It is no secret that we spend a lot of time working — whether we work-from-home or go to an office. With a majority of time spent at work comes a lot of anxiety, stress, and poor health. People have less time to exercise, eat healthy, or sleep properly. The Covid-19 pandemic only exacerbated these health issues. Due to the decline in health of the workforce, there has been a growing trend to incorporate wellness and wellbeing practices into the corporate world.
Researchers James Harter, Frank Schmidt, and Corey Keyes discuss these corporate wellness programs in their paper “Well-being in the Workplace and its Relationship to Business Outcomes: A Review of the Gallup Studies.” This post will discuss the highlights of their paper. Here they are:
- Around ⅕ of adult life satisfaction is related to work satisfaction.
This statistic simply highlights the importance of work in overall life. As we know, work plays a major part in life; research shows that the routines, supervision, and complexity of work can impact a person’s sense of control. Employers should be concerned with work satisfaction as well because talent acquisition is a lengthy and expensive process. Not to mention that in this competitive job market, people are looking for companies that care about their employees well-being and growth.
- Positive emotions result in positive workplace results.
According to the research, “depression can filter cognition, particularly when complex cognition is needed, like that in most work environments,” (Harter, Schmidt, and Keyes). This research has also shown that people with depression or in depressed mood states have a more limited cognitive ability. On the flip side, positive emotional states can help to increase the effectiveness of their own personal capabilities. Joy, interest, contentment, and love were named the top four positive emotions more directly related to business outcomes. Managers play an important role in developing and maintaining these emotions. When managers have more personal connections with their employees, they are able to improve the work culture. Furthermore, these positive emotions allow employees to cognitively function more effectively.
- Employees should feel engaged and have a sense of belonging at their company.
People want to feel like their contributions to the company are actually making a difference. When people’s skills and talents are being utilized, they feel more respected and have a higher sense of satisfaction for their work. Positive reinforcement about the quality of their work also helps employees feel like they have room for development at their company. Allowing employees to voice their opinions makes them feel more connected to the overall mission of the organization. In fact, employee engagement makes companies more successful.
- Making friends at work can equal more successful working groups.
Everyone enjoys having friends. Friends help to make any situation more enjoyable. It is incredibly important for employees to make friends at work. Friendships at work can help to reduce stress or other negative emotions related to a project. Managers play an important role in this as well because they can create opportunities for social interactions between co-workers. Friendships at work can make the work more fun and more fulfilling. According to the research, “the positive emotions that occur through friendships (love-caring) at work, likely build resources that reinforce creativity and communication,” (Harter, Schmidt, and Keyes). So the next time you see your employees chatting for a while in the break room, maybe consider allowing them to continue developing their friendship instead of telling them to get back to work.
All of this information is to say that workplace wellbeing correlates closely with the success of businesses as well as the overall well-being of their employees. Managers can help to make or break a person’s experience at a company. Managers also play a huge role in how satisfied employees are at their company. As we spend more and more time at work, our focus on our personal well-being can diminish. That is why it is imperative that we focus on our well-being at work as well.
If you are interested in learning more about this topic or how you can implement wellbeing into your own lifestyle, contact Greg Murray at greg@adaptiveedgecoaching.com for more information.