Using happiness to boost productivity

Studies show that happy workers are better workers. Employers can see workers become more productive and engaged when they’re content at work.

Learning and development expert Jade Green has gone a step further with her claim, saying that happiness is actually the number one way to get the most out of workers and the business as a whole.

“I say happiness is the greatest hack to productivity and profitability. The science behind it is, when we are ruminating and on the past and stuck in depressive thoughts, or we’re raced off in anxiety, learn towards the future,” said Ms Green.

“How can we give our best work here in the now and in the present? If we look at what happiness really is, it’s the ability to be in the present moment. The state of happiness doesn’t happen when you’re in freakout about the future, or rumination about the past. So, the reason why I say happiness is the greatest hack is because when we’re happy, we can be present moment, when we’re present moment, we can do our best work, we can get into flow state, we can be productive, we can be creative.”

Providing a safe space for employees is key to ensuring happiness, said Ms Green. Promoting psychological safety is extremely important as you want staff to be comfortable enough to share ideas and drive innovation.

Ms Green continued: “We can’t be happy if we don’t feel safe, either. And if we don’t feel safe, we’re not going to have a baseline of safe psychological safety. How are you going to take risks? How are you going to problem solve? How are you going to be vulnerable and put yourself out there and to push the limits and to feel like you want to challenge?”

Psychological safety was coined by Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson in 1999. She defined it as “a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking”.

Keeping employees happy is key to this, as studies show that workers who are happy are more loyal to the company they work for. Furthermore, happy employees are more creative, which is the foundation of psychological safety as it drives innovation.

Jack Campbell

Jack is the editor at HR Leader.