GNH of Business

Proposed GNH of Business
Tshoki Zangmo, Karma Wangdi and Jigme Phuntsho
Centre for Bhutan Studies & GNH

Copyright © Centre for Bhutan Studies & GNH 2017
ISBN 978-99936-14-93-7
First published 2017
Post Box No 1111
Thimphu 11001, Bhutan
Phone: +975 2 321005, 321007
Fax: +975 2 321001
Email: cbs@bhutanstudies.org.bt
www.bhutanstudies.org.bt
www.grossnationalhappiness.com

His Majesty the Fourth King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the Architect of Gross
National Happiness.

His Majesty the King, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and
Her Majesty the Queen, Gyaltsuen Jetsun Pema Wangchuck.

vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The Centre for Bhutan Studies & GNH would like to thank His
Excellency Dasho Tshering Tobgay, the Hon’ble Prime Minister of
Bhutan, for providing unconditional support to the GNH for
Business project which of course is his brainchild.
This project began with a week long retreat at Naksel Hotel, Paro,
in May 2017. We want to recognize contributions made by our
research colleagues Chhimi Dem, Sangay Chophel, Melam
Chozang, and Dorji Penjore, and other colleagues for their support.
The project was carried out under the leadership and technical the
advice of Dasho Karma Ura, the President of the Centre for Bhutan
Studies & GNH.
We want to thank Druk Holdings and Investment (DHI) for
facilitating the pilot survey in DHI-affiliated companies,
particularly the Wood Craft Centre, for their support in pre-testing
the questionnaire. Association of Bhutanese Industries (ABI)
identified a sample of business firms for the pilot survey.
Our special thank is owed to all business firms that took part in the
survey; especially the workers for accommodating addition work
of answering questionnaire to their already tight work schedule. To
maintain confidentiality none of these businesses have been
revealed.

viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgement vii
Table of Contents viii
List of Tables xi
List of Figures xi
List of abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
Why GNH of Business? 6
Objectives 8
Framework of GNH of Business 9
Worker Happiness 10
Psychological Wellbeing 12
1. Job satisfaction 13
2. Trust 14
3. Workplace environment 14
4. Workplace engagement 14
5. Workplace discrimination 15
6. Workplace harassment 15
7. Negative emotion 15
8. Positive emotion 17
Health 18
9. Work stress 19
10. Nature of work 20
11. Workplace common space 20
12. Safety 21
13. Disability 21
14. Injury 22
15. Illness 22
Time Use 22
16. Work-life balance 23
17. Work schedule 23
18. Working hours 23
19. Sleeping hours 24
20. Work’s implication on social life 24
21. Availability of rest and break at workplace 24
Education 24

ix
22. Professional and personal development 25
23. Skills development 25
24. Scholarships 26
Living Standards 26
25. Pay and allowance 26
26. Satisfaction with basic pay and net pay 27
27. Retirement benefits 27
28. Leaves 28
29. Fringe benefits 28
Organisational Conditions for Happiness 29
Good Governance 31
30. Local employment 32
31. Workplace issues 32
32. Compliance with law 33
33. Audit 33
34. Attrition 34
35. Salary gap 34
Cultural Diversity and Resilience 35
36. Cultural volunteerism 36
37. Cultural donation 37
38. Cultural promotion 37
Community Vitality 37
39. Community volunteerism 38
40. Community donation 39
41. Damages to infrastructure 39
42. Affect on community health 40
43. Raw materials sourcing 40
44. Community feedback 40
Ecological Diversity and Resilience 40
45. Emission assessment 42
46. Solid waste assessment 42
47. Environmental volunteerism 42
48. Environmental donation 43
49. Eco-products and services 43
Certification Process 44
Step 1: Screening 44
Step 2: Planning 45
Step 3: Data collection 46
Step 4: Analysis 49
Step 5: Certification 63
The Pilot Survey and Its Findings 65

x
Sample 65
Headcount 66
Happiness score for worker 67
Happiness score for organisational conditions 70
Overall assessment score 73
Classification of scores and certification 78
Limitations & Conclusion 79
References 81
Questionnaire 90

xi
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: List of Indicators Used for Assessing the Worker Happiness
and Organisational Conditions for Happiness. 47
Table 2: Sufficiency Thresholds for Indicators Used in Organisational
Conditions of Happiness Assessment. 51
Table 3: Sufficiency Thresholds for Indicators Used in Worker
Happiness Assessment. 54
Table 4: Assessment Component, Domains, Indicators and Their
Weights. 58
Table 5: Assessment Scores at Domain and Component Disaggregated
Levels. 75
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: The Nine Domains of Gross National Happiness. 3
Figure 2: Assessment Framework for GNH Certification Tool. 9
Figure 3: Assessment Framework for Worker Happiness. 12
Figure 4: Assessment Framework for Psychological Wellbeing
Domain. 13
Figure 5: Assessment Framework for Health Domain 19
Figure 6: Assessment Framework for Time Use Domain. 22
Figure 7: Assessment Framework for Education Domain. 25
Figure 8: Assessment Framework for Living Standards Domain. 26
Figure 9: Assessment Framework for Organisational Conditions for
Happiness. 31
Figure 10: Assessment Framework for Good Governance Domain. 32
Figure 11: Assessment Framework for Cultural Diversity Domain. 36
Figure 12: Assessment Framework for Community Vitality Domain. 38
Figure 13: Assessment Framework for Ecological Diversity Domain. 41
Figure 14: Percentage of Workers Enjoying Sufficiency in Each of the
29 Indicators, by Domain. 66
Figure 15: Percentage of Workers Enjoying Sufficiency in Each of the
29 Indicators. 67
Figure 16: Assessment Score of Worker Happiness of Different
Business Entities. 68
Figure 17: Assessment Score of Worker Happiness of Different
Business Entities by Domains. 69

xii
Figure 18: Assessment Score of Organizational Conditions for
Happiness of Different Business Entities. 71
Figure 19: Assessment Score of Organizational Conditions for
Happiness of Different Business Entities at Domain
Disaggregated Level. 72
Figure 20: Percentage Contribution From Each Assessment
Component to Overall Score. 74
Figure 21: Distribution of Business Entities by Different Grades. 78

xiii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ASSET An Organizational Stress Screening Tool
B Corps B Corporations
BCCI Bhutan Chamber of Commerce and Industry
CBS & GNH Centre for Bhutan Studies and GNH
CSO Civil Society Organizations
CSR Corporate Social Responsibility
DHI Druk Holdings and Investment
EPRS Environmental Performance Reporting System
FYPs Five Year Plans
GIIN Global Impact Investing Network
GSVC Global Social Venture Competition
GRI Global Reporting Initiative
GNH Gross National Happiness
HRAB Hotel and Restaurant Association of Bhutan
MoEA Ministry of Economic Affairs
MoH Ministry of Health
MoLHR Ministry of Labour and Human Resources
NEC National Environment Commission
NGO Non-Governmental Organization
NSB National Statistics Bureau
PPE Personal Protective Equipment
PSIA Product Social Impact Assessment
PRI Principles of Responsible Investment
RGoB Royal Government of Bhutan
SNDP Sustainable New Development Paradigm
SRI Social Return on Investment
TBL Triple Bottom Line
UNGA United Nations General Assembly
UNPAN United Nations Public Administration Network

1
INTRODUCTION
The concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH) was introduced by
His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the Fourth King of Bhutan,
in the 1970s. GNH draws inspiration from the Buddhist middle path
of sustaining a balanced development towards interdependent living
(Ura, 2012). GNH values both tangible and intangible aspects of
wellbeing and is not opposed to material and economic progress.
But, it rejects the idea of pursuing economic prosperity as the only
end goal. It proposes instead, an inclusive, holistic, equitable,
sustainable, and balanced development for societal wellbeing (Ura,
Alkire, Zangmo, & Wangdi, 2012). The concept represents a notion
of good development that fosters societal happiness as the ultimate
value.
Over the years, the Royal Government of Bhutan (RGoB) has
placed GNH at the core of country’s long-term development vision,
making it a unifying force behind the public policy and Five Year
Plans (FYPs) (GNHC, 2013). The Constitution of Bhutan
underscores the importance of GNH where it is stated that, “the state
shall strive to promote those conditions that will enable the pursuit
of Gross National Happiness” (National Assembly of Bhutan
[NAB], 2008).
Since 2004, the Centre for Bhutan Studies and Gross National
Happiness (CBS & GNH) has organised a series of conferences and
seminars to enhance its conceptual depth and measurement vigour
(Ura, Alkire, Zangmo, & Wangdi, 2015). These gatherings

2
generated global interest in GNH and brought together academics,
scholars, policy makers and experts from around the world. GNH
now has found many international supporters and has grown into a
distinguished concept of development.
The latest and most refined conception of GNH has found
expression in Happiness: Towards a New Development Paradigm, a
report submitted by Bhutan to the United Nations General Assembly
(UNGA) in September 2013 (Sustainable New Development
Paradigm [SNDP], 2013). The report was compiled to fulfil the
United Nations Resolution 65/309: “Happiness: Towards a Holistic
Approach to Development” which was unanimously adopted by the
UNGA in 2011. This was followed by the declaration of March 20
as the International Day of Happiness by the UNGA.
The good governance exercise carried out in 2004 recommended
developing an index for measuring the progress based on GNH
(Royal Government of Bhutan [RGoB], 2005). CBS & GNH was
assigned to develop the GNH index to measure development in
GNH terms. In 2010, Bhutan produced its first GNH index to
monitor happiness, and make meaningful changes in operations of
the governing bodies (Ura et al., 2012). CBS & GNH devised a
domain-based framework to measure GNH. The framework
includes nine domains of happiness: (1) psychological wellbeing,
(2) health, (3) education, (4) time use, (5) cultural diversity and
resilience, (6) good governance, (7) community vitality, (8)
ecological diversity and resilience, and lastly (9) living standards.
Each of the domains comprise of a list of indicators developed after
a series of pilot surveys conducted between 2006 and 2008.

