“...bad moods are contagious.
On the flip side, if bad moods are
contagious, so are good moods.”
ow imagine that you are a spa
front desk coordinator, and
yes, you are still answering the
phones, checking clients in
and doing a slew of other tasks. This time,
however, your boss regularly lets you know
that she appreciates how you are adding
value to the team, your team often talks
about how each position contributes to
the overall mission and the bottom line,
and you have been empowered to antic-
ipate customer issues and resolve them
when they do occur, so complaints are
barely a blip on the radar and don’t get
you down. You enjoy your job and you are
excited to come to work and do your best.
Now what kind of experience do you
think the customer is going to have with
this employee?
A study conducted by James Fowler of
UC San Diego and Nicholas Christakis of
Harvard Medical School and published in
the British Medical Journal, suggests that
bad moods can be picked up via
inflection, body language and intonation
—among other indicators. Essentially, bad
moods are contagious.
On the flip side, if bad moods are
contagious, so are good moods, which is
also what the study found. The research
N
showed that those who are surrounded by
happy people are 15 percent more likely to
be happy themselves.
What kind of mood do you think your
employees are spreading to your
customers?
Retention, Engagement
and Employee Happiness
One way we can find out is by looking
at employee engagement, retention and
happiness numbers. According to the
2017 Gallup State of the Global
Workplace study, only 13 percent of
employees worldwide are engaged at
work. That means that only about one
in eight workers are psychologically
committed to their jobs and likely
making positive contributions to the
customer experience. That’s nuts!
The spa industry isn’t exempt from
this epidemic. According to a 2017 ISPA
Snapshot Survey on employee retention
and satisfaction, work environment (71
percent) was overwhelmingly the top
reason for leaving a job among spa
leaders under the age of 35.
Gallup’s 2017 State of the American
Workforce Study showed that 70 percent
of Americans report feeling unhappy and
SPEAKING OF HAPPINESS, have you heard the
news? Shawn Achor will be the opening keynote
speaker at the 2018 ISPA CONFERENCE & EXPO.
Head to attendispa.com for more info.
uninspired in their jobs. It’s not
surprising when you look at the 2017
World Happiness Report (conducted
annually by the World Happiness
Institute), where America has fallen to
number 15 in the overall happiness
rankings. Do you know who consistently
ranks in the top five on this list? Our
Nordic friends in Norway, Denmark,
Iceland and Finland.
The Danes over in Denmark are even
nicknamed “the happiest people in the
world,” despite spending half the year in
utter darkness. Why is that? Some like to
credit hygge, but I think it’s arbejdsglæd,
which means “happiness at work or work
joy.” Danish is one of the only languages
to have a word for this feeling. Nordic
countries have been focusing on creating
happiness in the workplace for the last 30
to 40 years, and it’s time the rest of the
world caught up.
Creating a Joy-Filled
Workplace
Now, when some people hear the phrase
“joy-filled workplace,” they automatically
assume that means we need to create a
“fun workplace.” They think they need to
be like Zappos and have their employees
dress up in costumes and decorate their
cubicles. They think they need to be like
Google and create slides and ball pits for
their employees or buy foosball tables and
video games for their employees like Best
Buy. Or they think they need to replicate
the Pike’s Place Fish Market in Seattle, even
though they don’t have any fish to fling!
There is no-one-size-fits-all workplace
joy program. Your joy-filled workplace will
March/April 2018
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