Beyond the simple improvement in the individual comfort of employees, Quality of Life at Work is an outlook that helps companies to face the challenges and transformations to which they are confronted.
By making performance rhyme with employee satisfaction, QWL becomes one of the success factors of change and its results on employee morale can these days be very concretely quantified.
And if Taylorism was at the origin of the quality of life at work? By observing what were the limits of the scientific organization of work, Eric Trist (this cannot be made up) brought up the idea of QLW in 1950s London. This Englishman was in fact the first to make the link between performance and quality of life at work.
Today, development of employees is not just a subject of individual comfort, such as offers of massages, yoga classes, fruit baskets delivery or table football spaces. The Quality of Life at Work (QWL) approach helps companies face the challenges and transformations they are facing. It improves absenteeism and reduces production problems, facilitates changes, protects the health of employees, but also innovates and, ultimately, increases the attractiveness of the company.
At the intersection of two circles
Employee satisfaction has become a key factor, to the point that the French Ministry of Labor created an official body responsible for its development: the National Agency for the Improvement of Working Conditions (ANACT), by its French initials.
To represent the importance of the quality of life at work, one can imagine two distinct circles. The first contains the aspirations of employees in terms of achievement and well-being. The other brings together the strategy of the company wishing to increase its performance in a competitive environment. If the two circles move apart, it's easy to imagine imbalances to come. Conversely, when one manages to bring them together, at their intersection it is possible to bring out an area that combines the ambitions of the employees and those of the company. This common ground will be all the more fertile as it will be extensive. By seeking to improve the way to work together, the approach benefits everyone, employees, companies and customers.
QLW, a user’s manual
To achieve this, however, the company must make QWL a strategic parameter in its own right. In addition to the involvement of the management board, the appointment of a Chief Happiness Officer (or CHO) is of great help to the company. Literally "Who is responsible for Happiness", he/she makes sure that wellbeing rhymes with performance. Depending on the size of the company and its culture, the CHO is in charge of working environments, the organization of
activities and events but also conflict resolution between employees.
For its part, to set up a QWL, the ANACT offers a four-step model of operation. To begin with, one decompartmentalizes, exchanges and shares concerns. Then one can do a shared inventory: what is working vs. what is problematic, what are the paths for improvement in the way of working? Third step: employees are asked to talk about their work and make proposals. Finally, all of these are integrated into an experimentation phase.
QWL, elsewhere
The Scandinavian countries are at the forefront in terms of QLW, and it is unsurprising they also lead the countries with the strongest workplace productivity.
In Finland, for instance, so as to preserve the balance of the employees, 76% of employees are trained on health and safety at work. The precautions to be taken are clearly identified and integrated in the day-to-day. Moreover, Finland is opposed to the exclusion of seniors and strives to integrate them into the working world: 35% of working Finns state that their premises were converted to facilitate older people’s work.
In Denmark, it’s through "Slow Management" that quality of life at work is intended to be improved. This management model aims to develop the blossoming of employees through real freedom of action. Danes do not have vertical hierarchical management, everyone is a decision-maker at their own level. The concept of "validation" is seen as a dirty word, discussions are done on an almost peer-to-peer basis. So talking in an informal manner to his/her manager, leaving the office at 5 pm, no longer being accountable to his/her N + 1 [direct superior] three times a day… are completely normal things.
Referring to quality of life at work in China can become an oxymoron... With humiliations, punishments and even sometimes bodily harm, one has trouble thinking how this country could be placed at the top of a QLW ranking. However, one can note a right set in stone in the Constitution: a mandatory nap period at the workplace. It is under the communist regime of Mao Zedong, in 1948, that this measure was adopted even before studies, such as those conducted by NASA attest of its benefits on creativity and concentration. NASA evidences, in fact, that its pilots are "much more alert and better performing" after a just 25 minute long ‘siesta’.
Contrary to China, in the United-States, QLW is achieved through the empowerment of employees. In some companies, such as WL Gore, the manufacturer of Gore Tex, employees elect their own chain of command (whether team leaders or the CEO); in others, such as The Morning Star Company (specialized in the processing of tomatoes), the employees themselves set the production or profitability goals. Like at Google/Alphabet or the 3M group, companies increasingly apply the 1/5 rule that allows 20% of work time to be dedicated to projects of a personal nature. This rule, originally created to limit engineers’ turn-over thus favors the emergence of new ideas and the creation of new products.
Still in the US, a lost business deal or a project cut short can be a good reason to celebrate. "Failure parties" become the opportunity to understand, to bounce back, re-motivate, in short, to improve!
The technology of wellness
And if technology was put at the service of QLW? Such is the project spearheaded by Kandu, a startup developed within the R&D department of Saint-Gobain. Founded in 2017, the young sprout has combined several scientific disciplines to fine tune sensors capable of measuring the comfort of interior spaces. Clara Getzel, the general manager of Kandu specifies: "The data collected by the "Kandumeter", a connected device that can be installed in the premises of any company, are analyzed to improve the workplace environment". She details the different elements that the "Kandumeter" can diagnose to improve the working setting or ambiance. Among which: poor acoustics, ambient air pollution, deficient natural lighting or thermal discomfort.
As it’s clearly understood, quality of life at work is a strategic matter for companies. In a 2019 study on the subject, this even appears to be a priority for 93% of the 116 companies surveyed by the consulting firm Gras Savoye-Willis Towers Watson.
For Catherine Guibert, co-founder of FiveForty°, since its beginning, QLW is a key factor in the development of the startup and it is important that the employees progress within a culture of commitment, affirming their reciprocal trust and pride in belonging to the company. "Today, we have been certified as a Best Place to Work and ranked as one of the top 5 companies with less than 50 employees. This is the result of everyone’s hard work and pride for each and every one!". An outcome confirmed of this Microsoft Solutions consulting firm employees, 91% of whom affirmed: "As a whole, I can say this is a place where it’s really nice to work."
Read more here: (https://fiveforty-group.fr/rapprochez-vous_en.html)
Sources: Les Echos, Agence Nationale pour l’Amélioration des Conditions de Travail, Windoo and arceos.fr Blogs, BFMTV, E-novens.fr, Observatoire Innovation Managériale https://www.observatoire-management.org/
Beyond the simple improvement in the individual comfort of employees, Quality of Life at Work is an outlook that helps companies to face the challenges and transformations to which they are confronted. By making performance rhyme with employee satisfaction, QWL becomes one of the success factors of change and its results on employee morale can these days be very concretely quantified
And if Taylorism was at the origin of the quality of life at work? By observing what were the limits of the scientific organization of work, Eric Trist (this cannot be made up) brought up the idea of QLW in 1950s London. This Englishman was in fact the first to make the link between performance and quality of life at work.
Today, development of employees is not just a subject of individual comfort, such as offers of massages, yoga classes, fruit baskets delivery or table football spaces. The Quality of Life at Work (QWL) approach helps companies face the challenges and transformations they are facing. It improves absenteeism and reduces production problems, facilitates changes, protects the health of employees, but also innovates and, ultimately, increases the attractiveness of the company.
At the intersection of two circles
Employee satisfaction has become a key factor, to the point that the French Ministry of Labor created an official body responsible for its development: the National Agency for the Improvement of Working Conditions (ANACT), by its French initials.
To represent the importance of the quality of life at work, one can imagine two distinct circles. The first contains the aspirations of employees in terms of achievement and well-being. The other brings together the strategy of the company wishing to increase its performance in a competitive environment. If the two circles move apart, it's easy to imagine imbalances to come. Conversely, when one manages to bring them together, at their intersection it is possible to bring out an area that combines the ambitions of the employees and those of the company. This common ground will be all the more fertile as it will be extensive. By seeking to improve the way to work together, the approach benefits everyone, employees, companies and customers.
QLW, a user’s manual
To achieve this, however, the company must make QWL a strategic parameter in its own right. In addition to the involvement of the management board, the appointment of a Chief Happiness Officer (or CHO) is of great help to the company. Literally "Who is responsible for Happiness", he/she makes sure that wellbeing rhymes with performance. Depending on the size of the company and its culture, the CHO is in charge of working environments,
the organization of activities and events but also conflict resolution between employees.
