#61: Wellness at Work for Corporate Sustainability – Annika Mansson Happy at Work

The company’s responsibility for well-being at work is debatable; That work makes you sick is not acceptable in 2023. The performance of the company is closely linked to the well-being of human resources. With Annika Mansson, director of Happy at Work, we discuss it in this podcast. It also gives you very specific tools to take stock of your team.

I welcome Annika Mansson, Director and Founder of Happy at Work. A consulting firm that allows companies and employees to find how to make work a healthy place of achievement, performance and sustainability.

Annika says it perfectly:

Future generations (Z) will not accept the working conditions experienced by X. Now it is a matter of adjusting companies and management so that companies can last.

With Happy at Work they have also trained a hundred Chief Happiness Officers since 2019. We also talked about this profession and its possibilities.

In this episode, with Annika Mansson we discuss:

• His journey that led him to create Happy at Work and the trigger.
• The story of Happy at Work, founded in 2008. How they started at a time when well-being at work was not yet a priority in our region. What were your stages of development, in particular: Intercultural management, team cohesion, communication, efficiency, emotions and emotional intelligence
• Performance and well-being at work: Make no mistake, the company’s performance is necessary for its sustainability.
• The source of happiness at work that also comes from his Swedish roots: simplicity, authenticity, humility, concrete: common sense, earthy common sense, peasant.
• The work of the Chief Happiness Officer: participants, their needs, training, internal focus and the role of Happy at work.
• Realization and exhaustion at work and awareness of this exhaustion or denial.
• Today’s manager, how we can support you to be a better manager.
• The expectations and needs of Generation Z, which will represent 30% of the workforce in 2025.
• Your own personal routine to last and keep you focused.
• His wish for the world: that everyone can feel joy and gratitude as much as possible while respecting humans and nature. More respect and kindness.

In Sweden and the Nordic countries, we are in a culture where we expect to be well “ARBEJDSGLAEDE” happiness at work. They are the only countries that have a word for happiness at work.

We work 10,000 days in a lifetime. We can’t waste so many days. If I’m not okay with my job, what can I do?

The benefits of happiness and well-being at work for a company

• Positive emotions are good for our health. Thus there is less absenteeism and therefore less costs.
• loyalty is 9 times higher when the employee expects to return to work on Monday.
• 31% more productivity.
• If you feel good in your shoes, you will be a better colleague and/or manager.
• 51% more creativity.
• 21% more profitability for companies whose employees are engaged.

Director of Happiness

Annika shares a specific case with the example of an SME with 250 employees that started a pilot, within the marketing and communication department, and that was finally implemented within the company.

The ideal version for Annika would come from a strategy that aligns with the culture: “employee well-being is one of our priorities” and therefore she would prefer it to be decided by management.

For some of the CHOs it works one way or another. Because well-being at work operates on 3 levels:

1. strategy
2. cultural
3. Operational.

What are the levers of happiness at work?

Anniak drew, in large part, on Daniel Kahneman’s work on the subject of happiness, as well as years of support to identify the 3 levers:
HE The 3Rs of happiness at work are the:

1. Relationship : quality, trust, sharing, listening, supporting, recognizing.
2. Result : tangible achievement and impact. Do I have the resources to achieve, do I have the framework, the autonomy and the talent?
3. Resilience : physical, mental, emotional and meaning (why).

Happy at Work has the tools to measure the level of compliance as well as the level of burnout. And so prevention is the main business: learning to spot the green, orange, and red signs of burnout. The signals for each person and for the team that are different.

Establish a climate so that everyone can express what they feel: trust and a security framework for it.

So we can dare to say what is going well.

Managers must be trained in the tools of well-being at work

Well-being at work specialists have tools to measure, yet managers are not yet sufficiently trained. They do not know how to manage the signs of a burn-out as well as the reactions to have and the actions to take.

Managers must be supported in their task. It is an investment for the company and managers.

70% of a team’s feedback depends on the manager, so it is essential to manage suffering at work.

How do I manage as a manager? When I need to stimulate people at the same time that I deliver what I have to deliver.

How to handle anxiety? The world is then in the team. Because we are not sure.

The world changes. Does your management change? Does your way of managing business change?

What is my approach?

How can I adjust?

How can I be assertive?

Expectations of Generation Z at work

Questioning is necessary on the part of companies and managers because GenZ will represent 30% of the workforce by 2025. They will impose their expectation. Are you ready ?

Your expectations:

• flexibility
• how it works, with whom and from where
• well-being that is more important than salary: balance, taking care of our mental and physical health, imbalance is denied, ethics, transparency, meaning, authenticity, getting out of shit, the latest technologies.

To follow Happy at Work and Annika Mansson:

Do you need to start thinking about your happiness, well-being and the workplace in your life?

Here are some resources we have for you at Greenheart.business:

Your personal ecology and that of your people begins with:

Are you looking for meaning and need to trust new tools, like your intuition, less ego, or more awareness? These are our resources for you:

Are you looking for ways to manage your teams in a different way, with more humanity and presence? Listen to the following episodes:

We can also organize a conference within your company to educate your people about indoor ecology or just have a coffee and discuss your needs. Contact us and let’s talk about it!