3
Figure 1: The Nine Domains of Gross National Happiness.
In 2010, the first nationally representative GNH survey was
conducted followed by the second in 2015. The index draws
information from the domains and adopts a sufficiency methodology
by which GNH depends primarily on how many people are doing
sufficiently across different indicators. The findings from the nine
GNH constructs are incorporated in the formulation of the 12th Five
Year Plan. CBS & GNH has also developed corresponding GNH
policy and project screening tool to monitor its integration into the
implementation process (CBS, 2015).
GNH
Psychological
Wellbeing
Health
Time Use
Education
Cultural
Diversity and
Resilience
Good
Governance
Community
Vitality
Ecological
Diversity and
Resilience
Living
Standards

4
The government bodies in Bhutan are responsible for majority of the
efforts in realising the goals and targets of GNH. Few non-
governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society organisations
(CSOs) also incorporate similar initiatives and align their vision and
mission towards improving societal wellbeing. For instance, the
Tarayana Foundation, a non-profit organisation, provides support to
disadvantaged remote communities with larger national objective of
maximizing happiness. However, business sector generally is not
aware of GNH values since it lay outside the GNH framework. Like
anywhere in the world, Bhutanese business sector has been
functioning on values and norms set by the market.
Milton Friedman in his famous 1970 New York Times magazine
article, wrote that the sole purpose of business is to generate profit
for shareholders (Friedman, 1970). The market norms have
successfully mirrored this assertion in their visions, missions, and
values. This business objective has become a dominant force in
governing the laws of market. A belief that business has no
consequences have diverted it to focus on short-term gains at the
cost of risking long-term value. However, the premises of such
shareholder-centred perspective should be questioned due to
unequal growth patterns and rising inequality which are almost
always accompanied by environmental and socio-cultural costs.
These negative impacts have led to a movement for reinstating the
idea of social responsibility in business. It directed the business
towards a stakeholder theory that suggests that the purpose of
business should be to consider all who have an interest in or are
affected by an organisation’s activity (Evan & Freeman, 1988). The
theory resonates with the values of GNH as integrating GNH
requires business to sustain the competing interests of stakeholders.

5
In the recent decades, social responsibility of business has taken the
form of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Triple Bottom
Line (TBL). In emphasising the integration of people, profits and
planet, TBL suggests that business goals are inseparable from the
society in which they operate. While there is no consensus on the
definition of CSR, CSR is generally understood as business that
integrates social, environment, and economic concerns into its
values and operations to create wealth and improve societal
wellbeing (Hohnen, 2007).
Conceptually, CSR may reflect underlying GNH values. But in
practice CSR initiative may not grounded in its conceptual
principles about what it means to be a socially responsible business.
This may be due to lack of general standards and factors which
constitutes CSR, often leaving CSR initiatives at the discretion to
management.
Additionally, businesses may also use CSR initiatives to its
convenience and to distract society from social irresponsibility. It is
also felt that CSR initiative of funding social and environmental
programmes are merely for public relations to increase production
or boost brand reputation (Bronn & Vidaver-Cohen, 2009), thereby,
questioning the fundamental motive of CSR initiatives.
Similarly, dominance on philanthropic activities in a GNH business
model might provide an avenue for a business to donate money
without having any impact on their operations or policies. Hence,
while proposing such a model, caution will have to be exercised to
avoid such outcomes. GNH integrated business must instead,
undergo transformation in the way it functions, generates and values

6
societal wellbeing by addressing issues across a range of domains
including social, environment, culture, and economy.
Why GNH of Business?
The idea of incorporating GNH values into business was first
proposed by His Excellency Dasho Tshering Tobgay, the Hon’ble
Prime Minister of Bhutan, in his keynote address at the Sixth
International Conference on Gross National Happiness held in Paro
in 2015 (CBS, 2015). The Prime Minister mentioned that the current
business model of overemphasizing profit maximisation and
increasing shareholder value at the cost of environment and
community was unsustainable. The Prime Minister expressed the
need to recognise and manage these costs and risks, and called for
integrating GNH values into business operation. Essentially, it
meant measuring the success of a business by its ability to serve,
facilitate, and engage with its stakeholders. This will require
rethinking of business indicators used for gauging their success or
failure.
Currently, business establishments rely only on financial indicators
to measure its performance (Kennerley & Neely, 2002). However, it
must be understood that delivering returns to those who have
provided the capital is only one of the many roles. The financial
report fails to illustrate the degree to which business impact the
health of environment and communities. For example, a business,
which often pollutes and destroys habitats, is seen to rank at the the
top due the mere presentation of financial statements with higher
returns.

7
Hence, a shift toward GNH would require businesses to incorporate
non-economic indicators encompassing aspects such as job
satisfaction, contribution to the community, and environment. If
business entity includes GNH as one of its primary goals and
integrate GNH-based indictors, it can contribute to creating a
vibrant and sustainable socio-economic condition.
Several impact assessment tools have been developed to evaluate
the social responsibilities of businesses. Most of these assessment
tools aim to identify potential gaps, opportunities and risks, and
provide an understanding of strengths and weaknesses relative to
social goals and best practices. There are tools developed for self-
assessment and others that require a formal assessment to be carried
out by an expert or a team of consultants. Likewise, there are tools,
which are general in nature, measuring different areas of impacts,
and others that focus on specific areas. The Foundation Centre (cited
in Florman, Klinger-Vidra, & Facada, 2016) highlighted the
presence of more than 150 such impact assessment tools. They
include internationally recognised frameworks developed by the
United Nations (UN) called the UN Compact Assessment and
Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), which highlight ways
of conceptualising good practices. Built on the logic of cost-benefit
analysis, the Social Return on Investment (SROI) is designed to
influence decision-making focused on reducing environmental
impacts, and increasing the social benefits (Banke-Thomas, Madaj,
Charles, & van den Broek, 2015). The UN has also developed a
comprehensive guide for social impact assessment (United Nations
Public Administration Network [UNPAN], 2006). There are social
accounting tools such as the sustainable reporting tool launched by
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) (GRI, 2015).

8
In 2009, the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) also
developed tools to assess social, environmental, and financial
aspects of business establishments. Product Social Impact
Assessment (PSIA) is another measure that evaluates the social
impact of a product through stakeholder consultations (Fontes,
2016). Environmental Performance Reporting System (EPRS) was
developed by the Environmental Capital Group to evaluate
business’s environmental investment programmes (Oslen &
Galimidi, 2008). The B Lab, a non-profit organisation, administers
the B Corporations (B Corps) certification for businesses that have
met the standards of social and environmental performance,
accountability and transparency (B Lab, n.d.). The B Corps has
certified nearly 2000 businesses so far. It is beyond the scope of this
report to discuss all the social impact assessment tools which have
provided groundwork for developing this Proposed GNH of
Business. A lot has been learnt from these works, in terms of
indicator framework, content, data collection and assessment
methodologies.
Objectives
Proposed GNH of Business offers information on diverse
implications of business operations. It could be used as a decision-
making tool to enhance desirable impacts on society and to mitigate
adverse impacts. Proposed GNH of Business aims to (a) assess the
overall functioning of the business entity as per the GNH
framework; (b) certify business entity based on its performance, and
(c) identify areas (domains and indicators) that require
improvement.

9
FRAMEWORK OF GNH OF BUSINESS
Proposed GNH of Business is a tool to systematically assess a
business establishment’s effort to integrate GNH values into its
operations. Building on experiences of the formulation of GNH
Index, the tool is developed by adopting a nine-domain based
framework of GNH. For the tool, the nine domains are grouped
under two assessment components: (1) worker happiness, and (b)
organisational conditions for happiness.
Figure 2: Assessment Framework for GNH Certification Tool.
Worker happiness evaluates the contentment and happiness level of
workforce across a broad spectrum of life domains. Organisational
conditions for happiness examine business behaviours, procedures
and contributions towards improving worker and societal wellbeing
Worker happiness
GNH
Organisational conditions for
happiness
Psychological
wellbeing
Health
Timeuse
Education
Livingstandards
Goodgovernance
Culturaldiversity
Community
vitality
Ecological
diversity

10
and happiness. The Constitution of Bhutan mandates the State to
promote conditions of Gross National Happiness (NAB, 2008);
similarly, business entities will have to also promote necessary
conditions for workers and the society at large to pursue happiness.
Worker Happiness
Worker happiness is a construct developed based on the mental and
physical experience at workplace. The construct features indicators
that provide insights on workplace commitment and opportunities to
improve the working conditions. Worker happiness is aimed at
instilling a duty of care for worker’s welfare. Significant association
has been observed between workplace happiness and over all life
quality (Schulte et al., 2015).
Worker happiness is an essential component for integrating GNH
into business for several reasons. First, the conventional wisdom for
an economy to disregard worker’s emotional, social, and spiritual
needs does not hold true any longer (Ikerd, as cited in Solin, n.d.).
There is a need to integrate ecological and social values into the
economics of business to capture the full range of human values and
needs at workplace.
Second, work has become pervasive in our life that events
experienced at workplace influence events in non-work life
(Mesmet-Magnus & Viswesvaran, 2005). For instance, a good job
results in a good life and vice versa. Moreover, work plays a critical
role in defining our identities, shaping our values, and ultimately
influencing our quality of life (Judge & Klinger, as cited in
Alghamdi, 2015).

