Add Humanity to your Workplace

I’m not in the habit of calculating the dollars and cents of plain, decent manners, despite the fact that manners seem to be on the endangered activities list.  But a headline recently grabbed my attention that had me asking if it really said what I think it said.

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The headline was attached to an infographic entitled, “The business value of the thank you.”

But this infographic was about, as I assumed it would be, the value of a simple “thank you” to performance in the business world.  Thus, it showed that 67% of employees are motivated to do better when praised by their managers, compared to only 60% who are motivated by a bonus, 52% by increase in pay and a mere 35% by stock options.

It also revealed that recognition—including praise, awards and various methods of recognizing the good work someone does—is the best motivator:  78% of people say they would work harder if praised, yet almost two thirds (65%) of employees said they receive no praise in their workplace.  When recognition doesn’t occur, costs go up because organizations with no, or ineffective recognition programs, have 46% more turnover than places with solid recognition programs.

Add to this the fact that 60% of employees who don’t feel appreciated are job hunting while 80% who do feel appreciated are not.  So, two options:  have appreciated employees, who just happen to be the more engaged employees, or pay the costs of turnover.

The next headline, nicely related, to garner my incredulous reaction was “The Advent of the ‘Social Workplace’.”  Was this yet another article on open workspace, a fad that seems to have never hit its stride?  Or, was this, as I feared, seriously an article about creating a place of work where humans can thrive?  Bingo!

It isn’t that I fear such workplaces, but rather that I fear for our workplaces if people think this is such an “ah ha!” moment that it must be shouted from the headlines.  But that is where we are, as it has finally come to the attention of those who watch, research and comment on the pluses and minuses of effective places to work that people are happier, more engaged employees when their workplace supports, rather than squashes, their basic humanity.

Spoiler alert:  fostering human connections at work, appreciating people’s humanity, ensuring people are happy, makes for organizational excellence.  According to Alexander Kjerulf (author of Happy Hour is 9 to 5), making people happy at work is so important that the position of Chief Happiness Officer, whether under that title or the responsibilities subsumed under another title, is becoming a growing common phenomenon.  You wouldn’t think that the responsibility of appreciating others would need explicit mention in someone’s job description, but apparently it does.

But this brings us back where I started.  Gratitude for work well done—not a trophy for just showing up—is the panacea that will cure all lackluster organizations.  Not only does that recognition, as noted above, that signals gratitude for a job well done, motivate, engage and get people committed to the organization, it also improves a person’s sense of well-being.

The 2015 SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recognition Report found that 86% of human resource professionals said that expressions of gratitude improved employee happiness and 85% said it “added humanity” to the workplace.  And other research has found that voicing gratitude increases those social connections and makes people have stronger loyalty to their place of work.

So, don’t worry, be gracious to those around you at work and happiness—and all else—will fall in place.  I say this not glibly, or to disparage any of the points above, but rather to remind people and give the evidence for what should be an instinctive action and not something that has to be intentionally programmed into a group’s culture.  Human decency even in the workplace is the path to success.

I thank you for reading this blog—this week, last week, next week, for as long as it proves valuable to you.