HR Is The “Happiness Maker” For Employees, But Who Is Ensuring Their Happiness?
December 2, 2022
About 91 million results were found when you search for the keyword “employee happiness” on Google. But when it comes to "the happiness of HR", a few results are all we can find. Busy finding happiness for others, is HR– forgetting to look out for their own happiness?
The happiness “seekers”
Happy employees are 12% more productive, according to research by Social Market Foundation (SMF). When employee happiness becomes the top 1 priority, HR is now the “gatekeeper” building and developing policies that ensure employee happiness. However, it is not easy to create happiness and at the same time, balance employees and business demand.
But as they are busy taking care of employees’ total well-being, HR is left struggling with taking care of their mental health and maintaining their happiness. According to research by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the pandemic has left HR with burnout and exhaustion during the process of hiring and recruiting.
HR has been taking care of employees’ happiness, but who will take care of HR’s happiness?
Ms. Tiêu Yến Trinh, CEO of Talentnet believes: “While they are trying to maintain employee’s happiness, HR seems to forget that themselves are also the representatives of the organization. Reflecting on their happiness is a way for HR to create policies that focus on employees’ well-being. Only when they can feel the joy, can HR implement that joy into HR initiatives.”
However, it is not easy for HR to maintain a balanced relationship between the organization and employees. “Nobody was really taking care of HR while we were running around like headless chickens trying to make sure everybody else was OK,” Sharon Kittredje, vice president of people at streaming platform Agora in Santa Clara, Calif shared. According to Ms. Trinh, business leaders also need to provide a “strategy” specifically for HR – who play a crucial role in any business.
Besides the recognition, businesses can reduce work pressure on HR by using HR outsourcing services. Listening to HR feedback and suggestions is also a way to make them feel respected and valued at the organization.
In order to figure out what are the genuine joys of your employees, leaders need to understand the true nature of happiness. Under the theme “Awakening Joy”, Vietnam HR Awards Gala 2022 organized by Talentnet can provide the answer to that question. With 10 experts from different walks of life: art, psychology, sociology, etc. the event’s purpose is to decode all the facets of employees’ well-being as the whole selves, not just workers. Moreover, by featuring real business cases of happiness from global-citizen business leaders, the event targets to make enterprises know their people better and act for people in their journey of growth and happiness.
Source: Thanh Niên