11
Third, job requirements may have evolved over the years shifting
the focus from muscles to skills and speed. This ever-changing work
requirement also brings with it the drive to align worker’s personal
and professional lives with purpose. It seems now we expect our
jobs to fulfil our needs beyond just the pay cheque to find
meaningful work through experience such as creativity and
inspiration.
Worker happiness is associated with better productivity and
investors are now looking at wellbeing and happiness as leading
indicators of performance (Oswald, Proto, & Sgroi, 2015; De Neve,
Diener, Tay, & Xuereb, 2013). However, when the concept of
wellbeing merges with business, investments on initiatives to
increase workers wellbeing is often done at an expense to increase
productivity (Bryson, Forth, & Stokes, 2015). Thus, it might
dominate the core concept of GNH, which considers workers
happiness as one of the ends rather than using happy workers to
yield profit.
In the strictest sense, GNH-integrated business will have to avoid
viewing everything in terms of economic value and start considering
its societal value. Business establishments will have to invest and
encourage workers to seek and experience happiness at workplace.
Happiness is one of the most basic human pursuits, something we
aspire to have both in life as well as work. Hence, worker happiness
is a vital component to be integrated in the tool.
In a large diverse workforce, there may be numerous work-related
factors affecting their happiness. Physical components such as good
pay, benefits, and training opportunities will lead to a strong sense
of happiness (Gregory, 2011). However, often it is the unseen

12
subjective components such as the relationship with colleagues or
supervisors, work-life balance and others that can provide additional
insights on the workforce happiness (Lazar, Osoian, & Ratiu, 2010).
For this reason, worker happiness is conceptualized and measured
through a set of both tangible and intangible factors across the five
life domains of psychological wellbeing, health, time use, education,
and living standards.
Figure 3: Assessment Framework for Worker Happiness.
Psychological Wellbeing
Psychological wellbeing domain is a construct that attempts to
capture both cognitive judgments and affective feelings of workers.
The domain is measured through eight indicators: job satisfaction,
trust, workplace environment, workplace engagement,
discrimination, harassment, positive emotion, and negative emotion.
Worker happiness
Psychological
wellbeing
Health Time use Education
Living
standards

13
Figure 4: Assessment Framework for Psychological Wellbeing
Domain.
Eight indicators of the psychological wellbeing domain are briefly
discussed below.
1. Job satisfaction
Job satisfaction indicator measures cognitive evaluation of the job.
It assesses worker’s level of satisfaction recorded on a four-point
Likert scale from 1 ‘not at all satisfied’ to 4 ‘very satisfied’.
Worker’s happiness level at work is also evaluated from 0 ‘not at all
happy’ to 10 ‘very happy’. The single-item question is found to be
significantly associated with both intrinsic factors such as
motivation, trust, and relationships at workplace, and extrinsic
factors such as pay, benefits, and compensation (Linz & Semykina,
2010).
Psychological
wellbeing
Job
satisfaction
Trust
Workplace
environment
Discri-
mination
Positive
emotion
Workplace
engagement
Harass-
ment
Negative
emotion

14
2. Trust
Trust is the core element of every relationship as it demonstrates
reliability, loyalty, and honesty of a workforce (Engelbrecht, Heine,
& Mahembe, 2014). Past studies have linked trust to empowerment,
autonomy, supervisory support, higher levels of cooperation, and
other forms of positive workplace attitudes (Jones & George, 1998).
The trust indicator attempts to measure trust among supervisors, co-
workers, and the management using five-point Likert scale: 5 ‘trust
all of them’ to 1 ‘trust none of them’.
3. Workplace environment
Workplace motivation attempts to encourage a sense of ownership
over their work and promote creativity and innovation at workplace
(Smallman & Miller, 2013). Five variables of the workplace
environment assess worker’s feeling of respectful treatment, job
security, supervisory motivation, looking forward to going for work,
and feeling proud to work for the organisation. The responses range
from 1 ‘never’ to 5 ‘always’.
4. Workplace engagement
Worker engagement refers to the level of freedom, and appreciation
given by their employers. Workers may experience these aspects
while communicating with co-workers, supervisors, or clients.
Workplace engagement indicator was constructed using four items:
availability of opportunities to take initiatives, make suggestions,
involve in making decisions, and the feeling of being valued and
appreciated. Workers were asked to rate their degree of agreement
with the statements on a scale from 1 ‘strongly disagree’ to 5
‘strongly agree’.

15
5. Workplace discrimination
Workplace discrimination refers to any act of discrimination or
disruptive behaviour experienced by workers. A workplace study
has confirmed that violence brings psychological, emotional, and
physical harm to workers (Hood, 2004). The construct was
developed from various discriminations experienced by workers
during interactions with clients, supervisors, colleagues,
shareholders, or management. It measures worker’s feelings of
being discriminated because of age, gender, and ethnic origin.
Workers assess the frequency of their experiences on a five-point
Likert scale of 1 ‘always’ to 5 ‘never’.
6. Workplace harassment
Workplace harassment, a form of violence against workers, has been
included in the assessment. The indicator comprises of four
variables: sexual harassment, verbal abuse, physical abuse, and lack
of confidence in reporting when workers experience such abuses.
Sexual harassment includes unwelcome sexual advances or explicit
comments made by colleagues, supervisors, managers, clients or
anyone else in the workplace. Verbal abuse is the attempt to demean
a person by name-calling, insults, intimidation, etc. Physical abuse
includes pushing, shoving, and grabbing at workplace that may lead
to bodily harm. Workers will have to report the frequency of
experiences across such harassments on a five-point Likert scale of
1 ‘always’ to 5 ‘never’.
7. Negative emotion
Studies indicate that emotions either felt or expressed in
organisations have direct consequences in outcomes of their work

16
roles (Lenner, Li, Valdesolo, & Kassam, 2015). For instance,
feelings of negative emotions at workplace tend to produce negative
impacts on workers (Rispens & Demerouti, 2016). The negative
emotion indicator is constructed using seven negative emotions:
anger, selfishness, jealousy, sadness, frustration, anxiety, and
disappointment. Workers evaluate the frequency of these emotions
felt at workplace in the past four weeks. A time of four weeks was
identified for an easy recollection (Ura et al., 2015).
Anger refers to response towards workplace situations when a
worker feels wronged. It may be caused by a multitude of factors
and directed towards colleagues, supervisors, clients, or
management. For instance, anger may arise due to workplace
violence or sexual harassment or the lack of teamwork. Selfishness
refers to a feeling of self-centeredness. Typically, at a workplace, a
feeling of selfishness may resonate an attitude of entitlement
without having to earn it through their performance. Jealousy may
be referred to an act or an attitude displayed or felt by workers with
their competitors at workplace. Sadness resonates with the feelings
of melancholy and feelings of misery at workplace.
Frustration runs closely with anger but may not cause to react in a
more physical manner. It may rise when an effort or observation
does not work out as planed. Frustration is often a response to inner
state of the workers (Lewandowski, 2003). Prolonged frustration
may at times lead to feelings of anger at a later stage. Workers
suffer from anxiety when they develop fears or stress regarding
work conditions while interacting or working with colleagues and
supervisors (Holden, 2015). Disappointment arises when a worker is
dissatisfied with an outcome at workplace. All the negative

17
emotions are rated on a scale from 1 ‘Few times a week’ to 7
‘Never’.
8. Positive emotion
Like the impacts generated by negative emotion, positive emotions
are also seen to have an impact at workplace (Armenta, Fritz, &
Lyubomirsky, 2017). Workers are said to be more creative,
effective, and happy while experiencing positive emotion. Eight
positive emotions were used for constructing positive emotion
indicator: calmness, compassion, forgiveness, contentment,
generosity, gratitude, joy, and pride. Workers rate their positive
emotions on a scale from 7 ‘Few times a week’ to 1 ‘Never’
Calmness refers a state of being free from agitation or stress.
Workplace compassion may be represented in ordinary things
starting from understanding a colleague’s negative remarks after
knowing that the colleague was under severe stress or donating sick
days (if allowed) to a staff in personal crisis or volunteering to help
an overburdened staff. Forgiveness is worker’s ability to
consciously end or release the feelings of resentment towards
colleague, supervisors or management or even customers. These
feelings arise when a worker believes in reconciliation instead of
hatred or revenge as a response to some issues at workplace.
Workplace contentment refers to a feeling of satisfaction on a range
of factors. For instance, a worker may feel contented after
completing a project before deadline. Similarly, worker will feel
contented for being able to provide suggestions for workplace
improvement.

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Generosity refers to the feelings of being sympathetic and useful
while contributing your time or effort towards stakeholders of the
establishment. Workers may attempt to be generous with their ideas,
instead of strategizing to use it to their advantage. Gratitude implies
the feelings of showing appreciation at workplace. For instance, a
worker who has been helped by a colleague during times of need
may express gratitude. Joy refers to the feeling of being positively
energised and happy with their roles at work. Feelings of pride
occur when workers have a deep satisfaction of their achievements
or the overall operations at work.
Health
Work is an important determinant of worker’s health that can result
in both positive and negative health effects (Waddell & Burton,
2006). Studies show that worker’s health and productivity are
closely associated (Burton, Conti, Chen, Schultz, & Edington, 1999;
Cockburn, Bailit, Berndt, & Finkelstein, 1999). Workplace
represents an ideal venue for effectively incorporating health
promotion based programmes to reduce risk factors of employed
population (Loeppka et al, 2015). The employers are integral part of
the public health system and hence, have a vital role in contributing
to health of the workers.
The domain of health focuses on the internal experiences and
environmental factors that influence health at workplace, and
reviews both physical and mental conditions of the workers. It is
composed of indicators such as occupational stress, nature of work,
common spaces for various non-work purposes, safety, injury,
illness, and disability.

19
Figure 5: Assessment Framework for Health Domain
The health aspect of worker happiness is measured using seven
indicators, which are briefly discussed below.
9. Work stress
Occupational stress is the resulting physical or social reaction of
workers when they are not able to fulfil the demands of a workplace
(Michie, 2002). The most common causes of occupational stress are
increased workloads, continuous overtime work, and hostile work
environment, shift work, and others. Occupational stress not only
affect the immediate work environment but also have impact on the
community of which the worker is a member (Rick, Hillage, Honey,
& Perryman, 1997). It is usually the experience of prolonged stress
that makes workers develop many health issues.
Though there are numerous measures of occupational stress,
variables have been adapted from an Organisational Stress
Screening Tool (ASSET) developed by Cartwright and Cooper
(2002). The ASSET tool is psychometrically tested and robust, and
it includes a range of variables including job security, overload,
work-life balance, etc. The four variables of occupational stress
indicator assess whether worker is being ‘pressured to work long
Health
Work stress
Nature of
work
Workplace
common space
DisabilitySafety Injury Illness

20
hours’, ‘working at odd hours’, ‘unpredictable working hours’, and
having ‘a stressful job’. They run on a Likert scale from 1 to 5 with
1 denoting ‘always’ and 5 as ‘never’.
10. Nature of work
Work often involves a range of physical actions from different
positions to postures that place workers at risks of injury and illness.
Study shows that unsafe work condition and practice lead to several
accidents causing injury as well as property damage (Mohamed,
2008). Analysis of these circumstantial factors is hence important.
The nature of work indicator examines the physical demand at
workplace. It is made up of eight variables comprising of queries on
whether the work requires ‘repeated lifting, pushing, pulling or
bending for long hours’, ‘performing forceful, hand, leg, etc.,
movements or awkward postures’, ‘breathing harmful substances’,
‘handling harmful substances’, ‘working in noisy environment’,
‘working in vibrating environment’, workplace temperature in
winter and summer. The responses run from 1 ‘always’ to 5 ‘never’
for the first six variables. The responses for the other two variables
run from 1 ‘too hot’ to 5 ‘too cold’.
11. Workplace common space
Business will have to provide workers with comfortable space to
encourage inspiration, creativity, and reflection since workers spend
majority of their time at work. Additionally, it was found that such
spaces have direct impacts on worker happiness (Haworth Research
Institute, 2016).

