During a lecture sponsored by Algebra Business School titled Making The Good Life a More Central Part of Work (and Beyond): Lessons from the Longest Study of Happiness, one of the most important questions was posed: is there a universal recipe for happiness? Clinical psychologist Dr. Marc Schulz presented the results of the longest longitudinal study on happiness in the world, which began at Harvard in 1938. The key finding of this research was that quality relationships—friendships, romantic relationships, family, and ultimately relationships with colleagues—are crucial for a meaningful and fulfilling life. The research also demonstrated that participants who had close and quality relationships recovered more quickly from physical injuries and had better mental stability, while loneliness was associated with greater health difficulties and increased absenteeism from work.
Speaking about inclusion and belonging, CBS Sports Vice President for Workplace Culture and Diversity Initiatives Ndidi Massay, in a one-on-one discussion with Mirta Pađan Lee titled DEI in US Sports Media, sponsored by SD Worx, emphasized that the feeling of belonging contributes to better employee engagement, motivation, and productivity, which is an area where ‘we can always improve.’ Her main goals include building a more diverse workforce, with greater diversity at higher levels that includes people of different nationalities, more women of all races, more persons with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ employees. Since taking on her role, she has been on a sort of tour aimed at encouraging honest conversations about bias, privilege, and belonging. ‘In sports, it is important for fans, players, managers, and the entire community to feel a sense of belonging. Belonging is more than just HR and corporate social responsibility,’ she emphasized. Unlike belonging, which can be harder to measure as it is based on personal impressions, inclusion can be clearly assessed. How many women are in sports, how many sponsors a particular sport has, whether a sport is reserved only for the chosen few—only for the wealthy or only for whites—the statistics are clear.
Among employees, always relevant topics: home-work balance and salary transparency
What is the future of work and how are organizations adapting to new models, and what are the responses to this new reality, and how are employees and organizations coping with it, were revealed to us by Mplus and Manpower Croatia, sister companies within the BOSQAR INVEST group. A survey conducted on a sample of 10,770 respondents across more than 15 different industries confirmed that the preferred working model among respondents is the hybrid model, followed by fluid work, and finally office work. Another interesting piece of data from this panel is that 63 percent of respondents prefer less financial compensation if it means greater work fluidity. What large companies like Span and INA Group think about the flexibility of work models was shared by Tome Barić, HR Director of INA Group, and Ana Visković, HR Development Manager. They agreed that they support flexibility that does not have to be solely remote work, but it is essential that the work is completed by the end of the day and that employees remain productive.
One of the most controversial topics was salary transparency. At the beginning of the panel ‘Imagine all the people… Know your salary’, the audience revealed through interactive voting that 57% support the idea of transparent salaries, although only 9% of companies practice it. Andrea Jurčević from Aircash emphasized that transparency is key to building trust within the company, while Mario Komljenović from Pliva pointed out that managers will benefit the most from transparent systems, as they will ‘shift difficult decisions onto the system.’
