From within Evolve we did research on work happiness in this period in which there is a lot of remote work. We shared the results of this study earlier in our whitepaper (dutch only). Through the study, we found that when working from home, happiness can be promoted through internal digital media. In this blog we share a number of practical tools and tips with which you can start working within your organization to improve work happiness.
Results of the study on happiness at work
First of all, we summarize the most important insights from our research.
- The average score that people working from home give to their job satisfaction is 6.9. Younger employees give a lower score (6.6), while older remote workers rate it higher on average (7.4).
- Organizations are particularly falling short on the pillars of added value, connection, and enjoyment. More than a third of remote workers feel less valuable since working from home. Nearly 83% experience less connection with colleagues, and 66% experience positive emotions less frequently than when at the office.
Both (internal) chat apps and internal online groups or communities have increased in use since employees work more remotely. These internal digital media can therefore play a role in improving job happiness. Obviously, such a complex matter as work happiness is not easy to solve. In our whitepaper, we offer tips on what you could do to improve work happiness using internal digital media. The complexity of the subject may deter you from getting started with it, while it is precisely small interventions that can make all the difference. We therefore give you here a few practical tips that you can get started with today.
Measuring is knowing: the work happiness poll
If you want to start improving work happiness, it is of course useful to first check how things are with that work happiness. A good start is to first make a measurement of how it actually stands with the happiness at work in your organization and then repeat this regularly.
Now, of course, you can just ask, ‘Are you (work)happy?’, but that’s generally quite a complicated question to answer. In order to gain insight, it is smarter to approach this a little more subtly and from different angles. Think of questions like, ‘ Did you laugh at work today?’, ‘have you been outside today?’and’ have you taken a break today?’Such concrete questions are easy to answer and you immediately gain insight into the assessment of the various aspects that have to do with job happiness. They are therefore more durable than a single question.
It is important that the questions fit your organization and the things that play there. Then you generate the most reactions and – where necessary – you can also take action. In some organizations you never laugh, so of course you don’t have to ask questions about that.
Now you can set up a working group for such a measurement that meets for months to arrive at the ultimate survey. However, you can also simply create a poll on a social intranet, in Yammer, Teams or any other internal online community. Setting up such a poll takes relatively little time and can therefore easily be done more often, which regularly provides insight into the current situation.
Because not only is a poll posted on the intranet in no time, responding to the poll also hardly takes the employee time, which increases the chance of a response. In addition, it gives everyone the opportunity to immediately view the result, which improves the negotiability of the topic. And if the polls show that there is reason for in-depth research, the Working Group can of course always get to work.
As mentioned, you can have the polls return weekly or monthly, always with a different question and other answer options. Some platforms also give a poll the opportunity not only to select an answer, but also to post a substantive response. Therefore, stimulate the conversation and interaction among employees.
If you really take work happiness seriously, it is important to appoint someone who monitors the reactions and draws up actions based on them. For example, if the poll shows that colleagues do not go out much, it may be an idea to encourage this more from the organization in the future. After all, this improves job satisfaction. But more on that below.
We give examples of polls in the image below. As you can see, we keep things light and positive. That helps others to react in this way too-and to inspire!
In action: the homework bucket list
To help employees on their way to happiness and inspiration, you can think of setting up a home work bucket list. A bucket list is a list of activities that you really must have done. In the case of happiness at work, we design a bucket list with various themes and challenges based on the needs of employees within your organization. Is the challenge in the well-being and movement of the homeworkers? Or when making fun or making digital contact? They are allthemes that have to do with working from home happiness.
At Evolve we have created such a list for ourselves, but it is now also used by a number of our customers, with challenges that fit their organization and specific situation.
The bucket list provides support to actively work with job satisfaction and to make employees aware of the positive things at work. The bucket list is designed so that you can do it together – but remotely – with the organization or team. Do a challenge every day or week and share it with each other in photos, videos or stories.
Arrange the challenges in such a way that there is a deeper meaning behind it so that it is understandable what the goal is. If in the first instance it is now a bit lacking in motivation, you could also consider introducing a reward in line with the challenge for extra incentive. Are the challenges aimed at going out more? Then, for example, agree in advance that the employer will donate a certain amount to charity in the amount of the number of kilometers walked during the break in the coming month. And for the less altruistic people among us: you can of course also agree on a (playful) reward for the team. in any case, a concrete reward provides extra motivation to participate in the bucket list, while also simply making you happier in your work.
Do you find the subject interesting and would you like to know more about it? Contact Peter at Peter@evolve.eu or call 06 13 98 14 27.
