Why Employee Happiness Should Be Your Top Priority

The costs of lost productivity are 2.3 times higher than medical and pharmacy costs? And, workspace stress is the biggest contributor that leads to a decline in productivity. 

This is what makes employee happiness so important for a successful business. 

As Richard Branson says it in much simpler words - “If you look after your staff, they’ll look after your customers. It’s that simple.” In fact, he has more than 5 Billion reasons to give on why employee happiness is so important for a business. This is what makes Virgin Group one of the top companies to work for in the world.

Considering the times that we are going through, it won’t be wrong to say that employee happiness has become more important than ever. Since we are still not safe from the dreaded COVID-19, and everyone’s stressed about the future, what we as leaders can do the least is give the people working with us a happy environment at work. We cannot prevent the COVID-19 spread from happening, but we can at least provide them a haven where they feel happy to work, and continue to focus on better things in life. 

Here’s what it will do to your business: 

Boost Productivity

I’ve read extensively about employee happiness and productivity. While reading on this topic, I came across one study from the University of Warwick, in which they found that happiness leads to a rise in productivity of employees by 12%. Citing the example of companies like Google, which saw a 37% increase in employee productivity when they started investing in employee support and employee satisfaction. 

Attract Top Talent

When an employee is happy, it shows in their behavior and attitude; not just in the workplace but wherever they go. And, obviously it builds a positive rapport for your company in the market, as a workplace wherever anyone would like to come and work. After all, 71% of the workers say that they rely on referrals from current employees when it comes to knowing about job openings. By keeping your current employees happy, you are investing in hiring top employees for the future. 

Decrease Employee Turnover

Not only does a happy work culture help you attract top talent, it also ensures that people who come once, don’t leave. As the numbers say it - employees are 24% more likely to leave the organizations if they don’t like the culture compared to when they find the culture happy and productive. So, you can see how significant it is to build a culture of happiness in your office if you want to retain your top talent. 

Build A Place Where People Feel Happy To Work

To sum up this post, I’d like quote another one of the famous quotes from Richard Branson:

I don’t think of work as work, play as play. It’s all living.

I’ve been following the same philosophy with my team here at ProofHub, and it has worked great in both hiring the right people, and ensuring that they stick with the team for long. In fact, I’m proud to say that there have been many instances where people have gone to other organizations and came back within a few weeks just because they could not cope up with bad work culture, even though they were getting a raise in their monetary compensation. So, focus on building a work culture where people are happy and appreciated, and you will automatically have a thriving business.

About the Author

Vartika Kashyap is the Chief Marketing Officer at ProofHub — leading project management software. From contributing to websites such as The Huffington Post, Business.com, Elearning, Dzone, and The Next Web to becoming LinkedIn Top Voices in 2017 and 2018, she has recognised amazing new ways to reach the audience. She weaves stories about productivity, team building, work culture, leadership, and common workplace events. She also loves to read and travel to new places.