Forget Cash, Try These Ways of Making People Happy
What brings you joy in life? Is this your pay? Recognition? Job fulfillment? Opportunities? What motivates you in life? As simple as this may appear, most people cannot provide a definitive answer.
Undoubtedly, money can easily switch-up people. But using cash as a carrot is not always an ideal solution. Though what offers joy to one person may be radically different from what brings joy to another, there are a few basics with which we must all be content.
Love, in whatever form it takes, brings enjoyment into our lives. Healthy relationships with friends, family and other significant people can all improve and add joy to your life.
We want to be appreciated by people closest to us since we are social beings at heart (no matter how introverted or quiet some of us are). It is essential to have meaningful relationships with other people, both romantic and platonic, to be happy.
This is a no-brainer, but having access to food, water, clothing, and shelter is key to happiness. However, the misconception is that more money and material things beyond these needs directly correlate to happiness, and that’s not necessarily the case.
Money is a major contributor to your happiness up until your basic needs are met – food, water, shelter, clothing, etc. After you can afford to have these needs met, the amount of happiness money can bring you doesn’t drastically increase anymore.
Unfortunately, our health isn’t always something we can control. However, what is in our hands is our ability to take care of our bodies as best we can. Staying active, eating food that nourishes our bodies, and nurturing our mental health (which is as important as physical health) all contribute to our happiness.
“Out of every goal human beings want to attain, happiness is usually the greatest.” Happiness and satisfaction are subjective concepts – while to some employees monetary benefits can be equated with job satisfaction, some might strive for recognition of their hard work and lose motivation on failing to achieve so.
To boost overall employee engagement and for the growth of your business, try these ways to make your staff happy. Give your employees the gift of time and other intangible perks.
You could reward your highest performers with incremental vacation days. These employees are your superstars, so you can be confident they will get their work done as well as enjoy a few extra days of well-deserved time off with family and friends. This boosts the morale of other employees to meet their goals and targets.
Penultimately, recognizing a job well done by staff is one key motivator. Appreciation and recognition make staff feel very important and above all valued. This can be done by acknowledging them at an important staff meeting or by simply offering a sincere “thank you” to them directly. This may be viewed as a small gesture but it goes a long way to motivate staff.
Mentorship allows employees to collaborate and share knowledge and skills. This expertise will help increase the retention and productivity of employees. Your business will also see the upside of mentorships, which include improved employee engagement, lower turnover, positive company culture, and even an increase in productivity.
As part of training and development, make sure employees are aware of the different types of career paths or job opportunities throughout the company to increase their interest in the business. Feedback and the ability to understand employee concerns are important, but it’s what you do after that’s critical to retention.
You should always be transparent by sharing what you’ve learned and a course of action for addressing the issue. For example, at a stand-up meeting, you do not only communicate your top areas of success, but also your areas for improvement and how you plan to address them moving forward.
Transparent communication and a simple acknowledgement can go a long way to building the company. “Cash matters in people’s lives, but it’s not all that matters”, says Whillans, who researches what makes people happy. What matters in the workplace is helping employees feel appreciated.”
Business Journal Board
2021/2022