Greek philosopher Epicurus put it well: “We must, therefore, pursue the things that make for happiness, seeing that when happiness is present, we have everything; but when it is absent, we do everything to possess it.”

Happiness matters, as it turns out. It's a topic that's fascinated the team behind RNN for years. When we found out that Traitify was working on quantifying the stuff, it caught our attention. The Happiness Report is worth bookmarking as a reference point for HR and recruiting pros. Great data.

Traitify itself is a very interesting and effective assessment offering, and they're very smart people. They surveyed 1,103 workers of common jobs across the United States to talk about happiness. Specifically: what are their employers doing well/ not well in terms of their overall happiness. They looked deeply at what HR practices, managerial interventions and benefits most impact employee happiness. Findings demonstrated the breadth of repercussions the pandemic had and continues to have across high-volume industries as diverse as retail, hospitality, logistics, healthcare and more.

RNN's editor-in-chief Martin Burns sat down with Dr. Heather Myers, Chief Psychology Officer at Traitify, to walk through the findings. We cover everything from why self-worth impacts effectiveness, mental health, to how the recruiting process can damage (or improve) candidate happiness.

*editorial note: a Zoom-glitch gobbled the first minute or-so of introductions, so we just get right into it

**we reference an article in the piece, "Keeping staff satisfied really is good business", by George Daskalas, that we think is worth reading