‘Beyond salaries, employees look for happiness at work’

New Delhi: On Saturday, employee happiness coach, Susheel Agarwal conducted the “Unlocking the Return on Happiness for an Evolving Workforce” employee happiness workshop. Many of the corporate leaders from Hyderabad attended the event.

The workshop emphasised the secrets of employee happiness at work and how corporate leaders can enable happiness in their organisations through the workshop framework.

Employee happiness at work is more important than anything else in organisations today. More than 80 corporate leaders and decision-makers attended this event. Janani Prakash, HR Head from Quantela Inc., Meenkashi Chillar, HR Head India – Gainsight; and Dr. Ankit Bhatnagar, Director of FTCCI, were awarded during the event.

The changing human resource landscape demands a relook at the entire human motivation spectrum, says Susheel Agarwal, founder of Ethika Insurance Brokers. The event was a great success.

COVID-19 brought about a fundamental shift in the way people saw their relationship with work.
When future generations of human resource folks look back in time, they will see COVID-19 as a watershed moment. COVID was our tryst with mortality. And nothing, absolutely nothing, can prepare you for an experience like that.

Staring at death changes you. All your priorities suddenly align. You are suddenly bestowed with a sense of clarity towards life and work.
“Why you work becomes an existential question. “Organisations that are able to answer this question would turn out to be the winners in this employer branding race”, Susheel remarks.

“Susheel Agarwal wants to reach out to the universities, government institutions, and working-class communities to provide happiness workshops for them without any fee for making a happier corporate working environment in India”. said Kriti Raj, Chief Communication Officer, Ethika Insurance Broking Pvt. Ltd.

Susheel, who also happens to be an Employee Happiness Coach, dwelled deep into some of the fundamental issues with regard to the relationship between an employee and work.

Susheel has been a stern advocate of Employee Happiness at workplaces over the last five years. He firmly believes that happier workplaces are productive workplaces. And he has data to substantiate the fact.

Susheel, who is a Certified Happiness Coach from the Berkley Well Being Institute of California, has been conducting his workshop “Unlocking Return on Happiness for an Evolving Workforce” for his clients. And his clients could not have been happier.

Not only has there been a dramatic shift in the culture, but employees seem happier, and productivity has increased multifold. Saturday was the first time that the workshop was opened for CXOs and department heads from outside of Ethika’s clientele.

Susheel feels, that organisations should try to understand the reasons why an employee wants something. This, he feels, is a step ahead of understanding what they want.

As an employer, the employee is not only your responsibility only when they are at work. You are also responsible for their overall development. Susheel also feels that, given the Kafkaesque times we live in, employees might go on autopilot every now and then. Punching in and out might become a chore.

There could also be times when the employee does not realise what they want. And this could lead to a disconnect. As an organisation, the sooner you remove this disconnect, the sooner your employees embark on the path towards fulfilment.

Helping the employee find their purpose, can, in turn, thrust them on a path to boundless productivity. Productivity in turn leads to better performance, which in turn leads to better client servicing, which in turn fuels their self-efficacy, which brings in increased confidence. And the loop is now set on autopilot.

Susheels’ employee happiness programme is spread over five stages: – Inspire, Define, Protect, Measure and engage. Organisations start with inspiring the employee at stage I and by stage V they have employees engaged to work, not because they need to, but because they want to.

The workshop which had garnered significant anticipation over the last one month, was in fact attended by some of the prominent leaders and captains of the industry.

Susheel comes across as a humble leader with a genuine interest in helping corporations make workplaces happier. Productivity, he believes, is the by-product. Implore your employees to search for happiness, and create pathways for them, if they stumble. The average person, he says, spends about 90,000 hours at work.