At Website Depot, Danny Star has created the kind of work environment where folks get along.
Sure, there are disagreements, the occasional heated moment when people care about what they’re doing argue, and so forth. But, there is a real sense of community. That’s true even now that everything is online.
While every business wants that, some business owners may not find it important.
After all, it’s not like you can easily measure the ROI of a kind workplace.
However, recent studies have shown just how much of a benefit it can be for workers as well as business owners.
Acts of Kindness and Where They Can Lead
This study in the National Library of Medicine set out to measure “everyday prosociality in the workplace: the reinforcing benefits of giving, getting, and glimpsing.”
That meant they “randomly assigned employees in a corporate workplace to be Givers, Receivers, and Controls. Givers practiced five acts of kindness for a personalized list of Receivers over four weeks.”
What they found was that everyone “mutually benefited in well-being in both the short term and the long term. That meant “Receivers became happier after two months, and Givers became less depressed and more satisfied with their lives and jobs.”
Their conclusion was that “practicing everyday (kindness) is both emotionally reinforcing and contagious, inspiring kindness and generating hedonic rewards in others.”
You might read this and think: “OK, but how did they measure whether someone’s ‘happiness’ increased?”
Simple: they asked them. They continued interviews, and the workers were happier in their lives and work.
That was always important, but perhaps more so now.
Worker Happiness and Kindness in the Digital Age
In the past, it was probably easier to bring this sort of “prosociality” (what a great word) into your workplace.
Acts of kindness were simpler: a compliment at the water cooler or on break, that kind of thing.
Digitally, it could be more difficult.
You can still show acts of kindness over Zoom, Slack, Basecamp, or in email. While it may not be exactly the same as it would have been in person, it might be less intrusive, and even likelier to make the other person feel glad and appreciated.
That can make any workplace in any industry better.
For more tips on how to do this and so much else, you can reach Danny at (213) 457-3250. He’s always glad to schedule a remote marketing consulting in Los Angeles session with business owners just like you.
