Joy of Performing
Introduction
"When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute." Simon Sinek”
Performance and happiness are like the bridges and tunnels that help you steer your way towards achievement and success. In an organization, they go hand in hand. Talking of organizational success, there are plenty of factors that determine how successful your business venture will turn out to be. Not just this, but there are tons of critical results or metrics that measure achievements. Is employee satisfaction the most vital metric to quantify success? Honestly, we can't know that it is the only metric; high employee satisfaction does not necessarily equate to productivity. Even bankrupt businesses have high employee satisfaction! What do we deduce from that? Is "satisfaction" not the correct metric to target? If not, then which one is? It's not as if employee satisfaction is unimportant! It is extremely crucial and one of the noticeable indicators for a high-performance organization. However, there is an overriding factor to it - "Employee Engagement." There is a massive difference between both of them!
Employee engagement goes beyond activities, games, or events - It drives performance. Employee engagement ranks a scale higher than mere "satisfaction" when it comes down to quantifying the actual business performance. However, both satisfaction and engagement are essential, but there is an even higher motivating factor - Joy!
Engagement and effort is maximised when the employee’s work feels meaningful and brings them joy. With growing workloads and operations standards, businesses need defined systems that establish a precise roadmap for prioritizing work, increasing productivity, and driving happiness.
Now the question that remains- How does one keep the employees more engaged at the workplace? A study by the University of Warwick reveals that employees who are happy are 12% more productive, whereas unhappy employees show 10% 'less' productivity. This study also shows that employees at Google were able to achieve 37% more satisfaction when they were happier at work. Joy can be triggered by creating an immersive work culture through stimulus and nudges. It also includes creating a holistic environment that promotes role clarity, skill development, recognition, and mental health.
Also, ‘top ten ways to find joy at work’ by Harvard Business Review,’ supports the need for constant collaboration and communication in order to bring joy to work. For achieving marketplace success, businesses need to concentrate more on building a systematic process. It will help them create a seamless workflow that shall enable them to synchronize employee engagement with business performance.
No matter what size of an organization we talk about, some employees may feel a sense of disconnection, lack of direction, and clarity. When they are unaware of what's expected, they don't find any purpose for their work - resulting in lost interest in their work!
For the same reason, we need to investigate the relationship between employee performance and the amount of joy/happiness they gain while performing their tasks. If businesses can lay down a system to track the quality of functions, performance, and engagement, they can attain the best version of their employees! They can gain agility, create a collaborative framework, bring transparency at work, and provide a focused roadmap to managers.
When organizations lead their work like this, they can support their employees in developing skills that help them perform innovative tasks where employees have a sense of freedom and can creatively pursue progress towards their targets. They not only enjoy their work, but they also wish to step out of their comfort zone.
>We know that the future landscape will have greater competitiveness. Therefore, businesses must align their employees' goals and work satisfaction with their organization's purpose. Today, we have an excellent opportunity to address these intricate human problems as we aim for a high-performing culture. An environment where employees are satisfied with their performance, i.e., feel joyous at work!
Infusing Joy Into Business Performance
Inducing joy, engagement, and performance can help organizations build a High-Performance Culture. Today, business priorities are diverse because market changes are rapid. However, business priorities have also become more holistic. Today business leaders want -
To stay aligned with the market: Leaders want to keep track of the current market trends to understand how the demand-side works, which helps them reduce supply-side disruptions. They want to act upon the latest alerts quickly.
Concentrate on execution and results: Businesses don't have abundant resources; hence they want to keep track of outcomes to analyze what's profitable for them closely. Quick optimization in execution can help them in tweaking results. It helps them maintain calm during market turbulence.
Expand revenue opportunities: For seizing more market share, businesses have to focus on expanding revenue opportunities. Hence, they need to understand the current shape of their business before they plan to add more value to their products to boost customer success.
The wellbeing of employees: Nothing brings more employee engagement more than the wellbeing of employees. With ambitious results metrics, organizations are thoughtful about the health of the workers. With better health, they can expect more engagement and productivity out of their employees.
Teams running at an inadequate pace of performance tend to face higher levels of frustration. Some causes and effects of this frustration are mentioned below:
1. Effort wastage & Lack of Alignment (work & outcome)
We cannot abandon the fact that fast-paced work often comes with poor management and a lack of prioritization. Delivering a massive pile of work within short notice won't drive premium quality of work.
Even though fast-paced environments are intellectually stimulating, they can have a few drawbacks. These issues arise when there are situations that lead to confusion, lack of clarity, low-quality decision-making, etc. It makes the team prone to deliver a bad quality of work. Bad quality of work leads to effort wastage.
It takes away the pleasure or joy out of your work and frustrates the team members. The culture of immediacy may sound very smart, but it can be the culprit behind employee burnout and lack of motivation.
