Happiness is an asset to be cherished
How we show up at home and at work sends a ripple of either positive or negative energy into the world we interact in. Research has shown that happiness is the precursor to success, not the result of success. Experts like Harvard researcher, Shawn Anchor, writes about his research on over 1,600 Harvard students and Fortune 500 companies world-wide in his acclaimed book, The Happiness Advantage, that further validated that Happiness First drives productivity, safety, and accelerates growth.
If you studied Old English which I did, you may recall reading Paradise Lost, by John Milton, written in 1667 which said, “The Mind has its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell , a hell of heaven.”
In other words, we become what we think and our outlook on life is a reflection of our own minds’ eye.
There is a business imperative to ensure happiness, from work and at home, is a strategic goal to develop healthy supply chains where ever there are human connections. Over 80% of supply chain disruptions/incidents happen with a human error and errors can increase 10X when people are angry or sad. These emotions are on tsunami like increases and the waves are increasing in intensity and impacting supply chain productivity —- everywhere — but how many board room director discussions or C suite discussions are measuring happiness daily - what if you could have an AI MRI vision across your control systems to identify and detect emotional health?
This is the theme we will explore in this blog series - as Corporate Purpose will increasingly become more focus on happiness insights to manage risks.
Looking ahead, it is not conceivable that robotics and machine learning approaches will control all supply chain management control systems where there are no human connections. Although in less than 20 years, robots will increasingly become more mainstream. One only needs to follow Ford’s testing of DIGIT, a robot, to help make deliveries in self-driving cars, or Elon Musk’s Tesla robot designed to fetch tools, and perform dangerous repetitive tasks. Future supply chains will increasingly have robotic integrations and humans will be positioned for decision control(s) and higher order functions. In the meantime, our world is far from eliminating humans from supply chain logistics.
So what does happiness have to do with supply chain ecosystems?
First, it is important to understand that within our social context, we are living in that the happiness of humans in all countries globally is rapidly declining. Unhappiness is growing and the secondary impacts on the human condition are becoming more evident.
For example, there are very more human signs of increasing fatigue, depression, anxiety, and growing health concerns.
Here are some key facts to validate the decline of happiness:
1.) The Happiness Index Report (2022) reveals the steady increase of stress and rising rates of unhappiness over the past 15 years of data analysis.
2.) A Conference Board Survey found that only 45 % of workers surveyed were happy at their jobs, the lowest in 22 years of polling (2010 Research)
3.) Depression rates at 10x higher than they were since 1960. COVID-19 pandemic triggers 25% increase in prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide (WHO Research 2022)
4.) Forty-four percent of employees experienced a lot of daily stress in the previous day. While almost half of the world's workers felt the burden of stress, working women in the U.S. and Canada region were among the most stressed employees globally. (Global Workplace Report - 2022)
5.) The Misery Index (2022) tracks a combination of inflation and unemployment rates created by economist Arthur Okun has for example Canadian have the 6th worst Misery Index score (combined rates of inflation and unemployment) in 2021 out of 35 industrialized countries. The USA Misery Index rating due to increasing inflation rates are also plummeting.
6.) According to a paper in the American Economic Review called “Preferences over Inflation and Unemployment: Evidence from Surveys of Happiness unemployment causes 1.7 times as much misery as inflation.
7.) Between 1913 and 2020, the number of motor-vehicle deaths in the United States (which include all types of motor vehicles, including passenger cars, trucks, buses, and motorcycles) increased 831%, from 4,200 deaths in 1913 to 42,338 in 2020. However, the role cars play in daily life is vastly different now than when tracking began.In 1913, there were about 1.3 million vehicles and 2 million drivers, and the number of miles driven was not yet estimated. The latest 2020 data report 275.9 million vehicles, 228 million licensed drivers, and 2,904 billion miles driven annually (Injury Facts)
Impact of Unhappiness
1.) Unhappy Employees Risk Customer Happiness - Inc. magazine research has validated that employee satisfaction is at an all-time low. About 40 % of American workers say their job is very or extremely stressful. According to a Gallup survey, eight in 10 Americans feel stressed during the day. About 40% say they lack the time to do what they want. Another survey conducted by Gallup reports that more than 20% of employees feel burned out at work. Heavy workloads, team conflicts, poor management and wage gaps all contribute to job dissatisfaction. If left unaddressed, these factors lower productivity and increase turnover rates. In addition, customers are impacted as when one is unhappy this manifests in employee’s patience with customers often more evident in their communication tonality. Also when an employee is sad, it is difficult to feel empathetic with customers, or listen attentively.