21
Workplace common space indicator consists of four variables. They
are access to common space for interacting with co-workers, having
meals together, carrying out spiritual or wellness activities, and
green space that provides contact with nature. An ideal common
space would be separate from the main workspace where workers
may interact and socialise with co-workers. Meal space refers to an
area preferably kitchens attached to a workplace where workers can
store, prepare and have their meals. The spiritual space or the
wellness room is often overlooked in offices despite its association
with worker’s happiness (Ajala, 2013). Providing such spaces
encourage workers to practice mindfulness and other contemplative
exercise to reduce occupational stress and increase happiness. These
spaces in general help in connecting and building relationships
within the establishment.
12. Safety
A business establishment will have to set the highest safety standard
to ensure worker’s health and welfare. Possible hazards will have to
be identified, and strategies developed to reduce the associated risks.
This will, however, require technical expertise on sector specific
hazards. The current indicator involves assessment of the provision
of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and the continuous
inspection of their usage. PPE refers to equipment that is used for
protecting workers from health or safety risks at work. It can include
items such as helmets, gloves, eye protections, footwear, etc.
13. Disability
The disability indicator examines the presence of work-related
disability that limits worker’s physical and mental capacities. The
response ranges from 1 ‘yes’ to 2 ‘no’. A range of disabilities is

22
listed for workers to assess from vision to use of arms and legs to
mental aspects.
14. Injury
Workers may be injured in work-related activities. It is also caused
when demands at workplace significantly aggravates pre-existing
health condition. This indicator looks at whether workers have
suffered any work-related injury such as fall, trip or electrocution,
etc., in the past 12 months.
15. Illness
Workers will also be asked to report any work-related illnesses that
they may have suffered during the past 12 months. These work-
related illnesses may result from workplace exposure to hazardous
environment such as dust, smoke, or other such harmful substances.
Time Use
Time use domain attempts to assess worker’s experiences in
meeting the needs of both work and non-work aspects of life. It
comprises of six measures as shown below.
Figure 6: Assessment Framework for Time Use Domain.
Time use
Work-life
balance
Work
schedule
Working
hours
Work’s implication
on social life
Sleeping
hours
Rest & break
at workplace

23
16. Work-life balance
Work-life balance is a concept that reflects proper prioritization of
work constituting career and non-work life like family, social and
leisure time. It can be characterised by the absence of conflict
between work and non-work activities. Work-life balance is a
critical indicator as workers who have balance tend to have greater
satisfaction with life in general by witnessing lower levels of stress
(Sujata, Cheema, & Bhutto, 2011). For this indicator, worker’s
perception on their ability to maintain balance between work and
non-work life is recorded on a scale from 0 to 10.
17. Work schedule
Flexible time describes working arrangements that give some degree
of flexibility on the time and days of work. Flexible working
arrangements may have positive impact on worker’s engagement
and motivation. Such arrangements enable them to have greater
control over their work-life-balance leading to a happier workforce.
For this indicator, workers report their work schedule.
18. Working hours
It is observed that today’s work culture requires workers to
increasingly spend longer hours at workplace. Studies have reported
that long working hours often increases the risks of occupational
illnesses and injuries (Shields, 1999). Therefore, businesses will
have to integrate work time regulations to protect workers from such
health hazards. The indicator records the worker’s average working
hours in a normal work setting.

24
19. Sleeping hours
A good quality and quantity of sleep is important for worker’s
health. It affects our ability to sustain attention, our performance,
and interpersonal relationships amongst others. The sleep indicator
assesses the amount of hours slept in a normal setting.
20. Work’s implication on social life
The demand on worker’s time and energy can significantly affect
the social and family lives. Too much demand on time and energy
can reduce the amount of time available for sleep as well as the
quality of sleep. This indicator includes queries on whether conflict
has occurred when there is an incompatible demand from work,
which makes participation in family and social roles challenging. It
comprises of three variables: whether work is affecting family life,
social life and sleep. The frequency of effect is assessed across the
variables on a response code from 1 ‘never’ to 5 ‘always’.
21. Availability of rest and break at workplace
The availability of break such as lunch break, tea and coffee break,
and rest at workplace are very essential for workers. For this
indicator, workers report the time allocated for such breaks at the
workplace.
Education
The education domain incorporates human resource indicators like
workplace skill development and training programme. It includes
indicators that attempt to capture opportunities offered by employers
for their professional and personal development. Provision of

25
company sponsored scholarships for short and long-term studies are
other assessment criteria used for assessing the achievement in the
education domain as illustrated below.
Figure 7: Assessment Framework for Education Domain.
22. Professional and personal development
Workers will be asked to report their agreement or disagreement on
the availability of opportunities for their professional and personal
development, and other related career advancement aspects. This
indicator will assess whether promotions in organisations were fair,
career opportunities were equally distributed, and whether the
workplace inspired them to do their best. The indicator in total
comprises of six variables and the response code range from 1
‘agree’ to 5 ‘disagree’
23. Skills development
This indicator reflects the number of trainings, seminar or
workshops attended by workers for the enhancement of their skills.
Skills development programme refers to programme for enhancing
skill, to specialise in employment-related skill, and acquire new
skill. It is assumed that these programmes will help them develop
their full potential.
Education
Professional & personal
development
Skills
development
Scholarships for
study

26
24. Scholarships
This indicator assesses whether a business sponsored scholarship for
short-term and long-term. Since scholarships for long-term or short-
term are not applicable to all the workers, assessment will be carried
out in terms of the proportion of workers who have had such
opportunities.
Living Standards
The domain of living standards relates to material comfort provided
by business establishment to its workers. It comprises of total
income, and incorporates subjective appraisals of worker’s
contentment across a range of benefits. The living standards domain
comprises of five indicators presented below.
Figure 8: Assessment Framework for Living Standards Domain.
25. Pay and allowance
Pay and allowance refers to total income received by workers as
basic pay, bonus, and allowance. Basic pay is the amount payable to
a worker before any deductions or additions. It is usually determined
by the length of worker’s service, qualification and skill. Bonus
Living standards
Pay &
allowances
Satisfaction with
basic & net pay
Retirement
benefits
Leaves Fringe
benefits

27
refers to extra payment received from the establishment as a reward
for good performance. At times, if business establishment has
earned high profit exceeding their target, it may choose to provide
bonuses to the entire staff irrespective of their performances.
Allowance is an amount provided to workers in addition to the basic
pay. The amount is set on some regulation and usually reflects a
certain percentage of the basic pay.
26. Satisfaction with basic pay and net pay
Different business establishments adopt different pay structures. It
has been observed that business that contributes to worker’s pension
and provident fund account generally set a low basic pay. However,
it tries to compensate by providing higher allowance. For this
reason, the indicators attempt to assess workers level of satisfaction
with both basic and net pay. Their level of satisfaction is assessed on
a four-point Likert scale from 1 ‘not satisfied’ to 4 ‘very satisfied’.
27. Retirement benefits
Retirement benefits play a role in the overall job satisfaction of
workers (Artz, 2010). For this indicator, workers are made to rate
their level of satisfaction with pension, provident fund and gratuity.
Pension is received when a worker has retired. Pension may be
claimed either in lump sum or on regular basis. Provident fund is
created by contributing some amount from a worker’s basic pay
with contribution from the establishment regularly over his or her
work life and is usually claimed in lump sum. Gratuity refers to a
sum of money provided by the establishment for the worker’s
service after retirement.

28
28. Leaves
Worker’s perception on various paid leave are assessed for this
indicator. They include leave granted for causal, medical,
bereavement, maternity, paternity, and public holidays. Casual leave
refers to leave sought for a short duration during sickness or
personal emergency. Medical leave is sick leave granted by an
establishment. Medical leave is usually provided when the illness is
serious. Such leave usually requires medical certification or some
prescriptions from concerned medical practitioners. Bereavement
leave, also known as compassionate leave in some establishments, is
provided when a worker’s immediate family member dies.
Immediate family members include spouse, children, and parents.
Maternity leave is only allowed for pregnant working mothers. It
may be granted in conditions of miscarriage. Paternity leave is
provided to fathers at the birth of his child or adoption of a child.
Public holidays are those days when a holiday is observed through
out the country to celebrate days of historical, spiritual or cultural
significance.
29. Fringe benefits
Worker’s accessibility to other benefits and amenities are assessed
for this indicator. Benefits include health care comprising of life
insurance, health or wellness programmes and medical coverage;
and amenities comprises of housing, transportation, meal subsidies
and childcare amongst others. Worker’s satisfaction levels across
these benefits are assessed on a four point Likert scale from 1 ‘not
satisfied’ to 4 ‘very satisfied’.