As per the Harvard Business Review of 2020, almost 89% of the respondents said they struggled to maintain a work-life balance. 85% of their respondents reported that their well-being had declined. 62% of the respondents said that an increase in work demand burned them out as they struggled to manage their workloads.
2. Unrealistic timelines, overcommitting & Lack of insight.
As discussed above, fast-paced organizations may expect teams to deliver more, which leads to overcommitment. What is the harm in overcommitting? Over-committing means agreeing to support false expectations.
An impractical amount of work will make you unreliable as a worker who may lose increments and promotions. It would be best if you got out of this rut by making more intelligent decisions.
You must make commitments that you can fulfill. When you have a reasonable deadline that gives you enough margin to finish your work, you can meet targets consistently.
The most significant disadvantage of overcommitting is that you may not realize that you have taken a lot on your plate. In this way, you will not only witness diminishing productivity, but you will feel more frustrated with yourself.
Hence, we need a framework that can assess the mental, emotional, and functional state of the workforce. With the performance, we must not forget the human factor which is crucial to retain great staff.
How Joy Is Cultivated Through Performance Enhancement in A High-Performance Culture?
what is High-Performance Culture?
A high-performance culture is a working environment with norms, values, and actions that help an organization achieve superior results. There are some measurable qualities whose impact can be quantified; these qualities can help an organization create an influential culture. So what does a high-performance culture look like? Well, there are some evident characteristics that every high-performing organization showcases; Such as-.
- Conducting Pulse surveys to gather constructive and continuous feedback
- Employee's mission and goals are aligned with the company's objectives.
- When organizations give employees their space to think to bring new ideas.
- The rapid adoption of new opportunities and responsiveness to change.
- When employees collaborate and work in synchronization.
- Seamless communication of information across the company.
- Mutual support, continuous feedback and guidance from employees create a thriving environment.
- The company has policies that assist employees with mental and physical health issues.
- Employees know their roles, focus on their performance, and get rewarded for the same.
In an organization where the work culture portrays the characteristics mentioned above, employees feel driven to achieve goals because they’ll find a purpose behind their work. They are invested in the company's growth, and as a result, their productivity increases, which leads to higher engagement as employees are more present. They are more likely to serve the same company for the long term. These elements combine and allow the company to gain more productivity and profitability.
Joy at the workplace can be defined as a high level of satisfaction, increased positive experiences, and low negative experiences at the workplace. When we talk about happiness in life, we consider all external and internal factors contributing to an individual's mental well-being. To build a loyal work base for your brand, you must focus on your employee's engagement in the company because it is proven that highly passionate employees will actively convey the same level of enthusiasm to their customers. Hence, there is a direct link between your employee's happiness and your product's (or services) customer satisfaction.
There are some other factors that add to the “Joy” quotient:
Building Trust: An excellent work relationship with the team induces trust along with happiness.
Purpose At Work:Exciting tasks and challenges make work more enjoyable.
Autonomy Fulfilment:When employees have the freedom to structure their way of meeting their responsibilities.
Being Valued: As long as the employees feel that their work is valued, they'll be committed.
Feedback: When employees get regular and constructive feedback on their tasks, they feel motivated and helps make a better workplace
Potential:When employees feel that their full potential is being utilized, this can reinforce their level of motivation.
Fairness:When employees feel they are treated fairly, there is a rise in trust and psychological safety, which in turn adds to their sense of commitment.
Leadership:If leaders can respect their employees and enable achievement of their goals, satisfaction at work increases.
Positive Emotion:If employees feel a positive drive, they tend to be happier at work.
Engagement:Work that keeps employees engaged makes them feel valued.
Challenges At Work:Tasks that involve just the right amount of challenge for an employee can help them reach a Flow state.
Work-Life Balance:Happiness rises when professional and personal time is respected.
But why do businesses want employees to feel more joy in their work? What exactly do we mean when we say that “happy employees may lead to high productivity?”. Employees who feel supported by their managers and feel positively challenged by their jobs are more likely to get fully immersed while working. Thus they could end up being more committed and show remarkably better quality work as well. Therefore, to build a dedicated workforce and a loyal consumer base, you need joy in the workplace. Not just this, but a business leader needs to acknowledge and appreciate its employees’ efforts; several flourishing businesses ensure that they reward their employees for the same.
The Need For Joy In Businesses And Organizations.
Today’s disruptive and demanding business environment requires agile structure and methods to make a real difference. Through JOP, we have developed a robust performance enablement tool to boost agility on all levels of an organization. JOP offers a platform that encourages your employees to share ideas, feedback, goals, and performance, forming an open and free-flowing channel of communication.
Positive reinforcement offered by JOP brings about a shift in the mindset of employees, helping them experience joy in performing. According to Harvard Business Review, the mood of employees has a strong connection with their level of productivity at work. Employees with a good mood show ascending growth in quality of work and the amount of work. On the other hand, a bad mood leads to lower productivity and a low amount of work. Statistically, happiness increases productivity by 13%, whereas unhappy employees are 10% less productive than motivated employees. Some more of the benefits of cultivating joyful companies are given below:
‘People come first’ attitude helps in achieving goals.
