6 ways to make your workforce happier

1.    Let your people grow
Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice in Organisational Behaviour

     Design work that enables people to grow. Across longer working lives, happiness does not come from perks, slogans or even flexibility alone. It comes from the experience of progress. When people feel they are developing: building new skills, taking on meaningful challenges, stretching into fresh territory.

      Investing in learning that is continuous rather than occasional creates a very different emotional climate. When an organisation does this, they are treating capability-building as part of the job, not something extra. They encourage movement across roles and legitimise reinvention.

      In a world where many of us will work for 40 or 50 years, stagnation is corrosive. Growth is energising. If you want a happy workforce, create an environment where people can see who they are becoming — not just what they are delivering. 

2.   Help them light up
Dan Cable, Professor of Organisational Behaviour

      Humans care a lot about the effect of their behaviours on other people. If you’re a leader, helping others feel a sense of purpose can be a powerful tool to create eudemonia – purposeful happiness. It takes more than motivational talks or lofty speeches. Purpose is a grand word, but in the end, it’s about helping people see their impact on others and helping them develop a story about why the things they do matter.

      For example, Dr. Dorothee Ritz, the General Manager of Microsoft in Austria, encourages her employees to go out in the field and experience the clients’ problems first hand. One small team spent a week out on the street with police officers, trying to understand when and where remote data could help them. Another team spent two days in a hospital to observe and understand what it would really mean to help it become paperless. Ritz said these immersion experiences were enlightening for people, since they witnessed the why of their work first-hand. 

3.   Foster a sense of meaning
Ioannis Ioannou, Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship

      Give people a credible sense that their work matters beyond the company itself. People spend a large share of their lives at work, and they are more likely to experience that work positively when they can see that it contributes to something socially worthwhile. That sense of meaning becomes stronger when there is real alignment between the organisation’s broader purpose and the employee’s own values.

      Purpose only works when it is real. If it remains a slogan, or if the organisation’s actual decisions contradict it, employees will see through the gap very quickly. In those cases, purpose does not build happiness; it breeds cynicism. The organisations that get this right are not necessarily the ones with the most polished language, but the ones that translate purpose into real choices, everyday behaviours, and a visible contribution beyond profit alone.

 

4.   Build in freedom
Ena Inesi, Professor of Organisational Behaviour

      Give employees the freedom to accomplish some organisational goals and tasks in their own way. Research shows that people need a sense of autonomy and control to flourish. This doesn’t mean that leaders should give total autonomy to their direct reports; it just means allowing for pockets of time and space when they can carry out their work free from micromanagement.

      This can be accomplished through a variety of small acts, including providing freedom within the frame (Cable, 2018); engaging in a coaching style of leadership more often (Goleman, 2000), or setting aside time for employees to work on their pet projects (Pink, 2009). In addition to providing team members with a sense of autonomy, these pockets of freedom allow the opportunity for new ideas to emerge and benefit the organisation.

 

5.   Start with appreciation 
Amy Bradley, Adjunct Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour

      Why do we wait until someone has left (or died!) to share how much we value them? If there is one thing that workplaces could do to spread more happiness, it would be to amplify appreciation. Research shows that when gratitude is embedded in organisations it can have a powerful effect. Even brief, sincere expressions of appreciation for co-workers have been shown to produce measurable gains in effort, engagement and performance.

As individuals we can be harsh self-critics and more demanding of ourselves than anyone else could be. Sharing what we value in others can help people to feel better about themselves and to build confidence in their performance. If we are able to take what others value in us and replay these strengths back to ourselves, this can be a powerful resource to draw on to help us perform when times get tough.

If each of us were to start the day from a place of appreciation as opposed a place of criticism, this could have a hugely positive impact, not only for ourselves, but also for our relationships at work in the day ahead.

 

6.   Fairness is everything 
Alex Edmans, Professor of Finance

      Fairness involves evaluating contributions holistically, not through box-ticking or an exclusive focus on what can be quantified. Many of the most valuable contributions – raising standards, challenging constructively, and building the organisation’s external brand – do not fit neatly into metrics. Fairness requires recognising them, rather than taking the easy option of valuing only what we can count.

It also demands intellectual honesty and open-minded judgement. Rewards and promotions should follow careful evaluation of genuine impact – not precede it. Too often, decisions are shaped by favouritism and the performance criteria invented or reinterpreted to shape that choice.

But fairness goes beyond formal processes and economic rewards: it extends to everyday recognition and appreciation. It means cultivating a culture where colleagues celebrate each other’s success rather than resent it. In too many organisations, people quietly treat achievement as zero-sum – as if one person’s success is at the expense of everyone else. The result is a corrosive dynamic: As hire As, but Bs hire Cs.

Healthy organisations instead adopt a pie-growing mentality. When people believe that excellence strengthens the organisation rather than threatening their standing, trust rises, envy falls, and performance follows.