Happiness

Hopefully you have already downloaded our free Day-to-Day Employee Appreciation Calendar for 2023 so these celebrations may already be on your radar. If not, download it today and let’s get started!

Don’t forget St. Patrick’s Day on March 17! It’s always a fun occasion to wear green and have a little office fun. But the MOST important day of the month is …… March 20!

March 20 is the International Day of Happiness

This year’s theme is Mindful • Grateful • Kind. Don’t you love the simplicity? Be sure to check out the resources on the Action for Happiness website and use the #InternationalDayOfHappiness hashtag!

From the Center for Cognitive Behavior Therapy:

“Often worldly stressors are not necessarily within our control, and although we cannot change those outside forces, we can counter them with internal strategies. Of all the virtues that correlate with happiness (i.e. kindness, prudence, self-control), the strength that has the most notable impact is gratitude. This skill has been shown to improve happiness in multiple realms of life, offering emotional, social, personality, career, and physical and mental health benefits.”

With an acceptance rate under 7% and ACT scores of admitted students hovering around 32-35, the likelihood of most people having access to an Ivy League education in Yale’s hallowed halls are slim. But we can all benefit from the fascinating and completely practical information that is shared in one of that revered educational institution’s most popular courses, “Psychology and the Good Life.”

These same principles can help employees be happier too!

 “…I think we need to think seriously the idea that something is something is wrong, and we need to something about it.  The cool thing is that we have a way out.  We have hope.  The science teaches us what we need to do.  We just have to do it.”

A few of the happiness building basics

• Getting enough sleep – most college and high school students report only getting 4 – 5 hours of sleep.  Regardless of  your age your brain and body need more sleep than that and sleep has a big impact on mood.
• Your genes don’t predict your capacity for happiness – while it may be true that you inherit some of your “glass is half full or half empty” attitude from your family, you have a capacity of about 40% to take control of your own behavior.
• Get 30 minutes of cardio a day – even just a half hour of mild cardio every day can have the impact of a Zoloft prescription if you’re depressed.
• Savor the moment – really experience things and be present in the moment.
• Connecting with others will make you happier – even if you think you prefer solitude.  A study showed that Chicago commuters felt happier after talking to strangers and finding common ground, even when they thought they would rather be alone and quiet.

How the course syllabus can translate into the workplace

• Give the gift of time off (even for just an hour) – granting her students the unexpected luxury of an hour of time with instructions to do something fun, creative, interesting that wasn’t work had a profound impact, some students said that hour of time will be one of their strongest memories of their Yale experience.
• Distribute gift cards or small amounts of cash to employees with the instruction that they must give it to another person. A research study showed that the good feelings for the giver of this type of generosity were long lasting and that the dollar amount didn’t matter.
• Find ways to encourage employees to learn how-to and to practice meditation – consider bringing in a teacher to educate staff on the basics of mindfulness and/or provide guided meditation classes as part of your fitness program.

Writing can help

Santos shares these things you can do at both home and work that can increase happiness:

• Write a gratitude list
• Keep a gratitude journal
• Write thank you notes

Do the work

“You can hear all these studies and you can get an A in this class, but unless you put this stuff into practice, it’s not gonna help.  You have to do the work.”

Learn like a Yalie, for free

Happiness…a growing field of academic study

We can help you put the science into tangible workplace initiatives

Happy New Year!

The celebration-filled holiday season is over, party streamers down, gifts shared and game prizes won. Now what? How will you sustain that workplace spirit and employee happiness into the new year?
If increasing employee happiness is one of your workplace goals this year, you’re not alone.
Organizations big and small are re-evaluating their strategies as Gallup continues to report low employee engagement across industries. Gallup data shows Millennial workers in particular aren’t responding to traditional engagement.
We know workplace celebrations are a reliable way to engage and motivate employees. A celebration honors excellence, fuels innovation and strengthens teamwork. It gives everyone a chance to fully appreciate individual and team successes.
But celebrating employees goes well beyond parties and prizes. Sustaining everyday employee happiness, 365 days a year, takes a comprehensive approach and a cultural shift.
That’s why we here at gThankYou created a “Day-to-Day Employee Celebration Calendar.” It’s a guide to each month, with practical tips for everyday engagement and appreciation, as well as seasonal and holiday-specific employee recognition ideas and inspiration.
Read on for a peek at what each month of the calendar offers and how it can help you build a sustainable culture of appreciation.
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Is authentic workplace happiness supported and celebrated in your organization? (Photo via RoseannaDana, Flickr)

What does workplace happiness look like?
It’s different for every company and dependent on a positive culture, engaged workforce, and involved, authentic leadership.
Happy employees share many characteristics — productivity, optimism, creativity, dedication — you can feel when a culture resonates with employee happiness.
Sadly, there’s no magic bullet for building workplace happiness. That’s why it’s helpful to look at case studies of company cultures (and even cities!) that champion authentic workplace happiness. We bet you’ll be inspired to create your own unique engagement program by studying others.
Read on for real-life examples of workplace happiness and the profound effect they have on employees. Does your culture have Arbejdsglæde?
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Share Your Happiness at #InternationalDayofHappiness!

