And now 2022 is ending with a probable recession. In other words? It’s been a tough 12 months.

Many of this year’s employment trends have focused on workers’ unfulfilled needs. Employees felt unheard, underpaid and underdeveloped, so they sought out new opportunities. They felt frustrated over high expectations and low recognition, so they decided to give a little less. We’ve seen the trend of dissatisfaction play out in research, too. Workers report that they are lonely and face massive burnout.

Many leaders — myself included — are troubled by the dwindling emotional health of their employees and how the decline is impacting team members. We root for our workers. We want them to thrive. We also root for our businesses, and we know that when worker engagement falls, so does productivity, innovation, and other vital signs.

So how do we make sure our workers are happy?

Step 1: Get to know your workers

The first step to improving employee happiness is to get to know your workers. I’m sure you know your workers’ names and titles. And I know you’ve got a general idea of who’s a superstar and who’s a problem child. But that’s not what I’m getting at — I want to know if you actually know the people on your payroll.

Picture this team. Amy is from Michigan and got a communications degree from a small school somewhere out West. Oscar hails from California and started his career overseas, though you can’t remember where. Before moving over to the private sector, Donna worked for the federal government — but what did she do, again?

Knowing the basics of your employees’ stories shows that you didn’t daydream through their job interview or newcomer lunch. This knowledge also provides a sense of kinship. A familiarity between you and your workers makes them feel seen.

Step 2: Know the WHY Inside

While these kinds of details are important, they may not give you all the information you need to help your workers succeed. Employees’ stories will help you discover what makes them tick. Insights about their behavior will help chart a path to professional success.

For example: Do you know how much or little they like or feel comfortable with feedback on how they’re doing? It’s important to understand your employees’ backgrounds. But it’s just as essential to know WHO they are inside — how they think, how they work, and how they grow.

Take Oscar, for instance: He started his professional life in London after studying abroad there during his undergrad. He moved back to the States to care for his parents, but he longs for opportunities that will satisfy his thirst for learning and adventure.

Behavior data will help decode Oscar’s story and reveal who he is and what works best in connecting with him.  Knowing the behavioral WHY inside can help Oscar’s mentors understand how to help him succeed.

Step 3: Lead workers to greatness

Workers are hungry for new opportunities. This desire is so great that a lack of opportunities for growth motivates some to quit. The Sitel Group, a customer experience management company, released a research in 2019 that concluded 37% of employees would leave their current job if they were not offered training to gain new skills.

Behavior data tells employers who needs what kind of opportunity and why. It aligns employees with available opportunities based on their strengths, interests and behaviors. The best part about this? It keeps workers happy, and it strengthens your business.

I’ve just walked through three steps to help you understand your people and boost their happiness in 2023.  As I conclude, I want to leave you with a question: When will YOU start to know your team?

I’ll make it easy for you. Give us a call, and we’ll run a free team study on each of your people and provide you with a free analysis of each person and how you can achieve each of these steps.  All you have to do is call (714) 685-1020 or email us at [email protected] with the code HAPPINESS23.

PeopleBest is in the business of creating happiness and productivity, so we can’t wait to help you.

Happy New Year!

A recent report from Mercer found that employees deeply need mental health support. One in five respondents worldwide said they experience high or extreme levels of stress on a daily basis. Those numbers rose to 25% among U.S. workers.

The dire state of worker mental health isn’t exactly surprising. According to the World Health Organization, the pandemic triggered a 25% increase in the prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide. As employees struggle to get the help they need, they’ve turned to their employers.

Eighty percent of respondents in a 2022 poll from the American Psychological Association said they plan to consider employers’ mental health-related offerings when they search for a new job.

Employers have taken note. Many organizations are offering new and enhanced mental health benefits, from wellness rooms and awareness efforts to time off and expanded health insurance coverage.

As organizations devise strategies to support worker mental health, I have one suggestion: Don’t forget the preventive measures. Some of the world’s leading experts in mental health point to the power of preventive care, yet it’s something we employers, in our haste to get workers the help they need, often forget about. Read on to learn more about one way employers can focus on prevention in mental wellness.

The value of prevention

As employers, and as people, we tend to view mental health care as something that comes after: after symptoms get bad, after a crisis occurs. Don’t get me wrong. Mental health support should be readily available and accessible whenever anyone needs it.

But there’s another timing element to consider: before. Consider the perspective of Nick Taylor, a U.K.-based clinical psychologist who founded workplace mental health platform Unmind. In an interview with HR Dive, Taylor spoke about employers’ overwhelming focus on reactive care.

“The historical approach to the topic of mental health has been to put all of our focus on people who have mental illnesses. And the problem is that category keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and we just can’t build enough nets to catch people as they kind of fall into that category of mental illness…All of the focus has been on reactive solutions; we wait for people to get unwell and we try to get them a solution for them. But there aren’t enough therapists, clinicians and social workers in the world to support those people. We’re saying, ‘Hold up. Stop putting all your attention on reactive care and focus your attention on proactive care.’”

