. Man that was such fun. I think they liked it. I did a good Ray Liotta. I think it cheered them up.
Job security, decent pay, safe working conditions, good leadership, challenge, the latest technology, an educated workforce, quality, etc. These things breed happiness in employees and naturally lead to increased productivity. The most important of the aforementioned conditions would be good leadership. My experience has taught me that that this is most readily accomplished in private ownership.
You know, at my workplace, we had good job security, safe working conditions, some challenge, plenty of good tech, a well educated workforce with plenty of opportunities for additional education—and the best days we had were the days when we laughed. Laughter got us through some really difficult shifts under some fairly stressful conditions.
Yeah, if you're already a happy worker, laughter is easy to come by.
Probably the best metric, though, would be what the workers talk about after work.
I mean, if you laugh fifteen times a day, but then go home, or to a bar with friends, and complain about how many times/ways the boss is trying to kill you, you're not a terribly happy worker, no matter how many guffaws are recorded.
If you're safe, secure, challenged, rewarded, with avenues for promotion available, you probably have the leisure to describe the pun you threw out in the break room and everyone's reaction to it. Or the way you got everyone to call Randy 'Steve' for a week. Or the time you filled your supervisor's office with 706 balloons.. OR the time you put up a poster with a picture of a unicorn, "MIssing: Pinky. If seen, please call the substance abuse hotline at 1-844-289-0879" and four peopel actually called the number to see who it was.