34 year old Jamima is a PR manager working with a high profile IT Company. She loved her job and enjoyed the challenges that awaited her every work day. However, with business growing and work pressure increasing, Jamima found that she did not have enough time to meet all her targets. She began to work late, take work home and work on the weekends. Even then, she was floundering. It didn’t take her long to realize that she could not carry on the same way without going to pieces. After some thought, she decided to collect a number of productivity tools to boost her productivity and help her with time management. Sure enough, the tools helped! Jamima found that her productivity had increased. However, she was still unable to find the same happiness that she once did. That set her thinking. To her surprise, she discovered that there were several small parts of her job that she positively hated doing. So, she had a talk with her boss and it was decided that some of these odd jobs would be handed over to a secretary. Jamima would take on more liaison work, work which gave her more happiness. A month after the change was made, Jamima was back to being her best, enjoying what she did and getting home in time to catch her favorite Soap on TV!
The story above has several lessons regarding happiness and employee productivity.
Productivity gurus would have you believe that the best way to increase your productivity is to use the right tools. Get organized, prioritize, make a list of To Dos and so on. But, you can do all that and still feel spent, listless and harried. So, what is the secret?
The secret is to find happiness in what you do.
Research shows that happiness is the #1 productivity booster. If you’re into employee management, you would want to know how to bolster employee productivity. The secret is to keep them happy. Why?
Happy people spread happiness. People like having them around. So:
- They make better teammates.
- They can establish better employee relations.
- They create more satisfied customers.
- They make better managers.
Happy people are generally capable of coming up with new ideas. As a rule, they are more creative and can contribute more to any job.
Happy people face challenges with enthusiasm and equanimity. They are less likely to crib and whine, and they face their day with more energy.
Happy people typically keep a smiling face and a positive attitude. What’s more, their enthusiasm is catching.
Happy employees are easily motivated and are able to motivate others.
Happy people are fast learners. They are not held back by false beliefs or negative thoughts.
Happy people are quick when it comes to taking decisions. This is because they are not hampered by the fear of making mistakes and are more open to new ideas. Happy people are also open to taking risks.
As you can see, happiness and employee productivity are closely linked. When happiness goes up, productivity escalates, though the reverse is not necessarily true always.