29
Life insurance refers to a lump sum payment in case of worker’s
death. Medical treatment refers to a condition of having the medical
expenses covered by the business establishment when a worker is
suffering from some serious ailment. If medical treatments are
covered by government the business establishment will have to
cover referral cost. An immediate family member here includes
spouse, children and parents only. Provision of housing refers to an
accommodation or housing allowance provided to a worker by their
employers. Likewise, workers may also be provided with
transportation services like pickups and drop-offs. The business
establishment may provide meals or meal allowances or subsidized
meals. Provision of meals pertains to those arranged for every day
work and not only during overtime or trainings. Childcare services
involve family friendly working arrangements such as onsite
childcare service (crèche) or breast-feeding rooms.
Organisational Conditions for Happiness
Organisational conditions for happiness is a construct to evaluate the
internal arrangements and commitments made by a business for the
promotion of workers wellbeing, environment, and society at large.
The concept is anchored by the view that businesses share a
symbiotic relationship with communities and environment. It
implies, that a principle of shared value must be followed by both
business decisions and social policies.
In Bhutan, a business that systematically contributes to all the
domains of GNH is non-existent. Though, practiced by some
establishments in Bhutan, most benchmarks are developed based on
international standards and hence, fail to reflect the concept of GNH
in its entirety. Therefore, it is vital for the tool to integrate a

30
component that regulates the operations of businesses with regards
to its stakeholders.
Businesses are critical members of society. Their decisions and
actions reverberate throughout society, affecting areas beyond just
shareholders’ lives. Such a measurement would help businesses to
integrate the concerns of stakeholders. It would provide a
framework for the responsible use of its power and involvement in
improvement of societal wellbeing. It would also aid in creating and
promoting a culture of attitudes for sustainable change.
Additionally, understanding the intended or unintended social
effects provide businesses with a platform to develop interventions
and help in mitigating risks. It can provide an early insight into these
domains, providing opportunities and recommendations to correct
courses of actions.
It may also help in driving revenue in many ways. The practices of
consistently measuring business engagements such as improving
marketing strategies and earning trust with vital stakeholders can
meaningfully contribute towards creating profit. Moreover, at a time
where consumer knowledge has reached its peak because of
globalization and technology, it is only fitting to integrate
organisational engagement into business’s mission to be
accountable.
Organisational conditions for happiness constitute domains that
attempt to provide insights on the responsibilities and actions
undertaken by businesses to emphasise their potential to influence a
quality life, transform organisational values and create a value
driven culture in businesses. Information on organisational

31
conditions for happiness is gathered through the domains of cultural
diversity and resilience, community vitality, ecological diversity and
resilience, and good governance. Organisational engagement
comprises of indicators that attempt to minimise negative and
maximise positive environmental and social benefits. Integrating
these actions to the core functioning of the business will help
achieve this effectively.
Figure 9: Assessment Framework for Organisational Conditions for
Happiness.
Good Governance
The domain of good governance sets forth some of the core values,
responsibilities, and commitments in business operations. The
domain expresses business’s foundation to conduct business
processes with ethics, integrity, and transparency. It comprises of
six indicators as depicted below.
Organisational conditions for
happiness
Good
governance
Cultural diversity &
resilience
Community
vitality
Ecological diversity &
resilience

32
Figure 10: Assessment Framework for Good Governance Domain.
30. Local employment
The local employment indicator measures the proportion of national
or local employees working in the business establishment.
Information on the number of national and foreign workers are
collected for computation of the proportion.
31. Workplace issues
Effective written policies and procedures are required to address
workplace-related issues. Such documents and service rules
explaining key approaches to areas of interest also highlights a
business’s commitment to compliance. Rules and regulations would
help educate workers on their rights and enable businesses for
proper conduct. Such standards will have to be easily accessible and
distributed to workers.
The indicator evaluates a business’s assurance to maintain a
transparent management system by studying the number of
procedures recognized and documented. It assesses whether the
organisation has procedures to deal with issues of discipline,
Good governance
Local
employment
Workplace
issues
Compliance
with law Salary gapAudit Attrition

33
grievance, health and safety, discrimination, harassment, corruption,
child labour, and forced labour.
32. Compliance with law
An increasing number of fraudulent practices have been reported by
businesses (Rivera & Karlsson, 2017). Integration of GNH calls for
businesses to develop a culture of transparency and accountability
within the operations.
Considering such situations, the indicator seeks to assess the
fulfilment of mandates by businesses to comply with law, rules and
regulations across a range of cases. These include corruption, money
laundering, illegal financing of political parties, anti-competitive
practices, evading tax, violating environmental rules, publishing
misleading advertisements, discriminating, abusing and harassing
workers, worker injury, child labour, and forced labour. These
regulations are meant to ensure that businesses are being run with
integrity and transparency.
One of the direct results of effective compliance is that it removes
businesses from the risk of fines or penalties. But, what is more
worthy is that these rules and regulations help create a better
working environment, provides public accountability, and promotes
good business practices. Data on instances or cases whereby a
business was found to be involved in fraudulent practices will be
assessed for this indicator.
33. Audit
Having a quality audit system enables businesses to have reliable
financial reporting on its operations, thereby preventing fraudulent

34
practices and strengthening business conduct (Mihret & Grant,
2017). Ideally, a big business would need both an internal auditor
and independent external auditor to reflect a holistic comprehensive
monitoring process. Hence, the indicator assesses whether a
business conducts internal or external auditing.
34. Attrition
Attrition is often portrayed as a major issue in business operations as
it is said to have direct impact on the remaining worker’s morale
and productivity. Workers often leave their jobs due to
dissatisfaction at workplace (Mobley, 1977). Dissatisfaction may be
work-related such as discontentment over benefits or supervision or
it may also stem from non-work spheres of life.
The indicator does not make any distinction between different types
of turnovers. For instance, there are worker-initiated voluntary
turnovers and involuntary turnovers initiated by employers. Instead,
a simple method has been adopted for calculating the attrition rate.
It is calculated by dividing the number of employees who left the
organisation during the year by the average number of employees
employed by the company during the year (McGew, n.d.).
35. Salary gap
The aggregate income inequality has risen steadily over the years
(Acemoglu & Autor, 2011) and there has been an increasing
concern about high pay inequality within business establishments. A
part of the inequality rise is explained by firm growth (Barth,
Bryson, Davis, & Freeman, 2016). However, the executives and
management authority may at times raise salary for the sole reasons

35
of corporate greed. Income inequality is observed to hurt employee
moral and productivity, and are negatively related to firm value
(Breza, Kaur, & Shamdasani, 2016). The salary gap indicator is
computed based on the difference between the highest and the
lowest earner in the establishment.
Cultural Diversity and Resilience
Culture incorporates both tangible aspects in form of landmarks, and
intangible features in terms of values or historical accounts. Culture
is key for understanding the history of a community, and its
preservation has an essential role in protecting ecology, creating
vibrant communities, and sustaining local economies.
Businesses as a part of society have a role in ensuring that culture of
the locality is recognised, respected, and promoted. Hence,
understanding the nature of local culture and heritage is vital. An
ignorance of such cultural norms may result in insensitive decision-
making causing distress in the local community.
In general, most businesses seem to be not aware of the benefits of
carrying out such programmes and so, are rarely involved in
initiating cultural preservation programmes. While there are some
businesses, which are specifically dependent on the heritage and
culture, there are others who have no inclination. In both cases, the
interventions in culture and heritage preservation must be
encouraged to generate respect for its cultural and economic value.
The culture domain is a construct developed to remind and
emphasise the importance of traditions and heritage. Three

36
indicators have been identified to form the construct as explained
below.
Figure 11: Assessment Framework for Cultural Diversity Domain.
36. Cultural volunteerism
Cultural volunteerism indicator evaluates whether a business has
carried out any voluntary works in promoting national language,
national arts and crafts, supporting local festivals, traditional or
spiritual events, driglam namzha, and cultural heritage sites. For
instance, organisations may send workers to volunteer for
maintenance of temples and monasteries around their workplace.
Creating awareness of the importance of sites could be another
example in promoting intangible cultural resources. Such
interactions also reinforce relationships with the local community.
Some businesses adopt monuments and sites of cultural significance
towards preserving such monuments or sites. Businesses are asked
to provide the number of days volunteered and the number of
workers involved in any of the voluntary programmes in the past 12
months.
Cultural diversity & resilience
Cultural
volunteerism
Cultural donation Cultural promotion

37
37. Cultural donation
Donation refers to the amount donated in cash or in kind by a
business for a range of cultural activities or events involving
promotion or conservation of cultural traditions and heritage.
Specific activities involve donations for promotion of national
language, national arts and crafts, local festivals, traditional or
spiritual events, driglam namzha, cultural heritage sites, etc. Such
measures can bring benefits by reinforcing relationships in the
community, which in turn will win its trust and loyalty.
38. Cultural promotion
This indicator attempts to assess whether the core operation of the
business in terms of their products or services are directly involved
in endorsing or fostering the preservation and promotion of either or
both tangible and intangible aspects of cultural tradition and heritage
which includes folk music, songs, performing arts, traditional artisan
skills, social practices, rituals and festivals, etc.
For example, a bronze statue making business would be directly
promoting the knowledge of traditional artisan skill. Likewise, for a
handcraft business, employing women to weave traditional designs
would lead to retaining weaving skills, and promoting traditional
wear. Similarly, a consultancy firm which offers courses in national
language would be encouraging its use.
The indicator aims to encourage business’s operations in integrating
knowledge in creating cultural product or service.
Community Vitality

38
Businesses have social obligations towards the local community in
which it operates. The domain of community vitality describes the
engagements of a business in community building. It comprises of
six indicators as shown below.
Figure 12: Assessment Framework for Community Vitality Domain.
39. Community volunteerism
Undertaking voluntary works for the community is a great way of
paying back to the community. The indicator attempts to encourage
businesses to make a difference in lives of residents through
voluntary activities and community initiatives. Businesses must
work together with the local community to nurture networks of
support, build a sense of connection, and help resolve diverse social
issues. Volunteers drawn from the business sector would also aid in
bringing skills and expertise, which otherwise would remain out of
reach for the local communities.
This indicator encompasses activities carried out by firms in various
voluntary works such as volunteering in spiritual events, providing
health, education and recreational services, developing basic
Community vitality
Community
volunteerism
Community
donation
Raw
materials
sourcing
Damages to
infras-
tructure
Affect on
community
health
Community
feedback

39
infrastructure, initiating anti-poverty measures, supporting
communities in times of natural calamities and disasters, supporting
women, senior citizens, and persons with disability amongst others.
It accesses the number of people involved and the number of days
volunteered.
40. Community donation
This indicator assesses the amount of cash and in kind donation
made by a business in various areas of community building which
are mentioned above under volunteerism. Community philanthropy
has a great potential to influence business’s values as social changes
are witnessed directly.
The emphasis of the indicator is more on bringing social benefits
such as rooting out causes of poverty, providing health care
services, educational services instead of supporting charitable
services to maintain the status quo. Ideally, donation should be
made on issues of community concerns. It may also involve
building endowments funds to invest and support community
projects.
41. Damages to infrastructure
This indicator evaluates whether the business has, during its set up
or during operation in the past 12 months, caused any damage to
community infrastructures such as houses, water sources, sewages,
roads, power and communication infrastructure, and cultural,
spiritual, or historical sites and monuments.

