What leads to a fulfilled life?
How can a company help its employees live fulfilled lives?
For a long time, this was a question of philosophy. Then it became a question of psychology. It is only in the last 30 years or so that a body of data-based knowledge on this topic has accumulated, allowing analysis from a scientific perspective and with the support of complex mathematical methods (or call it "Artificial Intelligence").
For many years, companies like ours, Metrinomics, were the only ones with a solid empirical database and analytical expertise. But protected behind the walls of secrecy. We had to build our own laboratories. There was no way to share results with universities. Now, in the age of data, we can compare our own results with those of academic studies. It is striking how similar the results are.
A policy of "employee gardening" is "human resource management" with the goal of enabling retention through the conditions of individual growth. This provides significant insights into the new possibilities of human resources management as a growth service, taking into account the person as a whole.
The rules of employee gardening
There are a number of variables that influence the quality of life, or wealth, that can be isolated. The most important is the role they play in creating a subjective sense of well-being.
Life satisfaction is a function of three factors:
- A fixed (possibly genetically determined) basic attitude has a 1/3 effect.
- Long-term decisions (e.g. career choice) also have a 1/3 influence.
- Daily decisions account for another third of the impact on life satisfaction.
For Employee Gardening, this results in a three-step strategy, depending on the level at which measures are suitable to positively influence the satisfaction structure of employees.
One possible strategy would be to divide the topics into
- Change of perspective, spiritualism, meditation, challenges
- Professional profile, hidden talents
- The frustration/success profile during the day
How do you develop a strategy for each of these topics?
The first step is to give employees a steering role.
Based on this input, the idea is to offer alternatives that can be challenging but not prescriptive.
Challenges are what companies can offer their employees. Differentiated HR will be able to tune and stagger these challenges, but with Prosperland, it turns its face to the individual, addresses the general, and avoids the pitfalls of privacy.
The biggest break in life satisfaction is unemployment. This finding goes hand in hand with another, namely that social relationships are by far the most important factor influencing life satisfaction. From this perspective, the social relationships that develop between colleagues at work are central to the state of a society.
The power of Employee Gardening
This makes the work of gardeners all the more important for the state of the social body 'company' and society as a whole.
On the other hand, those who have something to offer on the labor market have many alternatives, but still only one life, or in other words, make an exclusive choice. Usually, a job that one accepts means the end of all alternatives.
What role this job plays in an individual's career development may be debatable. But the data show that nothing is as important as social relationships. Achieving a big goal strengthens teams and stages along the way.
This is the power of Employee Gardening. No impact is as powerful as social relationships. Social relationships are key to the success of human resources policies and ultimately to the success of a company or any other social entity.