When business leaders can align on the goals of workers, owners, senior leaders, they can create a people-come-first culture in their workplace. Team managers must provide essential feedback, surveys, and suggestions to employees.
It makes employees feel like their voice is being heard. Team managers must recognize their efforts and reward them. A people-first attitude includes a one-on-one conversation with every employee; an open dialogue between the team lead and a member ensures a healthy flow of thoughts.
Joy can help a business grow and sustain itself in the long run.
When a business focuses on improving employee engagement in their company, they directly increase employee retention and productivity. Due to this, an organization is likely to experience more growth and longevity in the business. According to Harvard Business Review, engaged organizations have doubled their success rate compared to less involved organizations. As per a study published by Gallup, employee turnover costs $1 trillion every year to US companies. Also, the cost of replacing an employee ranges from one-half to two times the employee’s annual salary. This raises the need for highly engaged employees as the satisfied workforce promises loyalty and commitment to the organization.
Employee Wellbeing can pay dividends
Employee well-being has gained staunch proponents across the organizations and has become one of the most important primacies for boosting joy among employee groups at work. Almost all flourishing organizations pay attention. Mental and physical health attention at the workplace not only empowers the business but the society. It helps the organization in keeping its employees happy and satisfied in their respective roles. High standards of well-being make employees more creative and loyal towards their work.
Businesses achieve more when people are motivated and aligned.
What is the most challenging obstacle for a business? It is the event of aligning objectives (of all tiers); from top to bottom or even horizontally across all teams! Many companies struggle to achieve that; however, there are tools that provide practical solutions and practices by incorporating the OKR methodology. It validates their strategies and etches a clear pathway that teams and individuals can follow. It allows managers to create goals and track progress.Research by LSA Global reveals that companies that are highly aligned grow their revenue 58% faster and are 72% more profitable than those unaligned. Not only this, highly aligned companies outperform unaligned ones in employee engagement, customer satisfaction and retainment, and leadership
Joy in performance gives you a tangible product to keep the momentum going.
If a team gets relevant information and feedback at regular intervals, they are likely to achieve an excellent performance. They are more likely to sustain their performance because they'll get insightful details about their current progress. It can help them to create a structured method of feedback from one individual to another. On a macro level, such a system also supports company-wide surveys.
Joy comes when you witness progress through continuous performance enablement.
Whatever your approach, being able to see movement in one’s skills and effectiveness can boost motivation to improve even further. Business leaders can also experience a significant reduction in stress when they are able to visualise the needle moving towards success. Transparency in organizations can play a huge role in helping employees feel engaged and take more ownership as it helps them understand which pieces of the puzzle they have direct influence on. People who feel their work plays a role in making a difference are likely to experience higher levels of meaning in their lives.
Put together, all of these aspects cater to the need for joy in performing!
Businesses Need A System To Monitor Engagement, Joy, and Goal Setting For Continuous Improvement.
In a world where there is increasing support for businesses to accommodate their employees’ demands for more flexibility, is there a way for them to recapture and engage their employees’ attention for continuous improvement?
The answer is YES - By blending meaning and growth possibilities to their work. One significant reason why frameworks such as Objectives And Key Results are gaining popularity today is because they create a line of vision between what employees are doing and what the company is trying to achieve In other words, it leads to greater alignment. So, businesses can utilize OKRs to develop a substructure for transparency and alignment which can help them to boost joy, engagement, and performance. It can support its vision and bridge its action to its purpose.
Key Takeaways
Employees these days are considering their experiences at the workplace with heightened attention. This is the reason why companies must be intentional about creating a workplace where employees can thrive while infusing joy in performing. Positive psychological support can foster consistent organizational growth. Hence, organizations should adopt structures that facilitate a joyful employee experience! If your employees are able to recognize the gap of achieving joy at the workplace, they can work towards bridging it! It can create the difference you need to scale.You see, 'Joy' at the workplace can motivate employees. It can keep their minds in a free-floating space of limitless creativity, resulting in observed behavior and innovation. Joy can influence the capacity for innovation in employees. On the other hand, negative emotions and dissatisfaction can constrict our vision and thinking. When employees are happy, they create a positive impact on attraction and retention.Maximizing our energy to experiment, collaborate, and align can enable us to experience our work in a different light. Taking ownership allows us to harness our performance potential to the fullest. JOP helps you perform in line with meaningful business growth regardless of the level; be it individual or organizational. We take care of all your needs with our one solution from goal cascade and alignment to goal management, feedback, and management of insights.This is how the mantra for JOP goes- People want to do work that they love from places they love and with people they enjoy. JOP enables organizations to create and pursue this thriving ecosystem because employees’ happiness makes the business happy. Book a demo to find out more!
