Shot of a team of very happy businessmen applauding an achievement while working late in the day. … [+]
What a year 2023 has been. As we look ahead to 2024, I have also written a series of predictions on AI and numerous articles on mental health, well-being and happiness, and the links can be easily found below.
We face major challenges in our new hybrid and return to office work, as many employees remain very unhappy with the new reality of their new work context.
I’ve seen companies change their policies 4+ times a year as employees’ temperature rises expressing how they feel.
Statistics show that employees are much more unhappy than they were at the start of 2020. Bamboo HR did a recent survey and found that 57,000 workers at 1,600 companies show that employee satisfaction has dropped 10 times faster than in the previous three years. ADP also reported that U.S. happiness and motivation fell to the lowest level in August since 2022.
Dissatisfaction in the tech sector has been particularly hard hit, with the biggest drop in happiness over the past three years – down 145 percent.
As our economy remains fragile in North America and grapples with higher interest rates, trying to balance inflation, against the backdrop of disgruntled employees, on average 20-30% of employees wake up every sad or angry day.
How to reverse the trend? My 2024 executive wish list is as follows.
1.) Better understand happiness as a strategic foundation integrate the most advanced research and scientifically proven causes of unhappiness and develop a plan for future improvement (read my research articles below).
2.) Create a brand around your happiness improvement program – you must carefully choose energizing words like: Prosper, Joy, Happiness, Passion, etc.
3.) Leverage the science of physics on attractor theory to create an energetic force that helps bring together new desired behaviors and amplify them into proven employee engagement strategies.
4.) Create a management team that smiles often because smiles are priceless, they are free and they are powerful motivators for your employees. Sour grapes are no fun to work with, nor are Debbie Downers. Did you know that when you smile, your brain releases dopamine, endorphins and serotonin. These neurotransmitters are associated with decreasing your anxiety and increasing feelings of happiness. In fact, serotonin is often the chemical that antidepressant medications attempt to regulate. Even be creative and measure your smiles during your leadership meetings.
5.) Appoint a Chief Happiness Officer is, in essence, an HR manager with a particular qualification: he believes happy employees make better employees. Engaging employees, motivating them and increasing performance levels are all HR responsibilities. While these are the responsibilities most commonly used to describe the CHO position, there are many other HR areas where happiness matters. (This is often a VP of Employee Engagement title, but more formalized titles and doesn’t have a clear outcome like happiness – signals the goal).
6.) Develop your employees’ toolboxes and operational practices on happiness, with a constant focus on using daily happiness check-in, simple structures that show you care more. Check out the innovative AI happiness toolkits mentioned in my most recent article below.
Conclusion and best wishes for New York 2024
As I sign off on my Forbes 2023 article as a global AI thought leader passionate about designing and building SaaS AI products, custom AI models, and generative AI applications, my passion is still to ensuring that responsible AI practices are always at the forefront, and what matters is ensuring that your people are happy and transparent in their daily leadership behaviors.
I hope you enjoyed the series on employee happiness and I hope to write a book about it in the near future.
I’m currently writing a book on responsible AI and ethics – so stay tuned.
How do I find time to juggle so much – it’s a discipline of getting up early, writing, always thinking and always staying healthy.
Here we go for my day walk in New York – and spend the evening with my friends and family.
Signing and best wishes for the coming new year and stay happy.
#Happiness matters
Dr. Cindy Gordon’s articles on employee happiness can be found here: