Can Helpfulness Increase Employee Engagement?

Marcianne Kuethen

June 5, 2012

Do you want happier employees? In a recent study at Harvard Business School, Associate Professor Michael Norton discovered that giving employees more free time to innovate isn’t having the desired effect.What does work, he discovered, is giving employees time to be helpful to others.

If employees feel like their time is well spent, they feel like they’ve got more time. They are happier, more productive, more enthusiastic, and more satisfied. Happier employees are less likely to quit. They are also more likely to bring their best, innovative ideas to the company.

Read the full article to hear how, as a manager, you can get the most out of this research.

Article originally published on businessinsider.com by Julie Bort.

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