International Day of Happiness is March 20. It’s a fantastic opportunity to celebrate your employees and coworkers and spread happiness in your workplace.
The history of International Day of Happiness goes back just a few years, originating in a United Nations resolution adopted in 2011 that recognizes happiness as a “fundamental human goal” and calls for a “more inclusive, equitable and balanced approach to economic growth that promotes the happiness and well-being of all peoples.”
In 2012, the UN created the holiday — to be held every year on March 20 — at a conference called “Happiness and Well-being: Defining a New Economic Paradigm.” The first official International Day of Happiness took place the following year.
Now, celebrations are coordinated by Action for Happiness, a non-profit movement of people from 160 countries, supported by a partnership of like-minded organizations that includes The Huffington Post, Just Giving, Project Happiness, Mental Health Foundation, Columbia University and GNH Centre Bhutan.
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World Smile Day, held this year on Friday, Oct. 3, is an easy and fun opportunity to celebrate workplace happiness and learn more about the everyday power of smiling.

WORKPLACE HAPPINESS BEGINS WITH A SMILE

World Smile Day has its origins in 1963 when commercial artist Harvey Ball created the smiley face to boost employee morale at an insurance agency in Worcester, Mass.
Ball’s happy yellow “smiley” has since become an iconic symbol of happiness and goodwill around the world. Ball thought everyone should devote one day each year to smiles and kind acts, and – in 1999 – declared the first Friday in October World Smile Day.
“The smiley face knows no politics, no geography and no religion. Harvey’s idea was that for at least one day each year, neither should we,” explains the Harvey Ball World Smile Foundation, founded after Ball’s death in 2001.
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Employee happiness is becoming a hot topic among CEOs and in boardrooms, notes Rob Markey in a Harvard Business Review blog post, “Transform Your Employees into Passionate Advocates.”
“[It’s] one more sign of the growing recognition that happy, engaged employees are more productive and generate better outcomes for their companies,” he writes.
But, he adds, only a few of the things that make employees happy result in real, sustained benefit for their companies. As Gretchen Spreitzer and Christine Porath note in one of a series of HBR articles on employee happiness, “It’s not about contentment, which connotes a degree of complacency.”
Timely, Meaningful Recognition
Markey and his colleagues have studied the links between employee engagement and customer loyalty for a few years, and have found that the only route to happy employees, that also benefits shareholders, is through a sense of fulfillment resulting from an important job done well.
It’s about recognizing employees in a timely, meaningful way. Employees should be able to connect the recognition—whether it’s a personal note, a small gift, or both—with their hard work on the company’s behalf.
The Happiness/Productivity Link

“In fact, we found that, if happier on a given day, people were not only more likely to come up with a new idea or solve a complex problem that same day but also to do so the next day.”
Gallup provides statistics linking employee feelings and corporate outcomes, Amabile and Kramer note. The organization reports that disengaged employees’ lost productivity costs U.S. businesses more than $300 billion a year. Another Gallup study by researcher James Harter and others concluded that employees’ past feelings about an organization can predict sales and profits at a future point in time.
Furthermore, U.K.-based research suggests clear links between workers’ happiness and their productivity. Jamie Doward’s Observer/Guardian article, “Happy people really do work harder,” reports that a team of economists led by Andrew Oswald, a professor of economics at Warwick Business School and a leading authority on the relationship between economics and mental health, says its research has important implications for the worlds of politics and business.
“We find that human happiness has large and positive causal effects on productivity,” the team says. “Positive emotions appear to invigorate human beings, while negative emotions have the opposite effect.”
The Warwick economists note: “Happier workers … were 12% more productive. Unhappier workers were 10% less productive.”

Employee Gratitude Done Right
If you show employees they’re valued, they’re more likely to be happy and have positive feelings about your company and their jobs. Here are three tips for effective employee recognition:

1. Let line managers lead—Immediate supervisors are best equipped to observe when an employee thank you is warranted, or to review the results of performance metrics and recognize top performers.
2. Keep it simple—Managers shouldn’t have to wade through complicated reports to determine who their top performers are.
3. Customer feedback—What’s more powerful than hearing a customer’s thank you?

As Markey’s HBR article says, “When frontline employees and managers hear directly from customers — when they see how customers scored their experience, when they hear what went right and wrong in the customer’s own words — the effect is dramatic. Applause in the form of positive feedback inspires them to keep up the good work.
Loyal, passionate employees bring a company as much benefit as loyal, passionate customers. They stay longer, work harder, work more creatively, and find ways to go the extra mile,” he continues. “They bring you more great employees. And that spreads even more happiness — happiness for employees, for customers, and for shareholders.”
How do you ensure your employees receive timely, meaningful recognition?  How do you keep workers feeling fulfilled?
For more on learning how to build employee engagement, happiness and a great workplace culture, download our FREE eBook, “Transform Your Workplace with Gratitude”.
Download now and start sharing your gratitude today!




About gThankYou, LLC

Turkey Gift Certificates and Turkey Or Ham Gift Certificates by gThankYou! are two of America’s favorite employee gifts and can be redeemed for any Brand (Turkey or Turkey Or Ham), at virtually any Grocery Store in the U.S.
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gThankYou, LLC (www.gthankyou.com) is based in Madison, Wisconsin.  Contact:  Rick Kiley, Chief ThankYou! Officer, gThankYou, LLC at info@gthankyou.com or 888-484-1658.
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