Soar to Success August 2019

W hen you have engaged employees, you also have employees who are more committed and loyal to your organization. How do you get to engagement? You start with employee happiness. You may be scratching your head right now wondering, why am I responsible for my employees’ level of happiness? The answer is simply because your workplace impacts every area of that teammember’s life – their financial health, their stress level, their relationships, and so on. But there’s one thing that contributes to the happiness level of your staff more than all of the above, and that is autonomy. When employees are empowered to choose what they do and how they do it, it makes them happier. The Art and Science of Happiness when Engaging Employees By Lisa Ryan Autonomy takes onmany forms. Here are a few areas to consider when giving your employees more choice in their job, and ultimately, in their life. 1. Flexibility. Yes, some jobs cannot be done from home. But often, there are opportunities where employees can do theirwork fromhome. Youcanestablish “core hours” when everyone needs to be on site during a specific time frame, but individuals can determine starting and ending times. For example, if your work hours are 7:00 – 3:00, perhaps you can give employees the choice of working those hours or working from 6:30 to 2:30. A little bit of choice can make a big difference.