promoting happiness and well-being at workeapa – 10 dec 2013 1 promoting happiness and well-being...
TRANSCRIPT
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
1
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at Work
Graham RandlesManaging Director
nef consulting – new economics foundation
EAPA - 10th December 2013
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
2
About nef -new economics foundation
• An independent UK think-tank
• We work on economics for:
• Environmental sustainability
• Social justice
• People’s well-being
• Well-being programme set up in 2001 to ask:
• What would policy look like if it focused on improving well-being?
• nef consulting established 5 years ago to promote and implement nef’s ideas
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
Gross National Product counts air pollution, and cigarette advertising and…the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play…the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.
Robert Kennedy, 1968
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
4
A new framework for measuring progress
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
5
A new framework for measuring progress
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
6
Five Ways to Well-Being
• Connect
• Be active
• Take notice
• Keep learning
• Give
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
7
Why measure well-being? • Well-being is an alternative measure of
progress to gross domestic product (GDP)
• Blanchflower and Oswald (2011) argue that over recent decades, GDP growth in the USA has not been associated with any rise in subjective well-being.
• The robustness of subjective well-being measures has become well established in recent years
• Economists, psychologists and even policy makers are now using subjective well-being indicators
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
8
From Well-Being to Happiness at Work
nef has designed a collection of tools to support organisations to:
•see and understand their well-being in new ways
•create shared values and understanding between all employees about the things that matter most for good jobs and happy workplaces
•imagine new ways of organising work and managing people and provide insights that employees can act on in their daily working lives
•develop the capability for continuous learning and self-organisation on well-being issues
•understand the business case for investing in well-being
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
9
The benefits of focusing on employee well-being
Much more than an “employee engagement” strategy
•Focusses on enabling employees to maximise their personal resources
•Creating an organisational structure that enables employees to flourish and take pride in what they do
•Supporting people to function to the best of their abilities
•Producing a positive overall experience of work
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
10
Why Happiness at Work?
Happiness at Work can lead to …
• Improved working conditions
• Greater productivity
• Product / service innovation
• Sense of purpose
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
11
The benefits of focussing on employee well-being
Case study: Zappos
• Online shoe retailer
• A leader in terms of well-being at work
• Formed by entrepreneur, Tony Hsieh
• Zappos was sold to Amazon for over $1 billion
• Happiness-centred approach to business
Images fromwww.zappos.com/
www.deliveringhappiness.com/
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
12
Happiness at Work survey
• The Happiness at Work survey builds on ten years of nef experience conceptualising and measuring well-being and advising on policy
• The survey tool translates this into an organisational context, representing interconnected components that drive our happiness at work through the dynamic model of well-being
• Workshops and master classes provide the links from the diagnostic tools to business solutions
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
Personal Resources
e.g. health, resilience, optimism, self-esteem
Good functioning and satisfaction of needs
e.g. to be autonomous, competent, safe and secure,
connected to others
External Conditions
e.g. material conditions, social context
Good feelings day-to-day and overall
e.g. happiness, joy, contentment
flourishing
The Dynamic Model of Well-Being
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
14
About the Happiness at Work survey
• A tool to assess and measure the happiness and well-being of employees
• Each question is benchmarked against national average with traffic light display
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
15
The drivers of well-being at work
Personal resources
Work-life balance
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
16
The drivers of well-being at work
Personal resources
Work-life balance
The evidence
• A poor assessment of one’s work-life balance is a very strong predictor of stress
• Well-being tends to increase as the number of hours worked rises
• But beyond a certain threshold, additional hours worked have a negative impact upon well-being
• Studies suggest this threshold is between 35 and 55 hours per week
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
17
The drivers of well-being at work
Personal resources
Work-life balance
The evidence
• Working fewer hours than one is willing and able to causes job satisfaction to fall
• “Those working part-time because they don’t want a full-time job have higher levels of well-being… But those working part-time because they are unable to find a full-time job have considerably lower levels of happiness and life satisfaction than those who work full-time” (Abdallah and Shah, 2012)
• “Not having a job when you want one reduces well-being more than any other single factor, including important negative ones such as divorce and separation” (Clark and Oswald, 1994)
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
18
The drivers of well-being at work
Personal resources
Work-life balance
Possible implications and recommendations
• There is no “standard” number of working hours per week that maximises well-being
• A good starting point seems to be:
• “Conventional” full-time hours
• Without overtime
• Flexible part-time arrangements available
• Flexibility and regular evaluation of how working hours fit with individuals’ home lives seems likely to be a good approach
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
19
10 reasons why the Happiness at Work survey is better than standard engagement surveys
1. Happiness is more than engagement
2. Instant results
3. Team level results
4. Easy to use and cheaper than engagement surveys
5. Results easy to understand
6. Accurate reflection of the organisation
7. Encourages conversations and insights
8. Helps turn insights into actions
9. Measures changes over time
10.State-of-the-art measurement techniques
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
20
Further resources
Measuring well-being: A guide for practitioners
www.neweconomics.org/publications/measuring-well-being
The Five Ways to Well-Being
www.neweconomics.org/projects/five-ways-well-being
www.well-beingatwork.net
The Happy Planet Index
www.happyplanetindex.org
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
21
Thank you!
