A better measure for success?

An enormous amount of time is spent measuring the success of companies, through profits, productivity, and growth and all the traditional metrics most professionals are familiar with. But the world is changing rapidly. With global labor shortages making recruitment and retention difficult wherever you are located, now is a good time to look at how we define success on both a macro and a micro level.

In Switzerland, one canton is considering alternatives to GDP to measure the success of the economy, with happiness being one of the proposed metrics.

The Happiness Index measures employee happiness by virtue of their:

• clear direction
• enablement to success
• psychological safety
• positive relationships
• aligned meaning and purpose
• opportunities to grow
• freedom to take opportunities
• feelings of acknowledgement

Companies might want to survey employees regularly to see how they rank on these elements and identify areas for improvement, it may be the key to not just better recruitment, but better economies and better lives.