40
42. Affect on community health
Whether the business operation has any adverse impact on the
physical health of community members is evaluated in this
indicator.
43. Raw materials sourcing
To develop a sustainable supply chain, this indicator assesses the
sources of major raw materials of a business. It aims at encouraging
businesses to buy raw materials from the local. The indicator
examines business establishments’ efforts in developing the locally
owned businesses, which uses locally available resources as raw
materials or inputs.
44. Community feedback
Community relationship is effectively maintained by businesses
through continuous engagements with the community members.
Communication is key towards enhancing this relationship. The
indicator evaluates whether a business has maintained a policy or
procedure for communication, and a platform for interested
members of the community to provide feedback or grievances. The
indicator attempts to involve community members to voice their
opinions on the actions and decisions made by businesses.
Ecological Diversity and Resilience
Business sector is happy so long as it can produce goods and
services without any concern for environmental assets. But, the
environment benefits are long-term and intergenerational and,
hence, it must not be substitutable with a monetary value (Costanza

41
et al., 1997). Ecological indicators have long been used to detect
impacts and conditions of nature. Its use has only increased over the
years with international organisations making it a requirement for
businesses to uphold certain standard (Treweek, 1996).
In Bhutan, the environmental clearance processes developed by the
National Environment Commission (National Environment
Commission [NEC], 2000) was introduced with the purpose of
evaluating business establishments, in terms of their potential
environmental, cultural and aesthetic impacts. As per the checklist
of the clearance processes, these impacts are critical to determine
the viability of a business establishment. As a mandatory rule, the
environmental clearance process has significant role in ensuring
sound environmental decision making amongst businesses in
Bhutan. However, additional measures to mitigate ecological risks,
and integrate preservation in business operations will have to be
developed. This domain attempts to assess unsustainable business
practices on the environment. It comprises of indicators that
motivates businesses to recognize the importance of green initiatives
for increasing wellbeing and happiness within communities.
Figure 13: Assessment Framework for Ecological Diversity
Domain.
Ecological diversity and
resilience
Emission
assessment
Solid waste
assessment
Eco-products
and services
Environmental
volunteerism
Environmental
donation

42
45. Emission assessment
This indicator looks at the procedure and measures (if any) to reduce
emissions in the business establishment. The production and
reduction initiatives of common operational emissions such as
carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, nitrous oxide, nitrogen
gases, fluorinated gases, lead oxides, hydrogen sulphide, sulphur
dioxide and others gases are assessed in the tool.
46. Solid waste assessment
Information on the amount and nature of waste generated is critical
for business to develop effective waste management strategy.
Industries produce a large amount of hazardous wastes with a
varying degree of toxicity. Indiscriminate waste disposal methods
may lead to land contamination and water pollution. Solid waste
indicator measures generation, treatment, disposal, management and
reduction techniques of waste. The indicator evaluates effort made
by the business establishment to reduce the production of solid
wastes such as bio-degradable waste, pet bottles, tins, glasses,
papers, cardboards, plastic, electronic waste, used batteries, broken
sodium bulb, fluorescent tubes/CFLs and others.
47. Environmental volunteerism
This indicator assesses volunteerism of the business establishment
in preserving environment. The days and total workers involved in
such initiatives are evaluated. Example of such efforts includes
voluntary programmes related to afforestation, cleaning, water
conservation, waste reduction, and energy conservation amongst
others.

43
48. Environmental donation
This indicator refers to the amount of in cash and in kind donation
provided by business for promoting and preserving environment.
Donation may be made to several activities listed under the
environmental volunteerism indicator.
49. Eco-products and services
Is business producing ecologically friendly products? Are services
ecologically friendly? To find out, this indicator examines whether a
business is producing eco-friendly products or services towards
reducing impacts on environment. For instance, a business
establishment which recycles used plastic bottles is directly engaged
in preserving environment. Likewise, a business specializing in
wind energy, water source management, and rainwater harvesting is
also contributes to environment conservation.

44
CERTIFICATION PROCESS
This section describes the proposed steps in the overall certification
process. In terms of team composition of those responsible for the
assessment process, formation of a secretariat and a taskforce is
suggested. While, the secretariat will carry out secretarial works, the
taskforce will be accountable for the main technical work. The
taskforce could be formed with representations from relevant
agencies such as MoEA (licensing and compliance), MoLHR
(labour issues), GNHC (plan), BCCI/ABI/HRAB/ABTO (business),
NEC (environment), MoH (health), NSB (statistics), and CBS
(research).
Certification process has five steps:
Step 1: Screening
This is the first step towards getting a business certified. During the
screening process, a business unit submits a formal request and the
eligibility for certification is evaluated. In general, the tool is most
applicable for registered companies. The following factors are
proposed to be assessed:
1. Number of years in operation: A business needs to be running
for at least five years. This is to ensure business operations and
work conditions are well founded.

45
2. Separate entity: A business needs to be independent in its
management role of reviewing processes and procedures and
allocating resources.
3. Size and strength: A business needs to have a minimum of 20
workers. This may be reviewed based on the required sample for
various statistical tests.
4. Permanent workers: At least 50 percent of the workers must
be permanent staff. This is to provide adequate information for
evaluating worker happiness. Causal staff does not possess
adequate knowledge and understanding of the workplace
conditions or benefits offered.
5. Adversity: A business with a history of causing major
destruction to environment, community and other stakeholders,
may not be considered.
The screening process will basically lead to a decision of either
accepting or declining business establishment for certification
process. Business establishments failing to meet the eligibility
criteria may opt to undergo assessment for intervention and
improvement for future assessment.
Step 2: Planning
If a company is accepted for appraisal through screening process,
then the team will develop a plan for execution. Planning will differ
from one business to another depending upon the size and nature of
business.
Similarly, the length of assessment will depend on the nature of
product or service, size, and location of the business establishments.
In fact, the planning document should be considered as a working
paper that is refined on an on-going basis especially during the

46
initial days of planning. However, once the planning is completed,
agreed schedule will have to be implemented.
The assessment plan should clearly specify how activities of the
process will be completed, and assign responsibilities to concerned
taskforce members. As a part of planning process, details of the
business starting from its organogram to location to the nature of its
products or services must be studied. Any publications, brochures or
other communication materials produced by the business
establishment must be reviewed. The area where business operates
must also be identified to study key potential stakeholders.
Planning would also involve identifying the focal person(s) from the
business establishments, engaging in constant consultations with
representatives for developing a plan of action, and adopting terms
of reference for the assessment. Usually, the focal team would
comprise of workers from management, accounts, and human
resource division.
The size of business will have to be studied to generate a
representative sample of workers. For a small business
establishment, every worker may be surveyed to assess workplace
happiness. For medium and large business, a sample may be drawn
representing every division within the business unit or every worker
may be surveyed depending on feasibility of the process.
Step 3: Data collection
The assessment will involve collecting both primary and secondary
data. While the data for worker happiness will depend only on
primary data gathered using a structured questionnaire, the

47
evaluation of organisational conditions for happiness will rely on
both primary and secondary data. The primary data for
organisational conditions will be collected from relevant official(s)
of the business establishment using a structured questionnaire. To
corroborate the information collected from relevant officials through
interviews, secondary information such as official reports,
transcripts, receipts, and documents will also be referred.
The domains and indicators used for assessing worker happiness as
well as organisational condition for happiness have been already
discussed. Nonetheless, the domains and indicators have been listed
in the table below for a quick reference (Table 1). A total of 49
indicators (29 indicators for worker happiness and 20 indicators for
organisational conditions for happiness) will be used for
constructing the final score.

48
Table 1: List of Indicators Used for Assessing the Worker
Happiness and Organisational Conditions for Happiness.
Worker happiness
Domains Indicators
Psychological Wellbeing
1. Job satisfaction
2. Trust
3. Workplace environment
4. Workplace engagement
5. Workplace discrimination
6. Workplace harassment
7. Negative emotions
8. Positive emotions
Health
1. Work stress
2. Nature of work
3. Workplace common space
4. Safety
5. Disability
6. Injury
7. Illness
Time use
1. Work-life balance
2. Work’s implication on social life
3. Sleeping time
4. Rest and break at workplace
5. Work schedule
6. Working time
Education
1. Professional development
2. Skills development
3. Scholarships
Living standards
1. Pay and allowances
2. Satisfaction with pay
3. Satisfaction with retirement benefits
4. Satisfaction with leave systems
5. Satisfaction with fringe benefits

49
Organizational conditions for happiness
Domains Indicators
Good governance
1. Local employment
2. Workplace issues
3. Compliance with law
4. Audit
5. Attrition
6. Salary gap
Cultural diversity
1. Cultural volunteerism
2. Cultural donation
3. Cultural promotion
Community vitality
1. Community volunteerism
2. Community donation
3. Damages to infrastructure
4. Affect on community health
5. Raw material sourcing
6. Community feedback
Ecological diversity
1. Emission assessment
2. Solid waste assessment
3. Environmental volunteerism
4. Environmental donation
5. Eco-products and services
Step 4: Analysis
The overall analysis methodology adopted for this assessment tool
is like the one used for the GNH Index (Ura et al., 2010). It has
three steps: 1) identifying and applying sufficiency threshold, 2)
determining weighting scheme, and 3) finally, aggregating and
scoring. Three steps are discussed below.
Identifying and applying sufficiency threshold
The worker happiness is assessed through 29 indicators, composing
of 114 variables classified under the five domains of GNH.