2.) Unhappy Employees Risk Job Satisfaction and as a result productivity declines, hostile work environments increase, etc. Unhappy, disgruntled employees can create a negative and stressful atmosphere in the workplace, which over time impacts the overall team productivity of team and in many cases creates a toxic work environment. A 2019 Deloitte survey revealed that only 49% of employees are satisfied with their jobs. The impact of low job satisfaction goes beyond high turnover rates. Employees are a company's biggest asset. If their expectations are not met, they may lack the motivation needed to reach peak performance and excel in their roles.
The Financial Performance Impact of Unhappiness
American companies lose $450 to $500 billion per year because of disengaged employees. Furthermore, replacing employees who quit their jobs costs 100 to 300% of their annual salary. As a manager, the best thing you can do is take a close look at these numbers and make the necessary changes to keep your staff engaged and motivated (Inc.) and The Gallop Poll.
The impact of job dissatisfaction in an organization shouldn't be taken lightly. According to Forbes, only 21% of employees are engaged at work. More than one-third of workers are planning to quit their jobs and find something better. They're doing just enough to receive their pay-checks, but they don't put in the time and effort to do their best work.
Forbes reports that disengaged employees are 15% less profitable and 18% less productive than those who are satisfied with their jobs. This kind of behavior costs companies thousands a year, affecting the bottom line. Job dissatisfaction also negatively affects job involvement and organizational commitment, reported in Frontiers in Psychology.
Job dissatisfaction may also foster bad habits in the workplace, notes the Society for Human Resource Management. Approximately 40% of employees who are unhappy with their jobs play pranks on their colleagues. Another 55% shop online, and 15% take naps while at work. Alcohol consumption and social media usage in the workplace are common, too. With the increase of employees working from home, these risks may also increase.
To put the magnitude of this issue in perspective, the same Gallup report cited earlier estimates that a full 50% of all employees are "not engaged" after just six months, and an additional 20% of employees "actively disengaged," meaning they proactively look for ways to undermine employee morale and retention.
Conclusion
So when 70% of your employees are to some degree disengaged, I think it’s safe to say that board directors, C- Level leaders need to build a focused Happiness Supply Chain Ecosystem. I have been saying for some time that people are strategic assets and their happiness is one of the most important foundations to accelerate a company’s growth and sustainability. Happiness Economics is a correlation to productivity and growth.
Yet is happiness a daily conversation in organizations?
Already many businesses have put a Health first as a corporate priority and advanced Mindfulness programs - yet acknowledgment and celebration practices to boost employee engagement, and well being behaviours often are lacking. Most companies do a annual employee satisfaction rating - however once a year is hardly sufficient given the speed of change across complex supply chains and market dynamics.
There are many ways in small ways happiness health can multiply.
One opportunity to appreciate and practice more is that happiness germinates often from the most simplest and least expensive leadership behaviours - simply saying: Thank you everyday to put a smile on an employee’s face.
When you smile, your brain releases tiny molecules called neuropeptides to help fight off stress. Then other neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin and endorphins come into play too. The endorphins act as a mild pain reliever, whereas the serotonin is an antidepressant. (Source: Health Benefits of Smiling)
A team of economists performed a study and found that “human happiness has large and positive causal effects on productivity. Positive emotions appear to invigorate human beings, while negative emotions have the opposite effect." Another study linked decision-making, processing and learning to the release of dopamine triggered by happiness, so smiling can also make you a more creative and efficient worker.
According to research, 89 % of employees agree that employee recognition improves their experience.
- It leads to positive business outcomes such as increased performance, a sense of belonging, improved alignment, and a sense of purpose.
- Leaders are encouraged to recognize their employees on a regular basis, rather than just on one day of the year during an employee performance review.
- However, this can only happen if employee recognition, acknowledgment becomes ingrained in a company's culture.
A smile is contagious as well, one Swedish study suggests that we can’t help but react with a smile of our own smile when we see someone smiling.
A supply chain that starts everyday with a health and mood check in at the beginning of your day and the end of day, as emotions change, is what we will explore in our next blog on creating a Happiness Supply Chain Advantage. We will also identify all the connectors that can be wired into an organization supply chain ecosystem to ensure happiness is always front and center.
We simply cannot see year over year decreases in global happiness and ignore this increasingly new normal. We must accelerate sourcing leaders that are authentic, respectful of diversity and inclusiveness and value creating an organizational culture that values happiness and ensures it grows and is sustained.
Without happiness supply chain ecosystems carefully architected into process controls/checkpoints - growth, economic productivity gains will continue to erode.
So what are you doing everyday to increase your team’s happiness and reflect on your personal happiness heartbeat?
