Happiness opens the door to better experiences

When people are happy they are more helpful, generous and productive, writes Justin Thomas

Happy employees are more flexible, helpful and productive.

Based on past visa-renewal experiences, I was dreading getting my health check. Previous health checks had involved me standing in ill-formed queues, only to ultimately be told off for being in the wrong building. I remember asking for directions to the correct building, to which a morbidly morose employee responded by pulling a face of utter disgust and nodding vaguely in a westerly direction. Unprofessional, unhelpful, unkind.

This time, however, my negative expectations were not met. The process was efficient, calm and orderly. The employees were smiling, welcoming, helpful and, dare I say it, happy. From the big boss to the cleaners, everyone was smiling or at least not scowling. I practised my Arabic with the lady processing the paperwork, and she remained good humoured and laughed kindly as I laboured to articulate basic information.

This positive experience brought to mind the transformative power of happiness. This was a small real-world example of how happy employees are more flexible, helpful and productive. Their happiness is infectious, too. I left the health centre feeling energised and in good spirits. In fact, the rest of my day was unusually productive and creative.

The employees at the health centre seemed genuinely happy. They were not like those workers who are forced to smile through tears, on pain of termination, while regurgitating scripted pleasantries: “Have a happy, happy day now.” These people were authentic in their varying degrees of happiness and helpfulness. There wasn’t a hint of pretence. This was a genuinely “sloth-free” workplace.

Sloth was once considered one of the seven deadly sins. Of all the cardinal sins, sloth is the hardest to define. Sometimes it is over simplistically translated as laziness. In reality though, sloth is closer to anhedonia, a psychological state associated with the loss of motivation and a general lack of interest in life. The slothful are apathetic, bored, sluggish and careless of their duties. For the slothful, nothing really matters. For anyone familiar with the symptoms of depression, sloth seems like a close cousin.

Perhaps our current revitalised efforts to promote positivity and happiness in the workplace, and thereby increase productivity and customer satisfaction, could be framed as a war on sloth. We know that employees who are depressed, stressed or apathetic tend not to be very positive, productive or engaged.

A 2013 Gallup poll, Employee Engagement Insights for Business Leaders Worldwide, reported that only 13 per cent of the global workforce was fully "engaged". In some countries, about 20 per cent of employees were "actively disengaged".

This active disengagement is associated with low motivation, apathy, stress and depression. The term “presenteeism” has been coined to describe individuals who turn up to work but do very little beyond simply being physically present. In response to the threats of widespread disengagement, inactivity and low levels of motivation, the happiness agenda has boomed. We might now offer gym memberships and workplace programmes exploring emotional intelligence, motivation and stress management. I applaud these efforts, which often help people blossom and stay well. However, we also need to explore the root causes, the social causes. Why are people actively disengaging; why are more people becoming depressed?

So what had changed at the health centre I visited? What had enriched the well-being of the employees and thereby massively improved my customer experience? Had they all received huge pay rises, were working conditions much better? Had they been able to rid themselves of a toxic boss? Had they all received stress-management training? Who knows?

Perhaps my visit was just a fortunate one-off – I hope not. One thing is certain, when people are happy they are more helpful, generous and productive. Isn’t that what we want for all our organisations?

Dr Justin Thomas is an associate professor at Zayed University

On Twitter: @DrJustinThomas