As most of us wind down for the holiday season, it is a great opportunity to reflect on where we’ve been and what we have achieved in the last year. It is also a timely opportunity to check on our levels of workplace well-being and the impact it has had on us as business owners and on our employees. Most importantly, it is an opportunity to plan for the future; to devise strategies for staying energised and motivated and to make improvements and build a stronger business based on our learnings. Workplace well-being is an important component of this forward-planning, which should not be missed.
Workplace well-being is basically our ability to feel good and function effectively at work. It’s an important workplace consideration as it affects not only individual health and welfare, but also individual and team performance, productivity and ultimately business success.
People with higher levels of wellbeing are generally more productive and resilient, have more energy, are kinder and more liked by others, earn more money and are healthier and happier.
It is easy to get caught up focusing on what’s wrong in the workplace, and to miss seeing what’s strong. Taking a strengths perspective offers a more positive, empowering and enabling picture. It touches on the virtues of human goodness and potential we can tap into to increase individual and workplace well-being.
So what is well-being and how is it tied to workplace happiness and success?
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”
— Theologian, Albert Schweitzer
Some of the words commonly used to describe well-being are welfare, happiness, success, advantage, prosperity. Success means different things to different people. So many people get misguided and lose their way, chasing the wrong things in the pursuit of success, only to realise these things have left them feeling empty. Worse still, when it is tied to the achievement of never-ending goals and thus never fully realized or celebrated. I love this quote by Albert Schweitzer, as it ties success to happiness, which is more easily measured and achieved. Do what you love, love what you do. Do what makes you happy, which is the key to achieving success.
The Business Case for Well-Being
According to Michelle McQuaid’s Business Case for Wellbeing, countless studies point to high levels of well-being being associated with positive organisational outcomes, such as:
- Improved individual performance, including increased learning, creativity, better pro-social behaviour and relationships, along with increased job satisfaction.
- Greater employee engagement and a more positive work experience, both individually and collaboratively as a team. When wellbeing is a priority in the workplace, employees are likely to be up to 8 times more engaged.
- Improved productivity through improved goal attainment and higher levels of resilience.
- Improved safety through employees taking earlier actions to seek help and less risk-taking
- A reduction in sick leave of up to 30%
- Up to 4 times higher retention rates from employees who have a favourable view of their workplace’s commitment to health & wellbeing
- Reduced absenteeism, improved presenteeism and lower health claims. PwC (2014) estimated that for every $1 spent on improving wellbeing, there is a $2.30 return in benefits for the organisation.
With such a strong case for investing the time and effort into improving the level of workplace well-being, the message is clear. The rewards are many in terms of impact on business results, business owner, team and individual employee wellbeing. The more favourably that employees view their organisation’s commitment to health and wellbeing, the higher the positive organisational outcomes. As business owners, not only do we owe it to ourselves and our employees to create happier and healthier workplaces, we also have a greater incentive to do so for the overall well-being of our business.
How do we cultivate a sense of well-being?
There are many ways to cultivate a sense of well-being, both for yourself personally and for your employees and many don’t require a huge investment of money. From the little things you can do to show employees you care, to making the time for exercising self-care, such as taking time out and looking after your own needs first so that you can nurture the business from a cup that has been refilled, rather than one which is running on empty. One easy way to cultivate a sense of well-being is to do more of what you’re strong at and what you love. Play to your strengths and find ways to empower employees to do more of what they’re strong at and love. Recognise strengths and show appreciation.
The role of Character Strengths and their impact on well-being
Our character strengths, the positive core characteristics of our personality, help to define us as unique individuals. They tap into the core essence of who we are as humans and provide the pathway for developing our innate abilities, interests and skills as well as for tapping into external resources.
We turn to our strengths of character when we’re faced with challenges. By drawing on our character strengths, we can reduce distress and dysfunction and gain positive outcomes, such as:
• Improved happiness, greater self-acceptance, reverence for life, competence, mastery, efficacy, mental & physical health, supportive social networks, satisfying, engaging and meaningful work, accomplishment of goals, greater engagement and life meaning, higher work productivity, finding greater purpose in work, reduced stress and higher resiliency, greater academic achievement and closer relationships.
The VIA Character Strengths Survey measures our capacities for thinking, feeling and behaving in ways that are beneficial to us and to others. They represent our psychological make-up for displaying the virtues of human goodness. Uncover these and find ways of engaging them more often in yourself and your employees for best effect.
The 24 VIA Character strengths are classified under the 6 virtues of:
- Wisdom: represented by the character strengths of creativity, curiosity, judgment (critical thinking), love of learning, and perspective.
- Courage: represented by bravery, perseverance, honesty and zest.
- Humanity: the character strengths of love, kindness and social intelligence.
- Justice: fairness, leadership, and teamwork.
- Temperance: forgiveness (mercy), humility (modesty), prudence, and self-regulation.
- Transcendence: appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humour, and spirituality.
Certain character strengths have a stronger relation to happiness; these are zest, hope, love, gratitude, and curiosity. Engage them whenever possible if these are strongly represented in your workplace.
How to discover your own signature Character Strengths:
Take the free VIA Survey here: free VIA Character Strengths Survey.
Once you’ve discovered your signature strengths, find ways to tap into and use these more each day for your own sense of happiness and wellbeing and to improve your effectiveness. Then, help your employees to do the same.
How to cultivate workplace happiness:
The book Authentic Happiness identifies three independent but related pathways to true and lasting happiness:
- Pleasure – positive, subjective experiences
- Engagement – the absorption of ourselves in our work
- Meaning – connecting with a larger purpose and contributing to the common good
In this book, character strengths are viewed as critical aspects of each pathway. Once you know your key character strengths, find ways to use them to bring more pleasure, engagement and meaning to your work.
The PERMAH Workplace Survey is based on the research of Professor Martin Seligman, one of the world’s leading researchers on human flourishing. The PERMAH model suggests we cultivate wellbeing through these 6 areas or pathways:
- Positive emotions – the right balance of heartfelt positivity to boost our resilience.
- Engagement – the regular development of our strengths – those things we’re good at and enjoy doing
- Relationships – the creation of authentic, energizing connections
- Meaning – a sense of connection to something bigger than ourselves
- Achievement – the belief and ability to do the things that matter most to us
- Health – eating well, moving regularly and sleeping deeply
Character strengths are considered the mechanisms for achieving each pathway to well-being. Consider how you can harness your character strengths to build each pathway to well-being.
Get the PERMAH Workplace Survey Tool
The tool is free and you can access it here.
Download my Free Poster here: 5 Ways to Keep Employees Engaged, Happy and Productive
I hope these ideas give you something to ponder on during the summer break as you reflect on the past year and plan for the year ahead. Wishing you a brighter, happier and even more successful future.
