Emotional Intelligence

Why do employers need to improve happiness in their workplace? Most employers are extremely focused and number of metrics within their business most of which include profitability and efficiency across a business. One metric that many employers don’t spend time looking into is the happinessof their employees. This is a focus that can actually have powerful and sustainable benefits to work environment and can drastically affect employee efficiency, profits and the success of a company. Years of the top advantages of an employer doing research into employee morale and taking steps to improve happiness in the workplace. Productivity: while monitoring happiness employers concede an increase of 31% productivity on average and better accuracy in tasks because employees are more interested in supporting the company as well as submitting great work. These statistics come from a meta-study examining 200 different studies conducted on 275,000 people worldwide from a team of psychologists (Lyubomirsky, King, Diener). Less sick days: better morale in the workplace also results in less time lost to sick days and absenteeism. When people are excited to come to work and excited to contribute to a company they are much more likely to show up as well as use less of their vacation time because the work environment is less stressful. This also increases the ability to get employees in for overtime, working on weekends and other extra touches that can really help your company thrive. Less turnover: when it comes to unlocking the most skills of each of your employees you also need to have a low turnover rate. Once you get skilled labor into your company you need to continuously invest time and effort training your employees; otherwise with a likely high  turnaround rate this is time that you are simply investing in people that will be taking that training elsewhere. With more satisfied workers staying at your company they can increase their efficiency, their loyalty, their knowledge and start to go beyond their job requirements to commit themselves to developing your organisation. This is what you want! Donating just 1% of your earnings as a company to a social fund can also help you address low morale in the workplace.

We can all learn a lot from positivity and positive thinking. Psychologist @Barbara Fredrickson believes it is the key to unlocking our potential in the workplace, as well as other parts of our lives. In her book Positivity, she explained the ten most common positive emotions and how to focus on them to live life to the full. These emotions are: love, serenity, forgiveness, awe, joy, interest, hope, pride, amusement and inspiration. She explains how focusing on these positive emotions can help us build skillsfor a happier and healthier life, in every aspect. In fact, she believes positivity is more important than happiness, or is at least the key to it. She believes itrelieves symptoms of stress and depression, boosts good health, broadens the mind and helps build skills and success. This theory can be applied successfully to the workplace. While there may be testing times at work such as feuds with a boss or colleague, feeling overworked or undervalued and general frustration, there is also equal potential to focus on and cultivate positivity. Sometimes these emotions may be hidden and feel harder to recognise and develop. We can all do more to help cultivate our own positivity and flourish through getting better quality sleep, regular exercise, staying social connected, meditating and reducing caffeine. We are all capable of tapping in to our own positivity. Doing so can help us see new possibilities, recover from setbacks and be more successful. What’s more, these emotions can act as a ripple effect which is beneficial in a work environment. Work occupies a large chunk of time in a person’s life and paying attention to positive emotions can combat negativity in the workplace. If you feel stressed or negative at work, the chances are you will bring this home and it can impact negatively on home life and relationships as well. A Harvard Business Review article described how growing research confirms that employment stress can cross over and impair the wellbeing of home life and family members. Fredrickson, a positive psychology pioneer, says that harnessing positivity can transform the way we live and lead richer lives. One of her theories is the ‘broaden and build’ theory. This explains that even though a positive emotion can last for just a short moment, it can have lasting benefits in terms of social bonding and traits and helps human growth and development. For this reason, it is an asset to a workplace to have somebody who is able to take the time to cultivate their positive thinking and mental state.