Why it works

The Problem

As the work environment has continued to grow and develop, businesses have had to deal with the consequences of stress and negativity in the workplace. These two factors can lead to costly financial losses as well as frequent employee turnover.

Statistics

• Job stress costs more than $300 billion a year (Rosch, 2001).
• Stress could cost the organization roughly $75 a week per person in lost productivity. With 100 employees, that translates to $390,000 per year (Wright in Science Daily, 2009).
• 20% of payroll goes toward addressing stress-related problems (Human Resource Management, 2009).
• Stores that improved engagement year on year grew their profits by 3.8% (Gallup, 2008).
• Engaged organizations grew profits as much as three times faster than their competitors (Corporate Leadership Council, 2008).
• A company with highly engaged employees achieves a financial performance four times greater than companies with poor engagement (Watson Wyatt, 2009).
• Employee engagement predicted objective daily financial returns (Xanthopoulou, Bakker, Demerouti, and Schaufeli, 2009).
• Engaged employees generate 43% more revenue than disengaged ones (Hay Group, 2001).
• Companies with a highly engaged workforce improved operating income by 19.2% and had a 13.7% improvement in net income growth (Towers Perrin-ISR, 2006) .

Our philosophy

Based on the science and research of positive psychology and emotional intelligence:

• We know that a positive mindset and attitude can have benefits that last a lifetime.
• We know that through habitual practice of positive activities, one can act and feel better personally and professionally.
• We know that positive habits lead to improved lives and increased profit.

“Having worked in both the research, academic side and the practice, consulting side of things, I have seen the importance of what this program is about. Research in positive psychology and emotional intelligence has shown significant links between positivity training and personal and organizational level outcomes. When I move from academia to consulting, working with large organizations, I am able to see these research findings come to life and demonstrate the impact this training has on the individual employees and the organization as a whole. I think it is great that a company has combined the research and the practice together, and I am glad to be a part of it.”
- Marc Muchnick, PhD, President of People First Group LLC

“As the COO of our company, I have found the exercises very helpful in discussing any number of situations at work, such as job performance, work quality, and attitude issues, to name just a few. I personally feel that I am already a better listener and communicator, and I find myself looking for the positive in most situations where I did not do so before.

We are already planning to put more employees through the program. The program will provide them with tools to improve communication and attitude both at the office as well as in their personal lives.

If we can improve our employees’ personal outlook and ability to communicate in a positive way, then they will no doubt be happier, better adjusted and more inclined and able to perform in a more positive manner. In our industry, where customer service is paramount… having happier, more positive and well-adjusted employees will provide us with an important advantage.”
- Mike Elowe, COO Creative Promotional Products

“Many organizations believe in the broken formula that success fuels happiness. But research in The Happiness Advantage shows that when we are positive, we become more productive, optimistic, creative, and resilient. Positivity helps organizations build happier cultures and, in turn, improves engagement, performance, and the bottom-line.”            -Shawn Achor, Author of The Happiness Advantage

“As somebody who has personally undergone positive psychology training and invested significant effort into building a great company culture with happy employees, I can attest to its efficacy. I’m a numbers guy – this is one of the simplest and most underutilized strategies for boosting employee productivity to generate ROI.”              - Emerson Spartz, CEO Spartz Media

“Every organization has a unique evolution within their workforce that a leader must ignite to elevate focus, execution and innovation.  Positivity is one such ignition source for today’s most innovative leaders and companies.  Positivity is a system that takes people from admiring what is wrong and builds capacity towards positive behaviors and contributions that are only limited by imagination.  Positivity’s research based practices deliver the results leaders need to get their workforce living and breathing the possibilities within personal and organizational success.”                                                                                              -Craig Wiley, Founder of Advanced Relations

“When you work to drive innovation in companies large and small, it becomes clear that the enemy of creativity is fear. A happy culture knows how to take risks, learn together, smile and fail forward. The best leaders know how to put happiness to work. Positivity will make that happen.”                                                                                                                 -G. Michael Maddock

“The exercises provided in the course provide a means to help you accentuate the positive things in your life and shift your focus to minimize the negative.”                                                                                             -Debbie Furlano, program participant