Jenn Lim discussed the science of happiness and how businesses can benefit from that to achieve employee happiness in her opening keynote speech Wednesday at the Health & Benefits Leadership Conference in Las Vegas.
Lim, the author of Beyond Happiness: How Authentic Leaders Prioritize Purpose and People for Growth and Impact, also sat down with Human Resource Executive‘s HR editor, Dawn Kawamoto. They went into more detail about Lim’s specialty and how people can grow their happiness.
Jenn Lim’s speech: The science of employee happiness: Embrace both the ups and downs
Jenn Lim discusses how employees can grow their happiness
In the video, Lim discusses not only how companies can benefit by integrating the goal of happiness into their model, but also how employees can understand how their happiness can grow by embracing their highs and lows.
See also: More coverage from the Health & Benefits Leadership Conference
“It’s cliche, right, we’ve heard in the past, you won’t know your highs until you know your lows,” Lim told Kawamoto. “But now it’s like, oh wait, that actually is true.
“People are realizing now it is a step towards freedom.”
3 takeaways from Jenn Lim’s keynote at Health & Benefits Leadership Conference
Among the major points Lim covered on Wednesday morning:
- COVID changed how businesses address happiness: Prior to 2020, businesses were more concerned with productivity, engagement and retention. Now, three years after COVID’s seismic impact, companies are looking more at how those goals above are tied to employee happiness. Caring can go a long way toward achieving the goals.
- Employers shouldn’t merely be trying to keep employees happy: Lim said merely keeping people happy shouldn’t be the goal. Instead, many employees and business leaders have become aware of what happiness really means. These include authenticity to yourself, following a purpose and not using technology as a crutch. And that happiness ebbs and flows, and that’s OK.
- How happiness can be tied to business success: Lim suggested looking at the “Greenhouse model” on scaling for success. Basically, leaders need to consistently tend and grow employees. Leaders should live the values of the company every day. Lim said these values are part of a pyramid where they are the base, and at the top is higher purpose. The “greenhouse” is in the middle, holding everything together.
For more on Lim’s keynote, please read Jen Colletta’s story at HRExecutive.com.
