Installing a ping pong table, organizing a free week or working hybrid may seem like perfect options to increase work happiness. Unfortunately, it's not that easy. Most employees therefore get more pleasure and satisfaction from their work in other ways. That is why in this article we will delve deeper into the question: how can you increase work happiness within your organization or company?
In our article ' What is work happiness? ” we have given a crystal clear definition of work happiness. We have also shown that happiness at work goes beyond the boundaries of the office. In fact, there is no proper separation between work and private life. This leads to less satisfaction at work, often leading to tensions in the private sphere. This makes it even more important to increase work happiness within your organization. As an employer you get a lot in return. Happy employees perform better and are often happy people.
Increasing work happiness is often easier said than done, because how exactly do you measure work happiness? There are several ways to measure work happiness within an organization. We list the most common measurement methods.
An employee satisfaction survey is one of the most common ways to assess work happiness. But what exactly do you learn from this as a manager or entrepreneur? It is often a snapshot and employees usually do not complete these types of surveys completely honestly, because they are afraid of repercussions.
An employee satisfaction survey generally does not contain enough questions to really get a good picture of the problems employees encounter. Most employee satisfaction surveys also lack the depth to really uncover what is wrong with work happiness.
Finally, more often than not you see that organizations do not take (constructive) action to improve the work happiness score. It often looks more like fulfilling a social obligation, whereby the report disappears into the closet.
Conclusion: many employee satisfaction surveys give a distorted picture of work happiness as experienced by employees, or they are used for social washing.
Conducting 1-on-1 conversations with managers seems to be a better way than completing a simple employee satisfaction survey, but this solution is also not ideal. Employees often do not feel complete freedom to say what they really experience or would like to communicate in a 1-on-1 conversation with their manager.
Here too, employees fear repercussions if they express their opinions freely. In addition, there is a risk that managers -even though it is destructive to increasing work happiness - will ultimately use this type of conversation against their employees.
For years, Menco Erenst guided management in developing their strategy. Improving the work happiness score, as well as facilitating a good work-life balance for employees, was experienced as a difficult task. And that is not surprising, when you consider that work happiness is directly related to leadership issues, organizational development and personal growth of employees. That is why Menco has created an innovative app for increasing work happiness. Result: an integrated work happiness formula that closes the gap between leadership, organizational development and personal growth.
JobAligner brings the best of both worlds together. For example, employees and managers answer questions about work happiness in the app every week. Just answering these questions leads to more awareness. And increased awareness ensures greater work happiness! But just as important: the answers to the work happiness questions are analyzed in depth.The most important points for improvement are presented to management and an implementation plan is subsequently drawn up. After this, it is only a matter of time before the work happiness boosters are put into practice. This is motivating for the employees because they see that something is really being done with their answers and ideas.
The client therefore receives his own app, in which both quantitative and qualitative work happiness questions are answered every week. The happiness at work app also contains reliable statistics, areas for improvement and leadership programs. And there is more than that! This also gives the client access to their own community in their app. Positive messages are shared with employees every week through this community. And similar to other social media apps, employees can respond to this. This is super motivating and it strengthens the sense of belonging. In this way, employees connect even more with the organization they work for. They simply like it and it looks cool.
In short: the happiness at work app offers a safe environment for improving individual happiness at work and life. Result: as an employer you get better-performing and happier employees!
In addition to completing questionnaires, having conversations and creating a sense of togetherness, there are other ways in which you can increase work happiness within your organization. We list four of the most common ways. We call these work happiness boosters, or methods that ensure that employees experience more work happiness.
Employees primarily make an effort to get satisfaction from their work. Satisfaction can be gained from work in several ways. Satisfaction and contentment are often experienced when both the employee and the employer are on the same page. This ensures coordination between the employee's personal goal and the employer's goal. If this is not the case at all, it is often difficult to become a happy employee. In situations like this, it may be better for everyone to part ways here.
Precisely for this reason it is important that organizations clearly communicate what they stand for. What does the corporate culture look like, what is the company's mission and vision? What are the core values…et cetera? An employer would be wise to consider these matters during job interviews. To find out whether there is a first match.
It is for the above reasons that JobAligner has included the DNA feature in the App. In this DNA section, the employer can include: mission, vision, corporate culture, company rules, testimonials, etc. In this way, every employee can easily connect and identify with the employer's most important ideas.
Most employees are not happy with a work perspective that does not change. It is therefore very important to stimulate employees' work happiness by drawing their attention to their personal career opportunities. According to statistics from Statistics Netherlands, 1 in 3 Dutch people stay with the same employer for more than 10 years . That's a significant period of one's professional career. It's therefore nice if someone starts in a company's customer service department at the age of 20, there is already a clear career path to becoming a customer service manager, or even the head of an operation. This gives employees a goal to strive for and employees also show more effort when they know that they will ultimately be rewarded for it.
One of the most important factors for increasing work happiness is facilitating a good work-life balance for your employees. Having fun in your life is the top priority. Health is considered the most important factor for a happy life. As an employer, don't just look at happiness in the workplace, but also at someone's private life. The situation at home has a huge impact on someone's work performance. What can you best do as an employer to contribute to a good work-life balance for your employees? It is not easy, but as an employer it is best to identify private challenges and offer resources.
The nature of the work happiness questions that JobAligner asks ensures maximum output of relevant content that can be directly related to the work-life balance of employees. In this way we contribute to identifying private challenges.
Recognition is also a good way to increase the happiness of your employees. If employees are committed, it is nice if they are regularly rewarded for this. Of course, this does not have to be done immediately through a promotion or raise. Sometimes a few sincere positive words from a manager are enough to make someone's day. It is precisely for this reason that it is very important that you, as an employer, give a compliment to your employees every now and then. This creates a better feeling for the employee and a happy employee is a better employee. And this is exactly what JobAligner is committed to, namely: a happy and high-performing team!
There are several ways to improve the atmosphere in the workplace and most of them have nothing to do with drinks and ping-pong tables, as fantastic as that sounds. An open and honest culture helps the most with improving the atmosphere in the workplace. In addition, an app such as JobAligner helps a lot in improving the atmosphere in the workplace. Our work happiness formula is tailor-made to ensure that the work happiness of your employees is increased.
Which things make an employee happiest? Some of the most important factors are: a sense of recognition, a good work-life balance, career opportunities and alignment with the company's mission, vision and culture.
Very important. A happy employee who enjoys his or her work feels better about himself and therefore performs much better at work. Employee enjoyment can be promoted in various ways, which increases work happiness.
You can measure and increase work happiness in various ways.
For a valid measurement of work happiness itis important that:
Finally, we consider methods to increase work happiness. First of all: there are many methods to increase work happiness, we will only mention the most relevant ones here.
JobAligner has a clear vision about measuring and increasing work happiness. To learn more or see a demo, click below!
