Low-performing organisations should, on the other hand, be scrutinising how unhappy employees are having a detrimental impact on their bottom line. Understanding this ‘cost of misery’ and turning it around is what performance expert Stoke specialises in.
“Traditional training doesn’t work,” states Tracey Proudfoot, director at Stoke. “To put it quite simply, people do not implement what they have learnt.”
Proven performance management
Stoke, global partner for theUK’s iOpener Institute for people and performance inSouth Africa, has introduced this cutting edge knowledge into the country. Major improvements have already been implemented and achieved within companies in Europe,Middle Eastand US.
Happiness at Work (H@W) is defined by the iOpener Institute as a mindset which allows employees to maximise performance and achieve their potential. It is not about emotional highs or personality but rather mindset happiness.
According to Stoke, H@W can be measured. The iOpener People & Performance Questionnaire [iPPQ] assesses how happy an organisation is and how performance and profit can be increased. Every individual in a team or organisation who is part of a H@W project gets an individual 10-page report; which enables them to take a proactive role in understanding how to take personal responsibility for change.
If you can measure it, you can manage it. Until now, most people intuitively knew that happier people meant more productive people. But there was no tangible evidence.
Return on investment
“There is a clear relationship between H@W and performance and a proven methodology to measure it. By addressing the tangible components of H@W, performance of individuals, teams and organisations can be enhanced,” says Katie Demain, consultant at Stoke, “which leads to a demonstrable return on investment (ROI) for clients.”
State-of-the-art IT systems enable us to collect data from individuals in organisations and determine their performance relating to how happy they are.”
iOpener Institute’s Performance-Happiness Model illustrates the broad structure of the approach to performance-enhancing interventions in organisations. It’s a model that directly reflects the Science of Happiness at Work and the robust statistical analysis that lies behind it.
Making organisations happy
Stoke’s expertise falls into six areas; the Science of Happiness at Work (work mindset enhancement), leadership development, people behaviour acumen, emotional intelligence development, business effectiveness, and executive coaching.
“Organisations today are often very unhappy places to be: there’s too much to do, too few resources, too little talent and still so much waste. Leaders everywhere worry about retaining their best people, ensuring motivation, making initiatives work, and getting projects delivered, all while enabling everyone to stay creative and innovative,” comments Jessica Pryce-Jones, CEO of iOpener Institute. “Money can’t buy happiness, everyone knows that. But when looking at the bottom line, happiness sure saves money.”
Over the past six years the company’s world-class, in-house research team has developed meticulous and innovative ways of assessing what enables people worldwide to consistently deliver measurable and sustainable results. Working to the highest academic standards, they create knowledge and translate it into practical audit, assessment and development solutions for individuals, teams and organisations.