happiness at work

Happiness. Work. They are not two words that traditionally go together. Work is often thought of as a necessary evil, something that would quickly be done away with in the event of a lottery win or coming into an inheritance. However, there is a new wave of science that shows not only is it possible to be happy at work, but being happy at work will actually make you healthier, more creative, more adaptive to change, get promoted quicker and, wait for it, even earn more money. For those employers who can create a happy environment for their staff, it has been shown to actually increase the financial bottom line.

So why does happiness matter so much, why do we care and why now? In a 2012 Harvard Business Review article, Harvard psychology professor and Stumbling on Happiness author, Daniel Gilbert, revealed why happiness has become such a hot topic. “For decades, psychologists and economists have asked who’s happy but until now we’ve been working with pretty blunt tools. Psychologists want to understand what people feel, economists want to know what people value and neuroscientists want to know how people’s brains respond to rewards. Having three separate disciplines all interested in a single topic has put that topic on the scientific map. Papers on happiness are published in Science, people who study happiness win Nobel prizes, and governments all over the world are rushing to figure out how to measure and increase the happiness of their citizens.”

Organisations and bosses all over the world are getting on the bandwagon. So let’s look at what all this means — why do you want a happy workplace, what are the real benefits and how do you create this environment for your business, your workers and, of course, yourself.

Why a happy workplace?

In a time of global economic uncertainty, the world of work has become an increasingly stressful place, with reports showing that employees all over the world are feeling less confidence, motivation, loyalty, resilience, commitment and engagement (source: Jessica Pryce-Jones, The Source).

However, there is another way to operate, even in these tough times, and happiness just might be the key. What many insiders have known for some time is now becoming more widespread knowledge — that research from neuroscience, positive psychology and economics is confirming that the link between a happy, flourishing workforce and improved business performance is crystal clear.

Naomi Simson, founder and CEO of experiential gifting retailer Red Balloon, is well known for her passion around engagement and happiness in the workplace. Explaining why happiness at work matters, she says, “Happy people create an environment for happy customers and ultimately that means great profits. If an employee is happy and highly engaged, they use discretionary effort: the difference in the level of effort one is capable of bringing to an activity or a task versus the effort required only to get by or make do. As an employer, what would you prefer? Happy, engaged employees who go the extra mile? Or the disengaged, only doing enough just to get by?”

Benefits of happiness at work

Happiness at work is a mindset that allows you to maximise your potential. Happiness at work is also strongly correlated with productivity, increased energy, motivation, confidence and recognition. Research conducted by the iOpener Institute for People and Performance involving 9000 people from around the world reveals some incredible findings. Employees who report being happiest at work:

• Stay twice as long in their jobs as their less happy colleagues
• Spend double their time at work focused on what they are paid to do
• Take 10 times less sick leave
• Believe they are achieving their potential twice as much as their less happy colleagues

Jessica Pryce-Jones, who constructed the research, also found that happy people:

• Get promoted more
• Earn more
• Get more support
• Generate better and more creative ideas
• Achieve goals faster
• Interact better with colleagues and bosses
• Receive superior reviews
• Learn more
• Achieve greater success
• Are healthier

It has been reported that workers spend an average of 90,000 hours in a job over a lifetime (Jessica Pryce-Jones, Happiness at Work). That’s a lot of time! So it makes sense that we should find a way to make ourselves happy. And from the recent positive psychology findings, we now know it’s possible.

Happiness at work is not only good for employees. A team of economists at Warwick Business School have reported from their research that happier workers were 12 per cent more productive than their unhappier counterparts. So if bosses out there think this is just a smiley face with no financial return, and that they shouldn’t bother, they might want to think again.

Dr Timothy Sharp from The Happiness Institute has been in the positive psychology arena in Australia long before its formal inception as a “movement” and runs one of the leading practices in the country helping businesses large and small create happy workplaces and more resilient employees. Commenting on what he has seen over the past decade in the realm of happiness at work he says, “The respectability has grown as the validity and reliability of the research has grown, which it has considerably. Now there are a lot of people out there who respect this for what it is and who see this not just as a nice thing to do, bring happiness and or apply positive psychology to the workplace, but as an essential thing if they want to keep their best people, if they want to get the most out of them, if they want to get the best results. This is something they almost have to do or they are missing out. In simple terms, it’s gone from what was almost like a luxury to a necessity.”

