National Honesty Day and Upward Feedback
Today is Honesty Day!
We took this as an opportunity to reflect on not just how honesty is important in the workplace but how honesty can help improve workplace happiness.
At Celpax, we highly recommend and encourage discussions around workplace happiness and employee mood at work.
As we’ve mentioned, our data and our users tell us an in-person discussion is the fastest way to improve mood KPI (and workplace happiness).
However, just as asking the right questions is crucial, so is honesty and frankness in your discussions.
How can honesty in the workplace improve your mood KPI?
And how can the Celpax help start these honest discussions?
Honest discussions in the workplace are imperative to ensuring transparency and that you, as an employee or even as a manager are creating a workplace that creates job satisfaction.
One of our users told us:
“Frank discussions in the workplace depend strongly on how individuals establish social relationships. In countries where social differences and hierarchies are more evident, it is hard for a CEO to have an open discussion with employees even when there is willingness to do so. The Celpax device is a great tool to overcome the initial resistance to bring the relevant topics to the conversation“.
The Celpax can be the catalyst to start these honest conversations to help improve employee mood and engagement.
Are you being honest with yourself, your managers or your employees?
Come on, be honest.. it’s Honesty Day 
Honesty day
One employee, whose workplace has installed the Celpax, told us that he uses the opportunity Celpax provides at the end of every day, to reflect on his mood.
He doesn’t just think about how much work he has gotten done or if he’s been productive but he reflects on the entire day and makes the decision: Am I happy or unhappy with this day?
Being able to make this decision every day can help you really find out if you’re happy at work and what you or your manager (or company) can do to help you be even happier.
Are you pressing more red than green? Why? What lead you to make this decision? Is there something you can do in your work to increase your workplace happiness?
Is there something you can discuss with your manager in an open and frank way to make your days at work happier?
Upward feedback
In one of the workplaces I have been in, they practised upward feedback.
It was an opportunity, once yearly for me to give feedback to my managers.
It was expected that I let my manager know not only if I had any issues with their style of management but also if I was happy in my role and in the company. In theory, it’s a great idea.
But allowing just one time a year to let a manager know that you are not happy in your role? In practice, this upward feedback doesn’t really work.
Adding to this, in my upward feedback meetings, I was so nervous to say something out of line that I barely gave any feedback other than, “Um, I like working with you?”.
Without a frank and open feedback, my manager was not aware that I needed something different from their management style. I never let them know that I needed more constructive and upward feedback on a regular basis.
When I became bored and felt unchallenged in my job, I let it build up instead of speaking with my manager to let them know of my frustrations.
Thought for the day related to honesty
Unfortunately, these missteps were not only a disadvantage for myself but also for my manager.
There was a lack of honesty in the workplace.
Without getting what I needed from my manager, I couldn’t give them what they needed from me. Ultimately, I was unhappy at work and didn’t enjoy my days.
Had I spoken up and given feedback to my managers, my mood would have definitely improved and I would have been more engaged and happier at the office.
Why is honesty in the workplace so important?
When it comes to workplace happiness, it can be scary as a manager to have an honest discussion.
It’s a common worry we hear from our users, especially those starting out on their Celpax journey, “What if people are unhappy? What is nobody enjoys coming to work?”
One CEO stresses the importance of choosing honesty and openness in the workplace and when it comes to your mood KPI:
“Of course you can choose ignorance but that goes against all business sense. The mood result just reflects the way things are, and shows the effectiveness of the actions you take. Like it or not. It’s like an email, it doesn’t matter if you open it or not… it’s still there.”
Another Swedish user reinforces this idea:
“We were aware that it takes a lot of energy to improve, however it takes even more energy to ignore it’. As she started looking into ways to get her employees to feel revitalized at work, she turned to the Celpax to help send a message to the entire company. We wanted to send a clear message that we were not putting our heads in the sand,” she said.
Having an open and honest discussion with your team about how they feel at work is the only way to start improving workplace happiness.
One of our users saw both mood and participation decline when his company went through some major changes. Another of our users saw mood decline when the company announced an upcoming merger.
In both of these situations, users were trying to navigate their way through choppy waters in the workplace.
However, the user who decided to have an honest discussion about what was occurring in the workplace and asked what they could work on to improve the situation saw his mood KPI improve 20% in three months.
Being honest is key to reflecting on your own workplace happiness and to helping improve your workplace happiness and mood (whether it’s actions you take or your managers take).
Whether with yourself, with an employee or with a manager.
Happy National honesty day
