When 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 team member’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.
Autonomy takes on many forms. Here are a few areas to consider when giving your employees more choice in their job, and ultimately, in their life.
- Flexibility. Yes, some jobs cannot be done from home. But often, there are opportunities where employees can do their work from home. You can establish “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.
- Being heard. Most employees know their jobs better than you know their jobs. When they come to you with ideas for doing things differently, listen to them. Your staff may see things that you don’t see. When you’re in the “we’ve always done it this way mentality,” there’s no room for growth. You don’t have to act on each idea and suggestion that you hear, but you do need to let your employees know that you are listening to them.
- Feeling valued. Leaders can make a significant impact on their staff’s happiness by recognizing the excellent work that employees do. A study by Marcial Losada found that high performing teams ran on a 6:1 positivity ratio. This ratio means that for every one negative comment team members received, they heard six positive remarks. On an average performing team, the number drop to a 3:1 positivity ratio. At 3:1, there is an even balance. Employees do just enough work to get by, nothing more. On a low performing team, the ratio fell to a dismal .3:1. That means that employees on a low performing team hear three times more negatives than positives. You may not necessarily get to 6:1 right off the bat, but the closer you can get to that ratio, the better the results in an increase in employee happiness.
When you give your employees the flexibility to do their jobs in the way they see fit, you listen to their ideas, and you recognize the excellent work that they do, you create the foundation for your employees’ happiness in your workplace.
