Members of SAP SuccessFactors’ Value Realization Research team are constantly reading up on the topics most important to you, your employees, and your managers. Each week we will be sharing an interesting finding we’ve read about to give you innovative and data-based ideas on how to better structure your HR processes and more effectively manage your workforce.
This week: The positive effects of employee gratitude—Thanksgiving Edition!
As we mentioned last week, employee health and well-being matters to the organizational bottom line. Companies spend an enormous amount of money designing and deploying programs to influence employee health, but factors such as job insecurity, increased expectations of being available during off-work times, and full workloads take their toll on employees’ mental well-being. A recent study published in the Journal of Business Psychology suggests that certain mindsets intentionally adopted by employees can offset some of these negative effects. In their study, Kaplan (George Mason University) and colleagues designed two interventions for university employees: one designed to create a “gratitude” mindset in which employees routinely focused on the things in their work for which they are grateful; the other designed to create a “social connectedness” mindset in which employees were routinely encouraged to connect with their coworkers. The researchers found that both interventions were successful in positively influencing health and well-being. The gratitude intervention in particular was effective at enhancing employee feelings of gratitude and well-being at a later point in time, as well as decreasing employee absence due to illness. These findings suggest that organizational initiatives that foster employee gratitude may be key to developing a healthy, engaged workforce.
For more information, access the research abstract and full article here.
