Why Should You Care About Workplace Happiness?
Business owners: What if I told you that the old ways of managing your team were all wrong and even toxic, and that making some simple changes to your work culture could boost productivity, attract and retain valuable employees AND make you excited to work in your own business?
Employees, Managers, and HR Leadership: What if I told you that we are NOT supposed to hate our jobs, that there are workplaces out there that care about your well being, and that bosses who value your worth as a team member are not harder to find than a unicorn?
As Americans, we spend about 90,000 hours working in our lifetime. That’s over ten years straight if we worked 24 hours/day. When you couple that with the fact that 68% of people in the U.S are disengaged at work it makes you wonder: why are we spending the most time doing something we don’t like? And why do we find this acceptable?
The time has come to shake up the current work culture and do away with old ways of thinking that do not serve us as employees OR business owners.
Work does NOT have to make us miserable. Caring about our team members does NOT make us weak or vulnerable to an office full of non-productive employees. In fact, the OPPOSITE is true.
Why should you care about workplace happiness? If you are a business owner, the short answer is: your business depends on it. Chew on these statistics for a minute:
In an average 8 hour work day, Americans spend only about 4 hours of the day actually working. Some of that wasted time is spent looking for another job! (source: Scoro study)
Happy employees are 12% MORE productive while unhappy employees are 10% LESS productive.
Financial incentives are not enough to make for highly productive employees.
80% of employees are motivated to work harder when they feel appreciated. (source: huffpost)
Not to mention, high turnover rates are COSTING YOU MONEY (about 6-9 months of the annual salary of the person being replaced. What the WHAT!)
I could go on and on with statistics and studies that say the same thing: we are miserable at work, even though there is proof that we would be more productive if we felt happy and valued. Science proves that it’s good for business when you genuinely CARE about your team and show them with praise and other non-monetary benefits.
Science isn’t the only proof. Here’s a snippet from my story…
When I decided to quit my miserable job of 2 years, I felt the happiness quickly seeping back into my body. Even though I was happy because I was leaving, suddenly I cared more about doing my job on that last day, becoming more engaged in the company’s plans for the future and almost second guessing my decision to leave. I also received more praise from my boss on the day I quit than I had in the previous 2 years combined, which also made me second guess my decision (spoiler alert- I didn’t change my mind). I have no doubt that I would have grown into my full potential at that job had I been happy and felt valued.
My experience proved everything I had been reading about to be true: happiness at work DOES matter. I know, SO META.
Business owners:
Do you want to attract and retain talent?
Do you want your customers to have an amazing experience working with you?
Do you want your business to grow and be sustainable?
…then the well being of your team should be a priority. Even if you feel like your existing work culture would get a passing grade, there is always room for improvement.
You’re happier. Your team is happier. Your business does better. Everybody wins.
Simple. And science proves it.
Simple, but sometimes it’s hard to see the issues from the inside and implement changes that will successfully transition your work culture from traditional to AH-MAZING.
How can you start creating your dream work culture and get excited about working in your business again?
Learn more about working with me and see how we can get you get there!