50
Similarly, the organisational conditions for happiness comprises of
20 indicators constructed from 102 variables. This step can be
conceptually defined as the identification step, which categorizes the
deprived workers from the non-deprived after using a sufficiency
threshold. Sufficiency thresholds were identified for each of 49
indicators based on statistical tests carried out after the pre-test of
indicators in selected business entities in Bhutan. Like the threshold
criteria set for GNH Index (Ura et al., 2015), normative judgments
have also been taken into consideration. For instance, for most
subjective appraisals, thresholds have been made on the higher side.
Thresholds have also been based on national and international
standards. For few indicators, thresholds were grounded on national
averages.
Sufficiency thresholds are applied to assess a worker’s sufficiency
in each of the 29 indicators. This process results into the
replacement of the indicator value with ‘1s’ if the worker has
attained sufficiency and ‘0s’ if the worker has not attained
sufficiency. Once the sufficiency threshold is applied, a headcount
of workers who have attained sufficiency can be computed. For
instance, the percentage of workers who attained sufficiency in each
of the 29 indicators can be presented for whole surveyed workers to
see the overall status (Figure 15), or by different divisions within the
establishment to see how they compare from one another.
Likewise, sufficiency threshold is also applied to assess
organisational conditions of happiness’s sufficiency in each of the
20 indicators. The summary of indicators and thresholds used for
assessing organisational conditions for happiness and worker
happiness is presented in Table 2 and Table 3 respectively.

51
Table 2: Sufficiency Thresholds for Indicators Used in Organisational
Conditions of Happiness Assessment.
Indicators Variables Thresholds
Local
employment
Number of national
workers
Number of foreign
workers
At least 80 percent of the total
workforce
Workplace
issues
Discipline
Grievance
Health and safety
Discrimination
Harassment
Corruption
Child labour
Forced labour
Should have procedure to address
health and safety, discrimination,
harassment, and any other two of
the remaining five issues
Compliance
with law
Corruption
Money laundering
Illegal financing of
political parties
Anti-competitive
practices
Evading tax
Violating environmental
rules
Publishing misleading
advertisements
Discriminating, abusing
and harassing workers
Worker’s injury
Child labour
Forced labour
Should not have paid any fines in
the past 12 months
Audit
Internal auditing
External auditing
Should be subjected to either
internal or external auditing
Attrition
Number of workers left
Number of workers
joined
Worker turnover should be less
than 10 percent
Salary gap
Highest salary
Lowest salary
Highest to lowest salary ratio should
be less than 20:1
Cultural
volunteerism
Volunteering and
donations for the
following:
Promotion of national
language,
employees have volunteered one
day in socio-cultural activities in the
past one year
Cultural Should donate at least 1 percent of

52
donation National arts and crafts,
Supporting local
festivals,
traditional/spiritual
events,
Driglam namzha,
Cultural heritage sites
the net profit to socio-cultural
activities
Cultural
promotion
Product(s) or service(s)
are directly related to
promotion of national
language, national arts
and crafts, local festivals
or traditional events,
Driglam namzha,
cultural heritage sites
One or more of the
product(s)/service(s) is directly
linked to promotion of culture
Community
volunteerism
Volunteering and
Donations for the
following:
Spiritual events,
Health services,
Education services,
Basic infrastructure,
Recreational service,
Initiating anti-poverty
measures,
Supporting communities
in times of natural
calamities and
disasters,
Senior citizens,
Disabled persons,
Women empowerment
employees should volunteer one
day for the community in the past
one year
Community
donation
Should at least donate 1 or more
percent of the net profit to the
community
Damages to
infra-
structure
Damage to the following
community
infrastructures:
Houses
Water sources
Sewages
Roads
Power infrastructure
Communication
infrastructure
Cultural, spiritual,
Should not cause damage to
houses, water sources, sewages,
roads, power, communication
infrastructure, etc.

53
historical sites and
monuments
Affect on
community
health
Adverse impact on
physical health of the
community members
Should not have adverse impact on
the physical health of community
members
Raw
material
sourcing
List of raw materials
with their respective
sources – local or
imported
At least one of the raw material is
sourced locally
Community
feedback
Receive feedback
Address grievances
from the community
members
Should have procedure to receive
feedback and address grievances
from the community members
Emission
assessment
Carbon dioxide
Carbon monoxide
Methane
Nitrous oxide
Nitrogen related gases
Fluorinated gases
Lead oxides
Hydrogen sulphide
Sulphur dioxide
Should either not produce or make
proper assessment and adopt
measures to reduce emissions
Solid waste
assessment
Bio-degradable waste
Pet bottles
Tins
Glasses
Paper and cardboards
Plastic
Electronic wastes
(circuit board, mobile
phones, computers)
Used batteries
Broken sodium bulb,
fluorescent tubes/CFLs
Used printer cartridges,
fax rolls, photocopier
toners
Used fire extinguishers
Should not either generate solid
wastes or there should be proper
assessment and measures to
reduce them

54
Environment
al
volunteerism
Volunteering and
donations for the
following initiatives:
Reforestation
programmes
Cleaning programme
Education programme
Water conservation
programme
Waste reduction
programme
Energy conservation
programme
At least 20 percent of the workers
should volunteer for one day in
environmental conservation
initiatives
Environment
al donation
Should at least donate 1 or more
percent of the net profit towards
Eco-
products
and services
The product(s) or
service(s) is directly
engage in promoting
environmental
conservation
programme like
reforestation, cleaning,
education, water
conservation, waste
reduction, energy
conservation and others
Organisation is directly involved in

55
Table 3: Sufficiency Thresholds for Indicators Used in Worker
Happiness Assessment.
Indicators Variables used Sufficiency threshold
Job satisfaction
Overall satisfaction
with job
Very satisfied
Trust
Trust in supervisors
Trust in co-workers
Trust in management
‘Trust all' or' Trust most' for all
three items
Workplace
environment
Feeling of respectful
treatment
Feeling of job security
Motivation from
supervisors
Looking forward to
going to work,
Feeling proud to be
working for the
organisation
‘Always’ or 'Usually' for all five
items
Workplace
engagement
Opportunities to take
initiatives
Ability to make
suggestions
Involvement in
decision making
Feeling valued and
appreciated
‘Strongly agree' or 'Agree' to all
four items
Workplace
discrimination
Feeling discriminated
because of age
because of Race
because of gender
‘Never’ for all three items
Workplace
harassment
Feeling sexually
harassed
Feeling verbally
abused
Feeling physically
abused
Feeling comfortable
reporting above
misconducts without
fear
‘Never’ feeling harassed or
abused as well as 'Always' or
'Usually' feeling comfortable
reporting misconducts without
fear

56
Negative
emotions
Experiencing anger
Experiencing
selfishness
Experiencing jealousy
Experiencing sadness
Experiencing
frustration
Experiencing anxiety
Experiencing
disappointment
‘Never’ or 'Not in the last month'
for all seven emotions
Positive
emotions
Experiencing
calmness
Experiencing
compassion
Experiencing
forgiveness
Experiencing
contentment
Experiencing
generosity
Experiencing gratitude
Experiencing joy
Experiencing pride
‘Once or twice a month' or more
frequently in the last one month
Work stress
Pressured to work for
long hours
Having to work at odd
hours
Subjected to
unpredictable working
hours
Having a stressful job
‘Rarely’ or 'Never' for all four
items
Nature of
work
Require performing
repeated lifting,
pushing, pulling or
bending for long hours
Require performing
forceful, hand, leg, etc.
movements or
awkward postures
Having to breath
harmful substances
Require handling
‘Never' or 'Rarely' having to work
in the six mentioned workplace
conditions or environment as well
as the temperature at the
workplace is comfortable both in
summer as well as winter

57
harmful substances
Require working in
noisy environment
Require working in
vibrating environment
Workplace
temperature in
summer
Workplace
temperature in winter
Workplace
common
spaces
Availability of common
space for interacting
with co-workers
Availability of space for
having meals
Availability of green
space for walking and
relaxing
Availability of space for
meditating or for
mindful exercises
‘Yes' to all four items
Safety
Provision of PPE
Monitoring the use of
PPE
‘Always' or 'Does not require' for
both items
Disability
Should not have
suffered any
impairment or
disabilities
Should not have suffered any
impairment or disabilities due to
work
Injury
Should not have
suffered any injuries
injuries due to nature of work
Illness
Should not have
suffered any illnesses
illnesses due to nature of work
Work-life
balance
Work-life balance
rating
The rating should be > 6.06 on a
0-10 point scale
Work's
implication
on social life
Drains so much
energy/time affecting
family life
Drains so much
energy/time affecting
social life
Work is causing sleep
deprivations
‘Sometimes', 'Rarely', or 'Never' to
all three items
Sleeping
time
Time spent sleeping 8 hours or more

58
Rest and break
at workplace
Lunch break, tea
break, and time for
rest at workplace
One hour or more
Work schedule Work schedule
Having a 'Fixed' or 'Flexible'
work schedule
Working hours Work hours 48 hours or less per week
Professional
development
Availability of
opportunities for
professional
development
Availability of
opportunities for
personal
development
Availability of
opportunities for
career advancement
Promotions are fair
Career opportunities
going to deserving
ones
Workplace inspires
to do the best
‘Strongly agree' or 'Agree' to
four of the six items
Skills
development
Attending training,
workshop, or
seminars to enhance
skills
Should have attended five or
more day in the past 12 months
Scholarships for
study
Long-term and short-
term scholarships
A company should have
sponsored long-term study to at
least 5% of its workers and
short-term study to at least 10%
of its workers
Pay and
allowances
Pay, allowances,
and bonuses
Total income from the
employment should be >=
104,472
Satisfaction with
pay
Satisfaction with
basic and net pay
‘Very satisfied' or 'Somewhat
satisfied' with both basic pay
and net pay
Satisfaction with
retirement
benefits
Satisfaction with
pensions, provident
funds, and gratuity
satisfied' with all three items
Satisfaction with
leave systems
Satisfaction with
different leave
provisions
satisfied' with all six items

59
Satisfaction with
fringe benefits
Satisfaction with
fringe benefits
satisfied' with three or more of
the seven items
Weights
In the second step, weights are applied, that is, the assigned values
of 1s and 0s (Table 2 and Table 3) based on sufficiency condition of
each indicator, multiplied by their respective weights (Table 4). Two
types of weights are computed for this assessment; domain weight
and indicator weight.
The domain weight was derived by dividing the total possible score
of an assessment component (worker happiness and organisational
conditions for happiness) by the number of domains (D). Note that
both components are assessed out of 100. Therefore, the domain
weight for each of the domains used for assessing the worker
happiness is 20 (100/D, where D is the number of domains included
in worker happiness assessment which is 5). Likewise, each of the
four domains used for assessing the organisational conditions for
happiness is weighted at 25 each (100/D, where D represents the
number of domains included in organisational conditions that is 4).
The indicator weight was determined using a similar principle. For
instance, the weight for each indicator under psychological
wellbeing domain is 2.5 (DWt/Ni, where DWt is the domain weight
(i.e., 20) and Ni refers to the number of indicators included in the
psychological wellbeing domain (i.e., 8).

