Wellbeing and the employee experience is more of a priority than ever before, given the impact of the pandemic, the cost of living crisis and living in an ever-increasingly digital world. However, the way that wellbeing is looked at needs to change, as well as the employee experience and the concept of happiness at work.
Read more: Ask yourself, are you having fun at work?
So, what is contentment?
To many, it is a state of happiness and satisfaction. But for me, it means accepting what has happened, knowing what you can change and what you can’t change, and learning to be okay with this.
Employees place themselves in the workplace to do a role and yet the culture, the leadership, the interactions with colleagues are all things that can fluctuate. This is where contentment comes in, as a way of learning to deal with the things that we have less control over.
What can we do as HR professionals to build a culture of contentment?
We need to use the experts in the fields of psychology, mental health and neuroscience more. Too often, all the people-related challenges fall to HR professionals and we forget the expertise that is needed.
Language and vocabulary is also key, and never more so than when speaking about wellbeing and the employee experience. HR professionals need to be conscious of the words we use when it comes to wellbeing, employee experience and happiness and what they mean. Replacing the word happiness with contentment is a good starting point, but explaining this to the workforce is also important.
Read more: What Nordic culture teaches us about happiness at work
We need to build safe environments for people to be able to bring their best selves to work, be able to speak up about anything that is troubling them and knowing it is safe to do so. For this, a crucial step is leadership and management development. These are the people that can impact the employee experience and wellbeing the most. They need the confidence and ability to listen when people speak up, but also have to be clear on how they can support employees.
We need to gather good data to help understand our workforces, learn what is important to them, and where will they need support. An understanding of the culture of the organisation and good internal communications is crucial for employees to build their awareness and knowledge of the organisation.
Every day we will all face things we might not be fully 'happy' with, whether because something happens, is said, or a decision is made: yet we carry on, and this is where contentment comes in. Let’s change our thinking, our language and be more realistic about wellbeing and the employee experience by being content and promoting contentment, rather than happiness.
Idris Arshad is head of people at Asthma and Lung UK