What could prevention look like?

So how can employers provide their workforces with proactive mental health solutions? One possible solution: Coaching.

The APA encourages organizations to train managers to promote health and well-being. Managers and supervisors who work directly with employees have a special opportunity to highlight opportunities that create support.

I would suggest employers take this a step further and provide coaching with an eye toward mental health — not only as a way to flag issues but also as a way to build mental health strength. Through coaching, employers can help employees build resilience.

Coaching can be especially successful when employers are equipped with real-time data about their employees’ strengths and weaknesses. With PeopleBest’s AI-powered platform, employers get a picture of where their employees thrive, how they succeed, and where they need to buid. To find out how PeopleBest can serve your team, book a demo and set up a time to chat with one of our specialists.

PeopleBest is a revolutionary, simple and powerful way to capture the exact ‘DNA of success’ inside people, teams and companies

Did you know, workers are 80% more likely to improve in their jobs when they see managers making bringing their A game, according to software developer Humu. Humu’s report also revealed that employees felt more support and showed greater resilience when they were working under good managers during the pandemic.

A Gallup study found that an excellent manager can boost a business’s profitability by 48%. The same study showed that great managers can increase employee engagement by 30% and drive productivity by 22%.

These statistics, while illuminating, raise an important question: What makes a good manager? Research promises amazing results from good, great, and excellent managers. But what are the exact qualities that make managers so effective?

The 1-2-3 checklist of a good manager

At PeopleBest, we’ve spent years distilling behavior data from managers from every industry, nationally and globally. This information has allowed us to single out the skills that make good managers great. Here are three TOP areas to challenge your management skills on:

1.Decision Quality

A manager’s confidence stems from the proven quality of her decision making. How does she execute business goals? How does she ensure efficiency, productivity, and profit? Decision quality says it all.

A question for you: How much do you allow others to share in both a decision and ownership of this decision? People support that which they help create, so decisions may not always be yours alone.

2. Coaching Effectiveness

A good manager can take a mediocre worker and make a star employee. How? Coaching. Through motivation, goal setting, and follow through, managers help workers see and reach their own potential.

To be a great coach you need to be organized, consistent, and have the time to be there for each person you manage. It’s one thing to be skilled but if you’re not consistently spending time and managing progress, you’re not progressing? Remember: You can’t manage what you don’t measure!

3. Team Building

A coach doesn’t lead one player — she leads the whole team. Managers must be able to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of each individual team member and align her team accordingly.

Finding each person’s code of success is essential… Just ask us to help, if you wish!

Show managers where they shine

PeopleBest’s software gives managers a window into their skills, providing the self knowledge they need to recognize their strengths and improve on their weaknesses.

When managers understand the qualities that make them great — and the qualities that could make them greater — they create the potential to drive the business results everyone dreams of. Better retention? Check. Greater productivity? You bet. Amplified engagement? Absolutely.

Allow us to show you how to become a rock-star manager.
No obligation, just schedule a demo to chat.

But what exactly is it?

Gartner puts it this way: “People analytics is the collection and application of talent data to improve critical talent and business outcomes.” This “talent data” generally measures a few different areas, from engagement and diversity to retention and recruiting.

People analytics is a good thing, and it can absolutely help HR departments get down to business. But datasets often lack one key element: Behavior. Information about employees’ habits will decode all of the other intel they report about their productivity, satisfaction and hang ups.

Add behavior — it just makes sense

Behavior data informs other areas of people analytics. Let’s consider how it can illuminate findings about company leaders.

Perhaps HR’s people analytics flag that there’s some frustration brewing in the engineering department, and many employees are reporting dissatisfaction with team leadership.

The analytics stop there.

HR pulls the performance reviews for engineering managers completed by the chief technology officer, but everyone has exceeded expectations. What does HR do now?

Behavior data lights the path forward. Behavior data can tell HR, for example, whether a manager’s leadership style is out of sync with a team’s preferences. A boss with micro-managing tendencies may irritate a group of workers who want to work hard on their long lists of tasks without a lot of interruption.
The situation could skew the other way, of course. A group of early career, entry level employees may falter without extra support from a hands-off boss.

Behavior data will tell you exactly how people are oriented. Regular people analytics? It won’t get you there.

You can’t count on lackluster data

With workers leaving their jobs in droves, employers must do whatever they can to recruit and retain the best talent. Data can help them do that, but the numbers have to reveal why people struggle or thrive in their roles.

When a dataset reports underwhelming results, employers are left guessing at their next move. But when the numbers flag the biggest issues and indicate the best response, HR knows the right path forward.

To find out how PeopleBest can provide the data to round out your people analytics, book a demo and set up a time to chat with one of our specialists.

PeopleBest is a revolutionary, simple and powerful way to capture the exact ‘DNA of success’ inside people, teams and companies.