60
Table 4: Assessment Component, Domains, Indicators and Their
Weights.
Domains
Domain
weight
Indicators
Indicator
weight
Worker Happiness
Psychological
wellbeing
20%
Job satisfaction
Trust
Workplace environment
Workplace engagement
Workplace discrimination
Workplace harassment
Negative emotion
Positive emotion
2.50%
2.50%
2.50%
2.50%
2.50%
2.50%
2.50%
2.50%
Health 20%
Work stress
Nature of work
Workplace common space
Safety
Disability
Injury
Illness
2.86%
2.86%
2.86%
2.86%
2.86%
2.86%
2.86%
Time use 20%
Work-life balance
Work’s implication on social life
Sleeping time
Rest and break at workplace
Work schedule
Working hours
3.33%
3.33%
3.33%
3.33%
3.33%
3.33%
Education 20%
Professional development
Skills development
Scholarships for study
6.67%
6.67%
6.67%
Living standards 20%
Pay & allowances
Satisfaction with pay
Retirement benefits
Leave
Fringe benefits
4.00%
4.00%
4.00%
4.00%
4.00%
Organisational Conditions for Happiness
Good
governance
25%
Local employment
Workplace issues
Compliance with law
Audit
Attrition
Salary gap
4.17%
4.17%
4.17%
4.17%
4.17%
4.17%
Cultural diversity 25% Cultural volunteerism 8.33%

61
Cultural donation
Cultural promotion
8.33%
8.33%
Community
vitality
25%
Community volunteerism
Community donation
Damages to infrastructure
Affect on community health
Raw material sourcing
Community feedback
4.17%
4.17%
4.17%
4.17%
4.17%
4.17%
Ecological
diversity
25%
Emission assessment
Solid waste assessment
Environmental volunteerism
Environmental donation
Eco-products and services
5.00%
5.00%
5.00%
5.00%
5.00%
Aggregation and scoring
For both the assessment components, a simple aggregation method
will be followed for computing the total assessment score. For the
worker happiness, the total score for each worker across i indicators
can be represented by the following equation:
!"#$ = '()(
*
(+,
Where,
Whap is the happiness score of a worker
n is the number of indicators
i is the ith
indicator
wi is the weight of an ith
indicator
xi is the value of an ith
indicator
Worker happiness score for a business entity is then determined by
summing up the weighted indicators for all the sampled workers and
then, dividing it by the total number of sampled workers of the
establishment (n).

62
The same methodology will be used for computing the
organisational assessment score, except for this component; unlike
worker happiness, average scores were not required as each
indicator had only a single response that is from the business
establishment. The total score across i indicators can be represented
by the following equation:
-"#$ = '()(
*
(+,
Where,
Ohap is the organisational conditions for happiness score
n is the number of indicators
i is the ith
indicator
wi is the weight of an ith
indicator
xi is the value of an ith
indicator
The overall assessment score of a business establishment is then
calculated using the weighted summation of the individual scores of
worker happiness and organisational condition for happiness. The
weight assigned to each component is 50:50, i.e., 50 percent was
allocated to worker happiness and remaining 50 percent to
organisational conditions for happiness.
The overall assessment score also adds up to 100 i.e., if all the
workers as well as the organisation to which these workers belong to
have attained sufficiency in all 29 indicators. The overall assessment
score for a business establishment is then aggregated using the
formula given below:
H = 0.5 × !"#$ + (0.5 × -"#$)
Where,

63
Whap is the worker happiness score
Ohap is the organisational conditions for happiness score
It must be noted that, unlike GNH index methodology, which uses
censored headcount, this assessment tool uses uncensored
headcount. Hence, the aggregation method adopted here does not
assign full score, unless an individual or an organisation truly attains
full sufficiency across all the 49 indicators. For this reason, the
method would allow business organisations to reflect true score,
unlike the GNH index score, which assumes full score even if its
only attaining a certain percentage of sufficiency. For instance, for
the computation of GNH index, a person or a group who has
achieved sufficiency over 66 percent of weighted indicators are
assigned full score, even though their achievements are not truly
full.
Step 5: Certification
Based on the overall assessment score, a business establishment will
then be classified into one of the following categories.
Score Category Remarks
<40%
Below
average
Require immediate corrective action on
multiple fronts
40-59.99% Average
Identify areas for some major improvement
and work on it
60-79.99% Good
Needs to improve performance in areas
which are behind
≥80% Very good
Earns GNH certification, if the score for
each of the two constituents is not less
than 60%
To qualify for the certification, a business entity must fulfil two
conditions: first, the overall score must be at least 80 percent and

64
second, scores in each of the two components must be at least 60
percent. A threshold of 60 percent was identified to promote an
above average score, which is defined here as between 40-59.99
percent. It is essential to recognize that assessment is not the end
goal but rather a starting point to bring in change. At the end of
assessment, issues and impacts within business operations is
understood which will aid in developing strategies, monitoring risks,
and implementing recommendations for integrating GNH.
If a business has been GNH certified, then the proposed period of
validity is three years including the year of assessment. The validity
period of three years has been recommended mainly to incorporate
possible changes in workers, organisational structure, and business
operations. The business would need to undergo re-assessment to
renew the certificate after it becomes invalid.

65
THE PILOT SURVEY AND ITS FINDINGS
This section of the report provides a summary of the findings from
the pilot survey conducted for developing GNH of Business tool.
Sample
Although, a convenience sampling method was adopted for the pilot
tests, the study also tried to get a representative from each unit or
department of an organisation as well as a proportionate sample of
workers based on the strength and size of business establishments. A
total of 540 workers from 41 business establishments were
interviewed from September to October 2017. The number of
workers interviewed was less than 10 in 20 of the 41 business
entities selected for the pilot survey.
In terms of the geographical coverage, of the 41 business entities, 21
were from Chukha district followed by eight from Paro, six from
Thimphu, four from Punakha, and three from Wangdue Phodrang.
By number of workers, 269 workers were from Chukha followed by
127 from Thimphu, 83 from Paro, 39 from Punakha, and 22 from
Wangdue Phodrang.
By sector, about 50 percent of the workers interviewed were from
service sector. In terms of the number of business entities, 24 of the
41 business entities included in the study were from the service
sector.

66
Headcount
The headcount of workers achieving sufficiency in each of the 29
indicators used for assessing worker happiness can be computed by
applying the sufficiency threshold. The analysis of the pilot survey
data reveals that most workers enjoy sufficiency in rest and break at
workplace, disability, illness, work pressure on social life, and
injury indicators (Figure 14 & Figure 15). On the other hand, less
than fifth of the workers interviewed enjoys sufficiency in work
stress, skills development, satisfaction with fringe benefits,
workplace condition, negative emotions, and common spaces at
workplace.
Figure 14: Percentage of Workers Enjoying Sufficiency in Each of
the 29 Indicators, by Domain.
53%
50%
48%
47%
37%
35%
33%
6%
87%
85%
81%
68%
19%
13%
3%
89%
85%
76%
64%
42%
40%
57%
29%
18%
76%
57%
36%
26%
18%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Workplacediscrimination
Positiveemotions
Trust
Workplaceengagement
Jobsatisfaction
Workplaceharassment
Workplaceenvironment
Negativeemotions
Disability
Illness
Injury
Safety
Workstress
Natureofwork
Workplacecommonspaces
Restsandbreaksatworkplace
Work'simplicationonsociallife
Workschedule
Workingtime
Sleepingtime
Work-lifebalance
Professionaldevelopment
Scholarships
Skillsdevelopment
Payandallowances
Satisfactionwithpay
Satisfactionwithleavesystems
Satisfactionwithretirement…
Satisfactionwithfringebenefits
Psychological wellbeing Health Time use EducationLiving standards
Percentage

67
Figure 15: Percentage of Workers Enjoying Sufficiency in Each of
the 29 Indicators.
Happiness score for worker
As described in the methodology section, worker happiness score
was computed by summing the weighted values of each of the 29
indicators. The worker happiness score for each of the 41 business
entities is presented using figure 16. The results indicate that worker
happiness score is relatively higher for those working in service
sector as compared to those working in manufacturing sector.
89%
87%
85%
85%
81%
76%
76%
68%
64%
57%
57%
53%
50%
48%
47%
42%
40%
37%
36%
35%
33%
29%
26%
19%
18%
18%
13%
6%
3%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Restsandbreaksatworkplace
Disability
Illness
Work'simplicationonsociallife
Injury
Payandallowances
Workschedule
Safety
Workingtime
Professionaldevelopment
Satisfactionwithpay
Workplacediscrimination
Positiveemotions
Trust
Workplaceengagement
Sleepingtime
Work-lifebalance
Jobsatisfaction
Satisfactionwithleavesystems
Workplaceharassment
Workplaceenvironment
Scholarships
Satisfactionwithretirementbenefits
Workstress
Skillsdevelopment
Satisfactionwithfringebenefits
Natureofwork
Negativeemotions
Workplacecommonspaces
Percentage

GNH of Business

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