“Employee Engagement Definition”: Employee engagement is that the extents to that employee feel enthusiastic about their jobs, are committed to the organization, and place discretionary effort into their work.

And this can be the definition of happiness at work that we tend to use: Happiness at work is the extent to which employees feel smart regarding their jobs.

Just to make it clear: We think employee engagement is a useful concept and we are not arguing against it. We simply need to argue that of the two, it is rather more effective for an organization to target in creating their employees Happy than on creating them Engaged.

Here are the four main reasons why.

1: Happiness is easier to sell to employees

Whether you’re trying to make employee happiness or engagement, you would like your employees to be proactive partners within the method. This is not one thing you’ll do to them while not their active and willing participation or (even worse) against their will.

But seen from the employee side, it’s a way tougher sell. When a manager states that they want their employees to “be more engaged in their work” or “give more discretionary effort” it can easily come off as if they are easily demanding additional passion and work from individuals, while not giving something back.

2: Employee Engagement without happiness is untenable

A person can be incredibly passionate about their work and totally committed to the workplace, but still, be miserable at work this happens for instance when people are treated badly by their coworkers or manager or when they can’t do their job in a way that satisfies their own professional standards.

In this case, two things can happen:

The employee’s unhappiness will leech away any feeling of engagement, going away the person not caring regarding their work.

Or, even worse, the person remains engaged and sad – that end up in stress and burnout.

So although you would like to engage the workforce, you still need to focus on making them happy as a result of engagement without happiness is not sustainable.

3: What drives an employee to perform better and sustain happiness

What makes an efficient business within the same issue that makes an orchestra: People those that need to be there, who give everything they have, who are having a wonderful time doing it, whose eyes are shining, who are giving out energy to individual around them.

Furthermore, we all know from an outsized quantity of analysis that happy employees perform far better. In the workplace, we all know that happiness causes more-productive and more-creative employees.

If you recognize teacher, you recognize however careful they’re regarding using the word “causes.” During this case, we all know that happiness at work causes higher:

  • Productivity – happy people get more work done with the same resources.
  • Creativity – feeling good makes your mind more able to think of new ideas and approaches.
  • Intrinsic motivation – happy people don’t need constant external motivators like bonuses or threats; they want to do good work.
  • Loyalty – happy employees care about the company and stay longer in their jobs.
  • Discretionary effort – employees who like their jobs go above and beyond for the customers, their co-workers, and the workplace.

4: Happiness causes engagement

You’ll notice that each loyalty and discretionary effort we tend to part of the definition of engagement that we give on top of

Of course, the results are circular and engagement and happiness can cause one another. But given the results on top as furthermore as the fact that engagement cannot last in the absence of happiness, it appears clear to me that happiness causes engagement more than engagement causes happiness.

The Upshot

Engagement could be a nice idea however ignoring employee happiness within the pursuit of engagement makes no sense. At the terribly least, sustainable engagement needs happiness at work, which means you can’t ignore the happiness side.

When do individuals feel “passionate regarding their work, committed to the workplace and provides discretionary effort?” When they’re happy at work! Last but not least- If you want engaged employees, focus on making them happy and engagement will follow.

When implemented properly, wellness can play a vital role in your employee engagement strategy. Healthy habits lead to increased happiness in the workplace, while engagement and happiness in the workplace improve physical and mental well-being. Employers will benefit from building upon the relationship between wellness and engagement. A happy and healthy employee will be your best employee!

Connect with us: Linkedin  Twitter  FB