Graham RandlesManaging Director
nef consulting – new economics foundation
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
www.happinessatworksurvey.com
23
Happiness at Work survey – what is it?
• An online tool which assesses and measures the happiness and well-being of employees.
• Can be used within organisations to gauge overall levels of wellbeing and as an effective facilitation tool to support discussions within teams.
• Based on research and science informed by > 10 years of work from nef Centre for Well-Being.
• 40 questions exploring the critical factors impacting on happiness at work. Each question is benchmarked against national average.
• Results available immediately upon completion in traffic light colours to provide an easy understanding of what is going well and what needs attention.
24
Happiness at Work survey - functionality
• Individual responses are anonymous but individuals can explore their own results, their team results and their organisation-wide results
• Results can be viewed in many different ways, for example as “highlights/lowlights” or through the “dynamic model” showing how different components relate
• The survey licences last one year – the survey can be repeated many times within that time period
• The responses can be filtered by key demographic questions
• Tips and suggestions are included for results interpretation and action planning
Promoting Happiness and Well-Being at WorkEAPA – 10 Dec 2013
Example survey outputs
Positive Feelings:Happy at work?Enjoy work?Pride in organisation?
Negative Feelings:Stressful job ?Frustrating work?Boring work?
Engaging work:Absorbed in work?Motivated to do best?
Worthwhile work:•Worthwhile job?•Satisfaction with job?
Self Expression:•Can be yourself?•Able to do what you do best?•Can be creative?
Sense of Control:Influence decisions?Control over important elements?
Sense of Progress:Learn new skills?Good careers prospects?
Work relationships:•Good friends at work?•Get along with manager?•Like people in team?•Teams work well together?
Management system:Regular and constructive feedback?Trusted by manager?Team well managed?Organisation well managed?
Work environment:Pleasant working environment?Challenge way things done?Good organisation to work for?
Job design:•Fair pay?•Job security?•Enough time to get job done?
Social value:•Job benefits customers/ clients?•Job benefits society?
Vitality:Good personal health?Full of energy?
Happiness:•How happy are you?•Supportive relationships?
Confidence:•Ease at dealing with problems?•Positive about self?
Work-life balance:Work-life balance?
Detail of the Dynamic Model
27
Happiness at Work survey - functionality
• The tool can be easily used by any organisation via the self-service function on the website
• Wider functionality includes:
• the addition of bespoke questions
• the addition of open comments questions and working with complex organisational hierarchies
• nef consulting can manage survey administration process or organisations can attend a Masterclass in London to manage the process themselves and understand more about wellbeing theories and facilitating discussion sessions around the results.
28
Happiness at Work survey - benefits
• The survey can be trialled for up to 5 users for free
• After this, licences cost £6 per user (for organisations above 250 employees please contact nef consulting)
• Results are designed to be easily understood and user-friendly. The aim is to place the responsibility for addressing happiness and wellbeing at work with individuals, teams and organisations.
• The results are ideally placed to highlight areas of concern and to identify priority areas for improvement. This will lead to happier employees who are more productive, take fewer sick days, are more engaged and are less likely to leave.