Happiness at work doesn’t just boost morale, it leads to better reviews, faster promotion, fatter salaries and higher productivity.
For Jackie Donovan, director of marketing and merchandising at Fairway Market, coming to the office every morning is a joy, despite the long hours. Donovan manages 30 employees and fields approximately 600 e-mails every day. Although she’s never worked harder in a role with “no typical hours,” she’s also never been happier. This happiness, she notes, trickles into her team’s productivity and morale as well.
“There’s a definite correlation between happiness and productivity on the team,” says Donovan.
Jessica Pryce-Jones, author of Happiness at Work and CEO of iOpener, says Donovan isn’t alone in her assumptions. “Happiness at work is closely correlated with greater performance and productivity as well as greater energy, better reviews, faster promotion, higher income, better health and increased happiness with life. So it’s good for organizations and individuals, too.”
The research Pryce-Jones conducted with her team at iOpener showed the old adage is true: The happy worker really is the productive worker.
After building questionnaires, conducting focus groups and compiling results from 3,000 respondents in 79 countries, her findings proved that happiness has a distinct advantage over unhappiness. “What’s the evidence that people who are happy at work have it all? The happiest employees are…
- 180% more energized than their less content colleagues,
- 155% happier with their jobs,
- 150% happier with life,
- 108% more engaged and
- 50% more motivated.
- Most staggeringly, they are 50% more productive too.”