For its part, to set up a QWL, the ANACT offers a four-step model of operation. To begin with, one decompartmentalizes, exchanges and shares concerns. Then one can do a shared inventory: what is working vs. what is problematic, what are the paths for improvement in the way of working? Third step: employees are asked to talk about their work and make proposals. Finally, all of these are integrated into an experimentation phase.
QWL, elsewhere
The Scandinavian countries are at the forefront in terms of QLW, and it is unsurprising they also lead the countries with the strongest workplace productivity.
In Finland, for instance, so as to preserve the balance of the employees, 76% of employees are trained on health and safety at work. The precautions to be taken are clearly identified and integrated in the day-to-day. Moreover, Finland is opposed to the exclusion of seniors and strives to integrate them into the working world: 35% of working Finns state that their premises were converted to facilitate older people’s work.
In Denmark, it’s through "Slow Management" that quality of life at work is intended to be improved. This management model aims to develop the blossoming of employees through real freedom of action. Danes do not have vertical hierarchical management, everyone is a decision-maker at their own level. The concept of "validation" is seen as a dirty word, discussions are done on an almost peer-to-peer basis. So talking in an informal manner to his/her manager, leaving the office at 5 pm, no longer being accountable to his/her N + 1 [direct superior] three times a day… are completely normal things.
Referring to quality of life at work in China can become an oxymoron... With humiliations, punishments and even sometimes bodily harm, one has trouble thinking how this country could be placed at the top of a QLW ranking. However, one can note a right set in stone in the Constitution: a mandatory nap period at the workplace. It is under the communist regime of Mao Zedong, in 1948, that this measure was adopted even before studies, such as those conducted by NASA attest of its benefits on creativity and concentration. NASA evidences, in fact, that its pilots are "much more alert and better performing" after a just 25 minute long ‘siesta’.
Contrary to China, in the United-States, QLW is achieved through the empowerment of employees. In some companies, such as WL Gore, the manufacturer of Gore Tex, employees elect their own chain of command (whether team leaders or the CEO); in others, such as The Morning Star Company (specialized in the processing of tomatoes), the employees themselves set the production or profitability goals. Like at Google/Alphabet or the 3M group, companies increasingly apply the 1/5 rule that allows 20% of work time to be dedicated to projects of a personal nature. This rule, originally created to limit engineers’ turn-over thus favors the emergence of new ideas and the creation of new products.
Still in the US, a lost business deal or a project cut short can be a good reason to celebrate. "Failure parties" become the opportunity to understand, to bounce back, re-motivate, in short, to improve!
The technology of wellness
And if technology was put at the service of QLW? Such is the project spearheaded by Kandu, a startup developed within the R&D department of Saint-Gobain. Founded in 2017, the young sprout has combined several scientific disciplines to fine tune sensors capable of measuring the comfort of interior spaces. Clara Getzel, the general manager of Kandu specifies: "The data collected by the "Kandumeter", a connected device that can be installed in the premises of any company, are analyzed to improve the workplace environment". She details the different elements that the "Kandumeter" can diagnose to improve the working setting or ambiance. Among which: poor acoustics, ambient air pollution, deficient natural lighting or thermal discomfort.
As it’s clearly understood, quality of life at work is a strategic matter for companies. In a 2019 study on the subject, this even appears to be a priority for 93% of the 116 companies surveyed by the consulting firm Gras Savoye-Willis Towers Watson.
For Catherine Guibert, co-founder of FiveForty°, since its beginning, QLW is a key factor in the development of the startup and it is important that the employees progress within a culture of commitment, affirming their reciprocal trust and pride in belonging to the company. "Today, we have been certified as a Best Place to Work and ranked as one of the top 5 companies with less than 50 employees. This is the result of everyone’s hard work and pride for each and every one!". An outcome confirmed of this Microsoft Solutions consulting firm employees, 91% of whom affirmed: "As a whole, I can say this is a place where it’s really nice to work."
Read more here: (https://fiveforty-group.fr/rapprochez-vous_en.html)
Sources: Les Echos, Agence Nationale pour l’Amélioration des Conditions de Travail, Windoo and arceos.fr Blogs, BFMTV, E-novens.fr, Observatoire Innovation Managériale https://www.observatoire-management.org/
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