What Makes Employees Happy At Work?

As long as people remain the center of organizations, attracting, retaining, and motivating those people—keeping them happy at work—will be one of the most important elements of a leader’s job. Work is central to our lives. For most adults, work occupies the majority of waking hours. And being happy at work can make a big difference in whether those hours are a drain or not. And, by extension, whether those hours are productive or not.

But that job as become more and more difficult over time.

In recent years some of the circumstances around job satisfaction and happiness at work have been outside of leaders’ control—global pandemics and being always on the verge of a recession come to mind. But there are a few adjustments inside of leaders’ control that can dramatically effect happiness. In particular, research from Mark Mortensen and Amy Edmondson suggests four specific components effect the “employee value proposition” and hence their happiness at work.

In this episode, we’ll review those four elements of employee happiness and offer suggestions on how to leverage each to make employees happy at work.

0:00 Introduction

1:58 Material Offerings

4:19 Opportunity to Grow

6:45 Connection and Community

8:25 Meaning and Purpose

10:40 Conclusion

It’s important to look at these elements both individually and collaboratively. Individually, you may have noticed a specific element which your team lacks. But these elements work together to create an overall experience. Material offerings are great, but there is a diminishing return on their increase in happiness. It takes all four to create an environment where employees feel happy at work and hence feel like they can do their best work ever.

//DO YOUR BEST WORK EVER

If you liked this video and you want to help your team do their best work ever, check out the free resources we've compiled at https://davidburkus.com/resources

//ABOUT DAVID

One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David Burkus’ forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are helping leaders and teams do their best work ever.

He is the best-selling author of four books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, USAToday, Fast Company, the Financial Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS This Morning. Since 2017, Burkus has been ranked as one of the world’s top business thought leaders by Thinkers50. As a sought-after international speaker, his TED Talk has been viewed over 2 million times. He’s worked with leaders from organizations across all industries including Google, Stryker, Fidelity, Viacom, and even the US Naval Academy.

A former business school professor, Burkus holds a master’s degree in organizational psychology from the University of Oklahoma, and a doctorate in strategic leadership from Regent University.

//SPEAKING

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//MUSIC

"Appreciate That" by David Cutter https://www.davidcuttermusic.com