How do you create a happier workplace? Matt Phelan, co-founder and Head of Global Happiness at The Happiness Index (THI), came to Seven Hills to give a talk on his professional journey and the solutions his company provides to help with this question.
Matt started his own digital marketing agency in 2008, which grew to over 1000 employees and was sold in 2016. Taking that experience and the money from the sale, Matt founded THI, with the aim of helping organisations run more smoothly and happily, by ending the interminable arguments in the board room about employee wellbeing, and replacing them with hard data and insights.
One of the biggest challenges with addressing employee unhappiness is the fact that, the less happy you are, the less likely you are to speak out: or, as Matt said, “happy employees react, unhappy employees reflect”.
But by combining academic research with real-time data and insights, as well AI that takes employee feedback and compiles a report prioritising the key information, THI is able to provide solutions that are tailored to their clients’ specific situations and environments.
One of the trends that THI has found is that people prefer to work at smaller companies, where they are closer to the people who make the decisions, and this is especially the case for younger people. Another is that most people want to find a place to work in the long-term where they can perform highly, going against the common wisdom that people only want to work at one place for 18 months at a time.
Learn more about The Happiness Index here.