Increasing Happiness in the Workplace – Happiness is an extremely underrated metric to track within the workplace. The importance of tracking productivity, motivation, and even satisfaction is well-known already, with motivated employees providing a higher quality of work and generally keeping turnover figures low.
But the tides are turning slowly, as the impacts of failure to track employee happiness make themselves increasingly known across all industries in the UK. According to a recent report undertaken by instantprint, there is a growing appetite for change amongst the UK’s workforce. This is partially reflected in Google search trends for terms such as ‘how to quit my job and ‘jobs near me’ – the former of which saw a 22% spike in the last year, and the latter of which increased by nearly half.
The Happiest Places to Work in the UK
There are numerous factors at play when it comes to an employee evaluating their happiness in a given role or position. The place has some part to play in this, as evidenced by further research on the part of instantprint. UK workers were surveyed concerning their happiness in a role, and the results were sorted by city – giving a clear picture of professional mood for geographic location.
The clear leader of the pack was Manchester, as 27% of surveyed employees rated their work satisfaction at the highest possible level. This survey data was coupled with information on population size and average pay, providing a positive picture of the North-West ‘second capital’. Central London and Oxford were close behind, though, with higher average pay and near-equivalent job happiness performance in the survey.
Engendering Happiness in Your Workplace
Of course, managing worker happiness in your place is a much more complicated endeavour than moving to Manchester. There are many different things you can do to achieve higher employee happiness, from the little things to major overhauls of business perks and employment agreements.
First and foremost, businesses are primarily losing staff as a result of working agreements. Flexible and hybrid working is more popular than ever, and businesses failing to offer it are haemorrhaging workers as a result. Instituting remote working capabilities demonstrates faith and trust, and returns precious time to workers.
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Playing to the strengths of your staff can also ingratiate them further in your business. Members of your team may have extra-professional skills in creative practice; utilising them for projects such as banner design or consultation on new branding could help make your staff feel more invaluable.
Lastly, there is much to be said about the fostering of a positive work environment. Often, it is the social aspect of a role that makes it appealing; by doing your best to cultivate a positive office culture, you can ensure workers enjoy showing up each day. Start with providing more social spaces, and shore it up with positive reinforcements in the form of daily recognition.
