02 Jul Happiness at work…it’s good for business!
Companies are waking up to the benefits of a happy workforce
The Telegraph 01/07/2008
Satisfied staff are good for business, but Britain lags far behind Denmark in the cheerfulness stakes, says Tracy Corrigan
‘Why aren’t there happiness league tables for schools?” my 13-year-old daughter asked the other day.
It was a pertinent question, because she has endured a pretty wretched time at hers. To me, finding a new school where she will feel comfortable and secure seems immensely more important than checking its position in academic league tables.
It’s not just that I care more about her wellbeing than about a grade here or there at GCSE; I also think she’ll perform better at a less academic school where she’s happy than at an academically driven school where she’s miserable.
Recent research in the business world suggests I’m right. Alex Edmans, a finance professor at Wharton business school, has found that companies cited as good places to work consistently outperform the market.
In a recent paper on employee satisfaction, he showed that Fortune magazine’s 100 best companies to work for in America earned a 14 per cent annual return for investors between 1998 and 2005, compared with 6 per cent for the overall market.
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