Kindness Wins In The Workplace

[vc_row][vc_column el_class=”blog-text-color”]If you’ve ever watched Swimming with Sharks or HBO’s Entourage, or even read the infamous Mailroom, you’ll know that everyone’s perceptions of a driven and successful workplace has been dominated by anger, frustration, anxiety and “paying your dues.” Recent news has shown us how toxic corporate cultures can greatly affect a business. Situations with The Weinstein Company and Zenefits are stark reminders that it doesn’t always pay to be “the bad guy,” “the asshole,” or anything other than put together, strong and empathetic.

How many of us have worked at companies with a toxic culture, or for an employer that we dread going into work for because of the way they make us feel and how they treat us?

Given how much time we spend at work, company culture has a significant impact on our livelihood and well-being. No generation is more aware of the importance of wellness than millennials. To a great degree, millennials are responsible for the burgeoning wellness market and are recognized for being a generation driven by values. Now, as they are expected to become nearly half the working population by 2020, they are having a drastic impact on company cultures.

“Generation Nice” is no longer tolerating less than ideal workplace environments. Kindness is becoming more than a golden rule for companies. It’s a must. And if you want your company to succeed, kindness as a company value is critical.

According to a study by the American Psychological association, and as reported by the Harvard Business Journal, health care expenditures are 50% higher at high pressure companies than other companies, and more than $500 billion is siphoned off from the U.S. economy because of workplace stress. This amounts to 500 million workdays lost each year due to stress on the job, not to mention 60% to 80% of workplace accidents are stress-related as well. .

Unhappy workers become disengaged, resulting in 37% higher absenteeism and 60% more errors and defects. Organizations with disengaged employees showed 18% lower productivity, 16% lower profitability, 37% lower job growth, and 65% lower share price over time. Quantified in a dollar amount, a company of 5,000 hourly employees has the potential to reduce costs by $7.9 million per year, or 3.2% of total payroll, through promoting positive employee wellbeing.

Finally, employee turnover as a result of unhappiness is incredibly costly to businesses. It is estimated that replacing a single employee costs approximately 20% of that employee’s salary, and a lack of employee well-being leads to an increase of almost 50% in voluntary employee turnover.

So, employee well-being and kindness in the workplace is more essential to winning than you might expect. Happy workers are more productive workers. By implementing kindness as a value at your company, not only will your business perform better, but your workplace will generally have a wonderful, positive and welcoming environment that will contribute to your employee’s happiness.

A smile can work wonders in someone’s day, even offering to grab them coffee. Something so small can have so much impact. Kindness also helps the people who give it. A study that Kindness.org conducted showed that performing acts of kindness had a positive effect on the performer’s overall well being including having a positive impact on the kind person’s happiness, life satisfaction, compassion, trust, and positivity regarding humanity and social connection.

Employee well-being comes from having a positive culture. That’s why we developed the Kindsouls application which is a social support app for people to offer goodness to those in need of a little empathy & understanding. We recognized how important kindness is to well-being and how exhibiting kindness has a positive impact on individuals who choose to implement it as a value.

You can find out more about our kindness application by going to www.kindsouls.co, and you can download our iPhone application at www.kindsouls.co/app. Join our Kindsouls #kindvibetribe and start spreading kindness today.[/vc_column_text