Best Job Ever

By Jennifer Leake

Executive Summary:

“Your employees’ emotions affect how well they engage and how well they perform.

Emotional culture – what is it and why is it important?

Workplaces have always been emotional places, but even more so during these unusual times. We all experience a wide range of pleasant and unpleasant feelings at work as we interact with coworkers, customers, suppliers, and others. When the unpleasant emotions outweigh the pleasant emotions, we experience stress – and it’s not unusual for times of change or uncertainty to be stressful.

Emotional culture in the workplace refers to the emotions, attitudes, and values in a company, and greatly influences what it’s like to work there. It’s a key driver in engagement and productivity because how employees feel affects how well they engage and how well they perform.

According to the Harvard Business Review, “every organization has an emotional culture, even if it’s one of suppression. Emotional culture influences employee satisfaction, burnout, teamwork ... financial performance and absenteeism.

Pleasant feelings are productive emotions and have a ‘broaden and build’ effect causing us to think more broadly, engage more deeply and perform better. Pleasant emotions at work are consistently associated with better performance,

quality, and customer service. It’s part of the reason why being your employees’ Best Job Ever is so important.

Unpleasant feelings are also unproductive as they tend to have a ‘narrow and limiting’ effect, causing us to be more closed-minded and less engaged. This results in more negative outcomes, poor performance and high turnover.

These emotions impact the bottom line, for better or for worse. Research shows that people in high performing organizations experience more positive emotions and less negative emotions than those in low performing organizations.

Do you know what your employees are feeling and how they really feel about working for you? Do you wonder what you can do to retain great staff and attract new employees? You may have a feeling or opinion about what your employees think of you, but what you see or think might not align with the feelings of your team.

Genos International, an international leader in Emotional Intelligence, offers a short, no-cost survey called The Emotional Climate Index. It’s designed to measure employee emotions in your workplace, offering clear data to help you make better decisions and be more proactive in your recruitment and retention. For more information, contact me at Jennifer@AssessmentPros.com

Emotional culture in the workplace greatly influences what it's like to work there.