Why human happiness is the key to workplace productivity, not AI

We are living through an AI revolution. Boards are green-lighting pilots and buying AI licenses to maximise employee productivity. However, the most powerful performance lever in the modern workplace isn’t algorithmic; it’s human. When people are happier at work, they create, collaborate, and stay. When they aren’t, the best tech in the world won’t stop the value from leaking out of your organisation.

Gallup estimates that low employee engagement drains $8.9 trillion from the global economy, roughly 9% of the world’s GDP. Engagement also slipped globally in 2024, a reminder that culture is moving in the wrong direction for many firms.

Happiness isn’t soft, it’s a productivity system that can be measured. A well-known Oxford study found that happier workers are 13% more productive, based on a six-month analysis of thousands of BT (British Telecommunications) contact-centre employees.

And, at WorkL, the employee engagement platform I founded, drawing on millions of survey responses across more than 100 countries, we see a striking pattern: National workplace-happiness scores map closely to national productivity. Happier teams are higher-performing teams.

AI can shrink a task, but only people can grow a business. In organisations with high trust and a positive mental health culture, AI accelerates learning and frees time for higher-value work. In cultures defined by fear or fatigue, AI simply compresses the day, raises targets, and intensifies burnout. The sustainable edge therefore, comes from engineering happiness first and then letting technology amplify it.

Consider the working week and how this can impact workplace happiness, productivity, and commercial success. In the UK’s four-day-week pilot, featuring 61 companies including 2,900 employees, firms reported a 35% average revenue increase, 57% lower attrition, and 92% intended to continue the model. There’s no doubt that considering employee happiness will help boost the success of a business. I call it happy economics.

Six steps to workplace happiness and how to execute them

Leaders often ask me “Where do we start?” After decades of managing large teams and now measuring workplace experience at scale, I recommend my six steps to workplace happiness. These are business disciplines that both employers and employees should be following.

1. Reward and recognitionPay must be fair and transparent, or nothing else lands. But don’t wait for annual reviews to say thank you. Build weekly recognition rituals tied to outcomes, not “presenteeism.” Managers should set and co-set clear goals with their teams so recognition feels earned and specific.
2. Information sharingLack of sharing breeds rumor and disengagement. Adopt a “show the work” cadence where a monthly all-hands meeting includes reviewing real metrics, a working roadmap, and team-level dashboard for all to see. When people understand context, customers, competitors, and constraints, they make better decisions without escalation.
3. EmpowermentEmpowering employees means involving them in decision-making, valuing their ideas, and integrating their feedback into the company’s strategies. Everyone brings unique experiences and perspectives to the table, and only by considering all views can a team achieve the best possible outcome. While individuals may not be perfect, together, the team can be.
4. Well-beingEmployee well-being encompasses physical, emotional, and financial health. Addressing all three areas leads to improved engagement and productivity. A positive workplace culture can reduce absenteeism, as engaged employees tend to be healthier and more committed.

1. Instilling prideEmployees who take pride in their work and workplace naturally become advocates, sharing their positive experiences with colleagues, potential hires, customers, and the community. Their pride will be evident when they talk about where they work. Building this sense of pride goes beyond motivational talks or performance reviews, it’s about cultivating an environment where employees truly enjoy and take pride in their roles. 
2. Job satisfactionA range of factors influence job satisfaction, but two stand out; opportunities for personal growth and the quality of the employee-manager relationship. Employees are an organisation’s greatest asset, and high engagement is essential for success. Research shows that respectful treatment and trust between employees and leadership are key drivers of satisfaction. Poor relationships with managers are often the top reason employees leave, regardless of the company’s brand strength

What to do right now

If happiness is the revolution, implementation must be practical. Three moves any company can make immediately:

• Set a happiness baseline. Run a brief, anonymous pulse survey covering the six steps above, and segment by team and manager. Commit to sharing the results and to two actions per team within 30 days. At WorkL we’ve seen that transparency alone lifts scores on information sharing and empowerment.
• Redesign one work practice for time and trust. Kill or cap status meetings; publish written updates instead. Pilot “quiet hours” or no-meeting blocks.
• Fund wellbeing like a growth initiative. Choose one high-impact intervention, manager mental-health training, access to counselling, and measure outcomes. The finance case is robust; employers typically recoup multiple dollars per dollar invested.

Now add technology back in. When teams are trusted, recognized, and resourced, AI becomes a force for good for the health of the business. Ways of working are adopted and kept because employees helped design them, reskilling lands because it’s wrapped in conversations with employees, and experimentation flourishes because failure isn’t punished. In unhappy cultures, by contrast, AI can magnify control and anxiety.

Leaders don’t have to choose between AI and happiness. Engineer happiness first, through reward, information, empowerment, well-being, pride, and job satisfaction, and then let AI amplify the human advantage you’ve built. That is the real workplace revolution. And it’s one you can start today.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lord Mark Price is former UK Trade Minister, founder of happiness at work platform WorkL, and author of Work Happier: How to be Happy & Successful at Work, published by Kogan Page on September 30, 2025.

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