Back in 2015, the Dubai Police Department implemented a system to measure employee happiness. (For more details, see the 7-minute YouTube video below.) The idea was to allow the organization to respond to problems that interfered with employee job-satisfaction. In principle, this motivation was a good one: this is why some companies set out Suggestion Boxes. But the Dubai PD wanted something a little more innovative.
What they settled on was a pop-up loaded onto every employee's PC, which runs at startup every morning. The pop-up asks the employee to rate his level of happiness by selecting one of three options: Sad, Neutral, or Happy. Then if the employee selects Sad or Neutral, the application offers a free text field where the employee explains what's wrong. These answers are forwarded to the Happiness and Wellbeing Department, who checks in with the employee and then forwards the issue to whichever department can address it. Departments receiving these issues have to respond within five days.
According to the video, results have been positive. The overall trend in the metrics has shown consistent improvement in employee happiness. What is more, when there have been problems in the organization, this tool surfaces them quickly so they can be addressed. The narrator specifically states that the tool has enabled constructive feedback and that it facilitates organizational transparency. All of these results are clearly to the good.
At the same time—is it just me, or is it clear that the tool isn't really measuring happiness? Happiness, after all, has many components. Someone might be reasonably content at work but unhappy because of problems at home: what will he select when he starts his PC? If he reports Sad, then he has to explain why he's sad; and if it's something personal, he might not want to talk about it. So he clicks Happy, because that is the fastest way to get past the prompt. Someone else might feel disgruntled because he thinks his boss is a jerk; but the reports from the tool are designed not to be anonymous, so he might not be comfortable saying so. Again, clicking Happy is the fastest and easiest way to get past the prompt. No wonder that over time, more and more people click Happy.
Of course the answer to this criticism is that the tool was never meant to promote Happiness as a State of Being in some ultimate, metaphysical sense. What the pop-up really means to ask is, "Are you facing some organizational problem that you would like us to solve?" If you've got such a problem—if your last paycheck was late or there's a difficulty with your health insurance—say so. If you currently have no organizational problems that you need an internal ombudsman to solve, then—in this context, at least—you are Happy. And you can say so.
Under this contextual definition of "happiness," it sounds like a useful tool. But it is good to remember what the tool is really measuring.
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