For those employers who don’t create positive, engaging environments, the economic implications can be profound. Naomi Simson adds, “Companies with high percentages of disengaged employees show year-to-year declines of 33 per cent in operating income and 11 per cent in earnings per share. Conversely, a disengaged employee can do a lot of damage: Gallup estimates disengaged employees cost Australian businesses $33.5–$42 billion per annum (Q12 Poll 2008). If you factor in the costs of recruiting new people, and an extremely competitive recruitment market, the benefits of retaining happy, highly engaged people are huge.”

The look of a happy workplace

It’s good to understand the research but how does it all come together in a real organisation? Michelle McQuaid, one of the world’s leading experts for positive psychology interventions in the workplace, has had first-hand experience leading a major cultural change initiative in one of the world’s largest organisations, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

So what does happiness at work mean for one of the world’s largest businesses? Michelle observes, “It means bringing out the best in people, how you help people not just feel good about coming to work but be engaged, energised and excited to show up each day. And it’s a two-sided coin. It has to be a happy company and happy people; it can’t just be one or the other. Happy people are more engaged, energised and excited about what they are doing each day and the result of that is that happy companies have to be more productive and profitable in order for it to work, otherwise I think it’s very hard to maintain.”

In her experience of creating happiness at work at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Michelle says, “Around 2007 I was working in New York in a global role for PwC and trying to bring out the best in their people through a culture program that was rolling out around the world. What was clear to me at the time was that the things we were doing just weren’t working. We were trying to energise behaviours that wouldn’t stick and it got me curious about how you actually bring out the best in people and how you help people to embrace the best of themselves in a sustainable way.

“Through my research into positive psychology I found that when we started looking at our employees’ strengths and the opportunity for them to do what they do best each day, when we helped teach them mindsets that were more orientated around learning and growth rather than fear and failure, and when we taught to them how to connect better in their relationships by using tools like appreciative enquiry and active constructive responding, suddenly the behaviours which we found so difficult to change in my global role were spreading like wildfire and it was amazing to watch that roll out now across 6500 people.”

Looking at the opposite end of the business size scale, Rachael Bermingham, bestselling author of the 4 Ingredients series and founder of publishing company Bermingham Books, describes a happy workplace through the CEO lens. “Most importantly, it’s about everyone working in roles that they are not just great within, but are super passionate about. Going to work is more about loving what you do rather than working for the money. Each person at Bermingham Books has a vital role — and we each understand this and work hard to ensure we are doing our best so that everyone else can, too. We are very focused and put in immense effort but at the same time we do have lots of fun; there’s normally loads of smiles and laughs dotted throughout each day. We are lucky — every day is different and we get to work with some of the most inspirational and dynamic authors in the country.”

Your role in creating happiness at work

If you understand the imperative and buy into the research and potential positive outcomes, how do you go about creating a happy workplace if you are an employer, or getting yourself happy as an employee when you turn up for work each day?

Each employer has a unique role in creating a happy workplace and happy workers. Naomi Simson comments, “As the leadership team goes, so does the rest of the organisation. Notice people, love them, value their contribution and make them heroes.” Further commenting on what organisations need to focus on to keep happy employees, she says, “For six consecutive years, ‘stress level’, ‘quality of management’ and ‘lack of feedback and appreciation’ are the aspects of a job that Australians hate the most. If organisations want happy employees, then those are the three areas they need to focus and improve upon.”

If you are an employee, Michelle McQuaid has some clear advice: “The first thing I would do is understand your strengths. I think it’s two out of every 10 employees don’t feel engaged at work and I can’t imagine going to work each day feeling like I didn’t get a chance to do something well. The most common reason for that is that most employees don’t actually understand what it is they do well, so I would jump on the www.viame.org website and take the free strengths-finder test. Look at your character strengths and start having a look each day at how to create just a 10-minute moment in which you could use one of your top five strengths.”

