‘Do you want to keep them?’: The importance of employee happiness

All employers should strive to keep their staff happy and workplace cultures healthy. This can make the difference between an efficient workplace and an inefficient one.

People and culture expert Jade Green said employee happiness should be the number one consideration for leaders: “Do you want to keep them, or do you want them to go? Do you want them to do a good job or an average job?”

Ms Green continued: “I believe that how you do one thing is how you do everything. And it’s imperative that we look at the human that’s sitting in our businesses as a human. Otherwise, why would they go above and beyond for you? Why would they focus? Why would they stay at the task at hand?”

Keeping staff happy in the present is important in reducing anxiety and ultimately getting the best work out of them, said Ms Green.

“If we think about it, the state of happiness, you can’t be happy if you’re not present in the now,” she explained.

“We know if our people are happy, content, they are not ruminating about the past and dwelling on what was happening before, and their brain hasn’t rushed off into anxiety land, about what’s going to happen in the future … they’re actually able to get into the zone. And how else are they going to do the best work for you if they’re not in the zone?”

Figuring out how to keep staff happy and engaged can be achieved through a simple conversation. Talking to employees on a personal level and letting them know you’re there for support can make all the difference.

“Talk to them. Actually to them, individually, like you care, with real connection. If we actually take the time, instead of sitting down and doing one-on-ones, which are just performance reviews,” Ms Green said.

“If we actually stopped and said to the person, ‘How are you doing? How are your energy levels? What’s going on for you? What keeps you up at night? What stresses you out? What are your goals? Where are you going? Why do you do this job?’”

Speaking to people and understanding their issues not only gives the individual peace of mind but can also give leaders the information of whether they’re planning to move on.

Ms Green commented: “Aren’t you better off knowing well in advance if someone’s going to bounce on you, or already swiping looking for other jobs and got one foot out the door and quietly quitting? Wouldn’t it be better for you to have that knowledge in advance so you can start working with them, or potentially start serving their needs so you can re-engage them and get them back into productivity, rather than one foot out the door?”

In order to gauge happiness, Ms Green said that employers need to be aware that every person is different, and they’re after different things.

“We’re different people. So, there isn’t a broad-brush stroke of what drives each person,” she said.

“We know as a human race that we crave connection, and we crave significance, but you may need to look at for your different generations, for your different types of people, for your introverted people versus your extroverted, what does connection look like?”

The transcript of this podcast episode, when quoted above, was slightly edited for publishing purposes. The full audio conversation with Jade Green on 18 April is below, and the original podcast article can be found here.