HR in Hospitality event Blog: Esther O’Halloran, Chair HR in Hospitality, 14 January 2021
Zoom Event Hosted by Klaudia Mitura, work psychologist, learning & development specialist & co-host of a podcast called &Happiness with Kitty Newman, Director of Trapeze Media
A study by University of Warwick found that happier employees are 12% more productive while unhappy employees are 10% less productive. In the current challenging times, asking people professionals to consider happiness and job fulfilment in the workplace might feel like a huge stretch. Contrary to our intuition, those who are happy at work are exactly the employees that during these unprecedented times are able to reinvigorate and grow our business.
What is happiness at work? – many times it has been misjudged as a ‘flat’ concept but it can be a predictor and real measure of the growth and wealth of the organisation. A great model developed by Daniel Pink identified 3 key elements of motivation:
Additional studies have since highlighted 2 other factors that influence happiness at work……
It is reflecting on these motivators or drivers of happiness that can you ensure people have that strong sense of wellbeing and maintain connections. Think about how you can ensure that the smallest tasks people are doing are connected to the bigger purpose of the organisation and what is currently important to them and to you.
A note on positive psychology
John Lennon was once asked by a teacher “What do you want to be when you grow up?” His answer was “I want to be happy”, his teacher thought he had misunderstood the question, but he had not he simply wanted to be happy. Think about your desires and what is driving you to succeed, when will you be happy, is it when you get that next pay rise? Positive psychology research proves when we are happy we are able to be more successful, happiness is the fuel we need behind career success and therefore behind our organisational success.
Miserable People do Miserable Work - happiness is important to business results and there have been many studies that provide empirical evidence to demonstrate the direct impact. These figures are from Friday Pulse happiness index and show that happiness is an important metric…..
We know that being happy leads to improvements in…
Productivity, relationships, resilience, sharing good fortune and promotion. Did you know that you are 40% more likely to be promoted if you are happy and this has direct links to the different aspects of relationship building. How is this possible you may ask! Is it a magic formula? It is linked with the idea our brain works and performs better when we are happy it is all about ‘dopamine’ or the feel good hormones released when we are happy and our cognitive ability and awareness is being boosted by happiness.
Help Employees to find their Purpose and sense of Belonging….
Create happy communications
Ensure everything starts with the idea of starting conversations about happiness – listen to what is going on in your teams, what are they saying, talking about or worrying about. In the digital world it makes it very ‘possible’ but not always easy to communicate frequently. We understand in hospitality we are very social and love to connect with our teams and guests, but we have had to adapt how we communicate at the moment. How you choose to communicate can affect your happiness and that of your teams. Are the tools your using making a positive impact and difference (reflect and think about this). When you are about to send out some comms it may sometimes feel a bit like being the first person at the disco…. All alone…. But you are not dancing on your own when you put something out there people will see it, read it or listen to it.
There is a PATH to happy communications
P = Play – be playful on line, run little games, keep upbeat, enthusiastic, gameification, whatever format you are using you can ask questions play games and tap into positivity
A = Acceptance, does using social media come naturally to you, maybe pause for a moment and reconnect with your purpose in your message before you send it as this gives you a sense of control.
T = Time – when creating any social comms give yourself the power back and do not let yourself be led by those ‘pings’ popping up and reminding you of messages coming in to distract you, manage and control your time. Decide on the task to be completed (or written) and set a timer for 25 minutes to allow yourself to focus and create the comms messages as this will make it feel more purposeful.
H = Habit – how to form happy habits “Our happiness is a formation of habits” we are all learning how to do things more in a virtual online world, often things that we have done physically or face to face before. Now is the time to create new habits and maybe achieve a good blend of the 2.
Some great things to take away and links for you explore….
What could you do to boost happiness by implementing at least one thing today?