Creating Joy at Work: The Key to Employee Engagement

As a result, they made creating joy at work their key focus. Today, they have 70 "Joy at Work" teams, both within ELFT and across the wider NHS (National Health Service).

They’re not alone. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement in the US shares this philosophy, promoting a framework for Improving Joy in Work. Why? Because “Joy in work improves patient experience, outcomes, and safety, resulting in substantially lower costs.”

At Happy, this principle is in our DNA. Our mission? Creating joy at work. We aim for our employees to experience joy in at least 80% of their work. But we don’t just hope for joy; we measure it. When we first checked, 73% of our team reported joy in their work. Today, that number is 88%.

How did we close the gap?

We took inspiration from Dan Pink’s framework of autonomy, purpose, and mastery. Autonomy and purpose? Check. Mastery? That’s where we went deeper.

Here’s our approach: at Happy, we hire for a job description and then toss it out the window. We focus on discovering people’s true talents.

Playing to strengths

At Happy, we have teams but no managers. Every few months, our teams regroup, post notes on the wall, and decide who will take on which tasks—guided by their strengths. Even less desirable tasks find a home with those who like them more than others.

Take Nicole, for example. She was working on admin tasks for the apprenticeship team but found little fulfillment in that role. Her joy score hovered around 50%. During her quarterly "joyful review," her coach encouraged her to take a Guidance and Advice course. This led to a transition into a role where she thrived: supporting apprentices. Her joy score soared to 80%.

We use Gallup’s StrengthsFinder tool to identify everyone’s top five strengths. For Simone, one of her top strengths is Individualization. She excels in coaching colleagues based on their unique needs—not treating them as she would like to be treated, but as they would like to be treated. This approach helps them flourish on their own terms.

Simone also values trust and transparency at Happy. She feels informed, involved in decision-making, and motivated by the shared purpose of improving people’s lives. For Lucy, it’s about freedom. Knowing that if you invest, it will bring things down the line. She appreciates the trust placed in her work, even when results take time to materialize.

Trust: the ultimate motivator

One of our academic colleagues, Karolina Ozadowicz, who was looking at joy at work described her findings beautifully:
"I expected to hear stories of ‘bursts of joy’—sudden, sharp, and sweet moments of happiness. But it wasn’t like that. Instead, I heard about trust. People spoke of the freedom to tackle challenges they didn’t think they could handle and the disbelief that Happy placed such faith in them despite no prior record of success or proof of their capabilities."

Karolina noted that those who experience moments of profound gratitude, tend to be more generous. In the stories they shared, the generosity they received—whether it was trust, freedom, or belief—transformed into acts of giving back more, manifested as giving unasked, working harder, and striving to be their best without pressure or obligation. It was evident in their commitment to 'doing my job really well' and 'constantly working towards being the best I can.”

The manager problem

What often doesn’t create joy at work? Managers. A UK survey found that 48% of employees would take a pay cut just to have a different manager.

At Happy, we don’t have that problem—because we don’t have managers. Many of you in self-managing organizations can relate. For those who still work with managers, here’s a tip: establish two career tracks—one for managing people and one for excelling in your core role.

Take one client, for example. Their brilliant Marketing Director excelled in marketing but struggled with people management, resulting in a 50% turnover rate. The solution? Shift management duties to someone who enjoyed and excelled at it, letting the Marketing Director focus on marketing. The result? Everyone won, especially the Marketing Director, who never wanted to manage people in the first place.

Another example comes from Cougar, a software company. They held a session for project managers on managing people. By the end, most admitted they disliked it. Their Managing Director, Clive, decided to remove people-management duties for those uninterested in them. Instead, they implemented a "judo belt" system for developers, allowing employees to progress from white to black belt based purely on their coding skills.

Joy: the bottom line

Purpose. Trust. Playing to strengths. These are the keys to creating joy at work. But this can only happen when leaders understand how to lead effectively.

So, ask yourself: are your people thriving? If not, what’s holding them back?