Measure and Maximize Happiness in your Organizational Culture

Happy employees are produce more than unhappy ones. Creating sustainable performance requires that the organization create an environment that builds social capital that leads people to want to be part of the group and learn from it.  Maximizing human capital requires that the organization create an environment that builds social capital that leads people to want to be part of the group and learn from it.  It also requires the psychological capital that gives people the wherewithal to engage.

The Harvard Business Reivew (January-February 2012) dedicated a series of articles to the subject of happiness at work.  Happiness leads employees to thrive at work and engage a level of vitality and learning.

Leadership Praxis puts the research on happiness to work for your organization. The iOpener Assessment available from Leadership Praxis is a validated and reliable tool by which to measure the social and psychological capital experienced by employees in an organization.

Measure Happiness

Happiness at work allows individuals to leverage their experiences regardless of whether they are positive or negative (high or low) to achieve their full potential at work.  The theory behind this assessment model is rooted in positive psychology that builds on four ideas:

  1. You are responsible for your own level of happiness
  2. You have more room to maneuver than you think
  3. You always have a choice
  4. Self-awareness is the first step 

Five Critical Factors

The iOpener Assessment reliably measures five factors that define happiness.  These factors include items typically included in human capital studies (employee engagement or job satisfaction). However the data collected via iOpener studies indicates that such things as employee engagement relates to 10 percent fewer items than happiness does.  The bottom line is that people who are happy at work are 108% more engaged than their unhappy colleagues, love their job 79% more and achieve their goals 30% more often. Happy people reduce the costs of turnover, sick days, work slowdowns and absenteeism by as much as 50%.  The five factors that define happiness are:

  • Contribution: is about the effort an employee makes and their perception of this effort.
  • Conviction: is about the motivation employees have whatever their circumstance.
  • Culture: is about how well employees feel they fit at work.
  • Commitment: is about the extent to which employees are engaged with their work.
  • Confidence: is about the sense of belief employees have in themselves and their job.

In addition to measuring these five critical factors iOpener studies also found that these factors are supported by pride, trust and recognition. Where one has pride in their work and feel they are safe in taking risks at work without the fear of a hidden agenda and where work recognizes their efforts the stage is set for employees to arise to new levels of productivity, creativity and effort.  Conversely when these critical cultural components are missing productivity and engagement plummets.

Now What?

Leadership Praxis doesn't just assess and go.  Each engagement includes a follow-up session in which individuals or organizations evaluate their situation and design strategies needed to address those factors that provide the greatest leverage toward improvement.  A full complement of training curriculum is also available geared toward enhancing both the understanding of the five critical factors and transfering the skills needed to ensure these factors are reinforced in the work place.

In addition to our training curriculum Leadership Praxis offers coaching to reinforce what has been learned.  Without continuous practice new skills quickly degenerate into old (and usually ineffective) habits.