Happiness: is it your employer’s job to provide it? Many leaders I’ve encountered say “no, staff is paid for doing a job and that’s enough. We don’t need this ‘employees of the week’ lark, birthday cards or baristas for them to work hard.”
That’s partly true. Two decades of academic research finds that thriving instead of surviving at work is not down to individual personality traits or expensive employee perks; it’s a set of conditions that leaders can design for deliberately.
It’s like creating a healthy garden: you need nutritious soil, lots of water, decent weather and consistent care and attention. The research shows us that there is a magical formula for thriving at work but most companies ignore it, don’t know about it or think it’s unnecessary.
So, what is thriving at work anyway? Ask a friend how they’re getting on at work and they’ll likely say they’re managing okay. Many probably enjoy the job they’re doing and their co-workers, too. They might say they’re surviving, busy, coping, ticking off an endless to-do list.
What you might not hear is the language of thriving, defined by researchers as feeling energised (vitality) by the work and getting better at it (learning) all the time. Interestingly, this gap between surviving and thriving has been rigorously studied by organisational scientists.
Energy without growth curdles into busywork; growth without energy drains staff, according to Gretchen Spreitzer of the University of Michigan and colleagues in Organization Science back in 2005. To get the most out of workers, you need both at the same time.
In fact, thriving employees performed 16 per cent better overall, had a whopping 125 per cent less burnout, 32 per cent more commitment to the company and 46 per cent more job satisfaction than their peers, according to Spreitzer and Georgetown’s Christine Porath in the Harvard Business Review in 2012. That’s a helluva business case for a redesigned workplace.
If you need more evidence that the magical formula actually works, a 2019 analysis in the Journal of Organizational Behavior (covering 73 samples and nearly 22,000 employees) confirmed the findings: thriving is strongly associated with engagement, commitment and task performance, and strongly negatively associated with burnout.
[ Burnout by design: what can you do to avoid it?Opens in new window ]
Why change the way things are? Employee burnout levels are at an all-time high and re-engaging workers is essential for sustained business growth. The McKinsey Health Institute found burnout is driven by workplace demands; thriving is driven by workplace enablers such as meaningful work.
Removing what is toxic will not, on its own, create what is energising. McKinsey and the World Economic Forum estimate that getting this right could generate up to $11.7 trillion in global economic value.
The best way to engage workers is to create a framework that supports them consistently, says Aoife O’Brien, workplace culture expert and author of Thriving Talent: How Great Leaders Drive Performance, Engagement and Retention.
Although the people side of things used to be HR’s problem alone now everyone needs to be responsible for creating a work culture that works or be left behind.
The role of managers has changed over the past 10 years. Previously, they were expected to supervise and help develop their people but now they need to ensure staff members work in a safe environment, understand personalities and capabilities and become role models themselves, she says.
Although everyone’s recipe for a thriving workplace is slightly different – like soil, water sunshine and weed and feed combinations – the four basic ingredients are the same.
Psychological safety. Leaders do not need endless budgets or perfect conditions to help people thrive, they first need psychological safety as the supportive base layer of soil, and a leadership style reflects agreed company values. Psychological safety, based on Harvard professor Amy Edmondson’s research, is when a team feels safe enough for interpersonal risk-taking: asking questions, admitting mistakes and challenging the plan. Psychological safety is the best indicator of the highest-performing teams.
Autonomy. The second element is autonomy. We’re most motivated when we have three needs met: autonomy, competence and relatedness. Decades of studies show that autonomy at work directly increases feelings of vitality, half of the thriving equation. Think of it as the water. When we give people real decision-making power over how they do their work instead of micromanaging them, they thrive.
Learning and growth. If vitality is the sunshine, learning is the growth. People are energised when they’re gaining knowledge and skills. O’Brien’s framework stresses strengths-based development or building capability around what people naturally do well instead of focusing on weakness. Managers also need to show care and attention by providing regular, specific performance feedback to employees on their progress and by investing in staff development. Staff who see a path forward for themselves bring more energy to the journey.
Connection and respect. The fourth is civility and connection. Spreitzer and Porath identify minimising incivility (let’s call it bad soil) as one of their four conditions for thriving. Rudeness is not merely unpleasant, it measurably suppresses performance and spreads through teams like an invasive weed. The good soil of supportive coworker behaviour, supportive leadership and organisational support are all strongly correlated with thriving people.
Nowhere does the research mention pool tables, staff drinks or wellness apps. The research is quietly damning about perk-led approaches. Sure, they’re nice to have – who wouldn’t want free snacks and subsidised meals? – but they’re not helping employee performance and loyalty. (Personally, my performance improves with good dark chocolate and prosecco).
Change interventions only work when they’re integrated down to the level of the job, the team and the organisation – redesigning individual workloads, clarifying roles, training up managers – not when you ask exhausted staff to just breathe more deeply or play football together. As O’Brien says the problem is rarely the people, it’s usually the system around them.
Once you dig into the ingredients it seems obvious why this recipe makes workplaces work better. Wouldn’t you enjoy working in a place where people feel free to speak honestly, take risks and admit mistakes?
Go to a job that gives you choices about how your work gets done? Have regular chats with your manager about how they can invest in your learning, and get feedback on how to improve certain areas and develop your strengths?
Know that bad manners are unacceptable at work but connection and engagement is expected? Watch your leaders’ role modelling the desired behaviours and live your shared company values? And imagine a place where your colleagues share information generously so people can see the whole picture?
Sounds like nirvana but it’s entirely possible. No extra budget is required, just leaders’ and managers’ willingness to become more self-aware, behave consistently and make thriving a central operating principle, not another HR wellness initiative.
Organisations and companies that use the magical formula will not just have happier staff. They’ll have a performance edge on competitors, reduced burnout, retained talent and a workforce engaged, as Spreitzer and Porath put it, not just in doing the job but in creating the future. What’s not to like?
Margaret E Ward is chief executive of Clear Eye, a leadership consultancy. margaret@cleareye.ie
