In recent years, there has been an definite increase in the awareness of the importance of encouraging happiness in people as this would help improve the quality of life at work and at home. In the workplace, it is evident that happy employees would certainly help increase the productivity of work performance.
How do we enhance happiness in employees?
Management research has shown that employees’ happiness depends on two important requirements. First, the employee has to experience a feeling of being significant in his work. Significance at work implies the employee perceive that his work has importance and that he adds value to others in his work.
Secondly, the employee’s happiness depends on his perception that he has a sense of belonging. This sense of belonging is obtained when the employee gets a sense of belonging from his manager and his team members. The sense of belonging is further enhanced when the employee feels accepted by others.
Once we appreciate the importance of helping employees to experience a sense of significance and belonging while at work, an organization can implement certain steps which can enhance the level of happiness in the employees. An important step in helping employees feel significant at work would mean that managers need to help employees get a sense of achievement when they successfully complete an assigned task. And that this successful achievement adds value to the team and to the organization.
Another important step and organization can take to enhance employees’ happiness is to encourage a sense of interdependence among team members as a means of cultivating a sense of belonging as well as promoting acceptance of one another in the team. This will most certainly contribute in helping to impart a sense of security among employees.
In the final analysis, it is imperative that an organization makes serious attempts to cultivate a work culture where employees will feel significant and secure as this will result in better productivity for the organization.
