We tend to think of wellbeing as a concept
of positive parts and negative parts and
obviously happiness is on the positive
side,” she explains. “The biggest difference
between happiness and job satisfaction is
that happiness is a rather global thing; it’s
not just about your work, your home life
or your friends – it’s about how you feel
in the world.”
A positive impact
So if happiness is so easily influenced
by different facets of life, is it possible
for workplaces and employers to have a
positive impact on their staff’s happiness?
A survey conducted earlier this year by
Monster.co.uk revealed that often it was
the simpler things offered to individuals
that made them happier in the workplace.
A ‘thank you’ goes a long way,
with 35% of respondents saying they
appreciated recognition from their
employer. Recognition of hard work from
management was also important, with
more than a quarter (26%) of employees
adding that this would make their day
better. A further 21% indicated the
importance of a healthy work-life balance,
saying that leaving work on time would
help improve their mood, while 13% said
simply taking a lunch break would make
them happier.
Reflecting these results, Robertson
Cooper co-founder and professor of
organisational psychology and health
Cary Cooper believes that management
has a key part to play in influencing the
happiness of employees.
“Given the recession that began in 2008,
we need a different kind of manager. You
want managers who manage people by
praise and reward, not by fault finding;
you want managers who are motivating,
rather than doing command and control
with people; and you want managers who
are engaging,” he says. “And being able to
value employees and show recognition –
that’s the kind of manager you need. So
you may have the wrong managers and
that’s a problem.”
While recognition might sound like a
simple thing to implement and is likely
to occur in most workplaces, surprising
findings published in September by
Edenred revealed that just a third (35%)
of employees who received a Christmas
reward in 2012 were thanked by their
manager. And the case for increasing
staff productivity is overwhelming, with
three-quarters of employees (73%) saying
that recognition encouraged them to do
a better job, according to findings from a
Globoforce UK Workforce Mood Tracker.
Cooper adds that often there is too
much focus and monetary spend on work
‘perks’, rather than job satisfaction and
design. “It’s not about putting apples on
everybody’s desk; that doesn’t work. You
can’t trick people like that. You have to
get into substantive issues. So there are
things that you can do that are not actually
monetary benefits which organisations
could deliver to their employees that
would make a difference,” he continues.
Cooper places significant value on nonmonetary
benefits such as flexible working
and share ownership, which can make a
difference to how employees influence the
job they are doing as well as allowing them
to be more engaged in the decision making
that affects their role.
“The kind of benefit you should have is
the right to request flexible working for
everybody. The people who want to work
more flexibly but can’t don’t feel very
happy. Quite a few people still won’t want
to work flexibly, but there will be those that
do because they have care commitments.
If you have the right to request it open for
everybody, not just people with kids, you’re
going to benefit from it,” he adds.
“Of course, there is also giving
employees some share ownership because
then you’re giving them part of the
business. Those are benefits that people
want, and in some cases it’s not so much
monetary as it is about tying them into the
business and giving them some ownership
and giving them more information about
what’s going on in the business.”
But the rhetoric used in terms of
separating “happiness” and “wellbeing”
when setting out a workplace strategy
could affect the outcomes and benefits
provided for staff as a result, says
Happiness Works director Nic Marks.
“There’s a very big difference when you
start using the language of happiness. I
think you can do that with wellbeing, too.
The problem with the word wellbeing –
I’ve been using the world wellbeing for
over a decade – is that it does tend to
get quite physical and then people start
thinking in terms of that,” he explains.
“I think wellbeing goes into a more
policy-oriented arena, where employers