BCBusiness

BCBUSINESS.CA jULY/AUGUST 2018 BCBusiness 113 That's bad enough on a fair-weather day, but add a windstorm like the big one in August 2015, when more than 700,000 BC Hydro customers lost power, and it could lead to trouble. Bianco wanted to boost productivity and morale, and minimize the risk of injury at the busy warehouse. "But we couldn't make drastic changes and had a limited budget. And from a crew perspective, when change comes from the top down, there's often resis- tance," he says of the staƒ of no-nonsense union work- ers. It's their job to keep things moving. That's what makes them happy. What makes you happy? How do you de‡ne it? Did you know that your happiness is crucial to your organization's success? So says an explosion of recent research showing that happier employees are more productive, resilient and loyal, all of which can boost revenue. They're also healthier, saving companies bil- lions of dollars thanks to reduced medical costs and sick days, fewer workplace accidents and errors, and lower turnover. Happiness has become a quanti‡able resource, a key indicator of economic stability and a global ‡xation—for nations, economists, and corpo- rations and the consultants they hire to cultivate a cheerier workforce. Since the United Nations began publishing its World Happiness Report in 2012, Canada has consistently ranked among the world's top 10 happiest countries. But in the past two years, we've slipped from ‡fth place to seventh. Meanwhile, 47 percent of us are unhappy at work, according to a 2016 national study by Hays Specialist Recruitment (Canada). B.C. ranks lowest among the provinces for job satisfaction, Statistics Canada reports, and Vancouver is the country's least happy metropolitan region. Contributing to this de‡- cit are the growing gap between income and housing costs, along with a population boom straining the city's economic and social infrastructure. B.C.-based organizations need to work even harder to attract and keep employees who are satis‡ed with their work. But while economic studies such as the World Gallup Poll and the European Social Survey point to a living wage as the biggest contributor to workplace happiness, return on investment dimin- ishes with upper-income salaries, the World Happiness Report concludes. Other trendy perks—nap rooms, free lunches, man- datory paid vacations—typically don't make workers happier. And when companies try to improve things with change programs, they fail up to 75 percent of the time, according to research including a 2013 survey of some 270 U.S. organizations by Towers Watson, a global professional services ‡rm. There's also a dark side to the pursuit of happiness. Leading industries, in particular Silicon Valley, have exploited this burgeoning ‡eld, creating a smiley-faced Big Brother corporate culture staƒed by chief happi- ness o¡cers and policed by Orwellian technologies that monitor employees' moods, behaviours and personal lives. Even as disruptive, mood-free technologies— driverless vehicles, automated grocery stores, robot workers—threaten an increasing number of jobs, hap- piness has become a workplace must-have. Making change from the bottom up At the BC Hydro warehouse, Chris Bianco was aware of these challenges and threats, and he wanted to spear- head an unconventional grassroots change program. "We had to do it on our own, and I knew that if I gave the crew the power and the tools to solve their prob- lems, they could do it," he says. To start, Bianco called upon Gervase Bushe, a consultant, coach and professor of leadership and organizational development at SFU's Beedie School of Business who takes an unorthodox approach to work- place happiness and organizational change. "Building a business culture in which employees thrive is good for people, pro‡ts and the planet—the triple bottom line," contends Bushe, who turns the tra- ditional organizational change model on its head. The BC Hydro and Power Authority's materials management warehouse is the depot for every nut and bolt of the province's power supply—from light switches to 40,000-pound spools of power line. When the Surrey facility faced shipment delays and staff morale issues in 2016, the boss knew he had to act fast to implement change. "Our team is part of a vast network of 170 people, spread across the province," says Chris Bianco, who heads a crew of 110 employees at the Crown corporation's supply hub. "Efficiency and teamwork are essential to our operations, but we were operating as silos. That led to delays of up to four days getting supplies from our ware- house to regional shops."

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