It is not only employers and employees who see the tangible benefits in happy workplaces, either. Some of the biggest winners are clients, who not only see but also feel a tangible difference in engagement when dealing with happy workers. Rachael Bermingham explains, “People feel more from you by what is unsaid rather than what is said. A business is far more productive and profitable when the team is happy and enjoying what they’re doing. When our clients have 100 per cent passionate service from us, and feel our total desire to help and support them, it says loads about us and our business. People love being connected to a business that is exciting. They enjoy and want to do business with passionate, happy and genuine people who make them feel special because they truly do care, not because they’re being paid to care. It’s a massive difference. People are smart — they get that and so do we.”

So just who is happy at work?

A recent study conducted by the National Organization for Research at the University of Chicago discovered what the reported 10 happiest jobs were. You may be surprised by some of the results. The findings showed that the 10 happiest jobs were:

• Clergy
• Fire-fighters
• Physical therapists
• Authors
• Special education teachers
• Teachers
• Artists
• Psychologists
• Financial services sales agents
• Operating engineers

Interestingly, the 10 most hated jobs by the people doing them included roles such as Director of Information Technology, Director of Sales and Marketing, Senior Web Developer and Law Clerk. These roles are much higher in social status and earning capacity, but the research shows they have much lower levels of satisfaction. Todd May, writing in the New York Times, poses a hypothesis for why this is. He states, “A meaningful life must, in some sense, then, feel worthwhile. The person living the life must be engaged by it. A life of commitment to causes that are generally defined as worthy — like feeding and clothing the poor or ministering to the ill — but that do not move the person participating in them will lack meaningfulness in this sense. However, for a life to be meaningful, it must also be worthwhile. Engagement in a life of tiddlywinks does not rise to the level of a meaningful life, no matter how gripped one might be by the game.”

How can you make this work for you?

Dan Buettner, a researcher and bestselling author who studies happiness and longevity, suggests you ask yourself the following questions when you are either evaluating a new job or looking to freshen up your approach to the role you are currently doing:

• How is this work important?
• What can I contribute?
• What excites me?
• How can this work challenge me in an ongoing way?
• Would I do this work even if I didn’t get paid?
• How does this address my passions?
• Would I think about my work even when I’m not working?
• Does this work make me feel proud?
• Can I achieve excellence at this?
• Can I forge a true friendship with the other people who work there?

Dr Tim Sharp also shares his top six tips for getting happy on the job. He recommends the following:

1. Find something you are passionate about and do it.
2. The next best thing is to learn to love what you do, by learning to think about what you do in a different way.
3. Find ways to bring your strengths to what you do, and doing what you do in a different way to utilise your strengths.
4. Have a bit of fun. Play at work is seriously underestimated and it is energising.
5. Focus on relationships, build them, foster them and attend to them. Other people matter, so surround yourself with supportive people.
6. Have goals to work towards which you can achieve and have a sense of accomplishment.

The science is clear. Happy workers mean better outcomes, for people and profits. The question is, as a business or an individual employee, what will you choose to do about it to make yourself and your people happier each day in the workplace? There are endless resources out there but, as a start, take some time to think about the questions posed here and see how you can bring more excitement, challenge, passion and excellence into your day-to-day working life. You might just be surprised at what you come up with.

Happy work resources

If this article has left you wanting more on the topic of happiness at work, here are three resources you can check out:

Read: The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor. This is a fantastic book that summarises the best of business research into why wellbeing and happiness at work matter. It’s an easy read and gives lots of food for thought, whether you are leading teams or thinking about your own career success.

Survey: VIA Signature Strengths. We know from the research into happiness that using your strengths every day, the things you do best, is a way to fast-track your happiness at work. At www.viame.org you can take the free strengths survey and discover what is best about you, and how to put it into practice.

Website: The Happiness Institute. Dr Timothy Sharp, referenced in this article, is the Chief Happiness Officer of The Happiness Institute, Australia’s first organisation devoted solely to enhancing happiness in individuals, families and organisations. The site has a wealth of resources to make you happier at work and at play. You can check it out at www.thehappinessinstitute.com.

Megan Dalla-Camina is a corporate executive, writer, speaker and coach. She is passionate about creating positive change. You can connect with Megan at www.megandallacamina.com, or email megan.dallacamina@gmail.com.