In search of REAL happiness at work
Most organisations believe that happier employees equal higher performance. Many employers believe that there is a moral imperative in seeking to create happy employees -what employer would actually be comfortable with a reputation for having unhappy employees? Others certainly want to describe policies in their annual reports that they promote as 'employee friendly'.
Of course, most employers do not refer to the term 'happiness'. Engagement levels, culture and employee value proposition are more used terms but they are all driven by the underlying belief that their company needs happy employees. Indeed, some companies appear to develop and promote policies that are intended to encourage happy employees without any real evidence that the happiness they encourage translates into higher business performance. We all know companies which talk with pride about their crèches, flexible working programmes and gym facilities without any evidence that these benefits promote higher levels of employee happiness or business performance.
Many of these same companies use employee engagement surveys - often multiple engagement surveys - to track happiness levels. They talk about the culture they are developing and employee value propositions, which often bear little resemblance to the reality of the employee experience but look good on recruitment websites and in company reports.
This may sound rather cynical and yet, after many years in corporate HR roles, I have a passionate belief in the need for work cultures that will enable high levels of real happiness at work and lead to significant improvements in business performance. My frustration is that too many companies talk a lot about employee engagement and happiness but do not tackle the issues which are blocking achieving that goal.
Not all companies can emulate Google's workplace strategies
However, one well-documented organisation that has successfully created real happiness at work is Zingerman's, a small food production company in Michigan. For them, happiness was not even the primary goal. Their belief was that when people feel good about themselves and their work, the quality of everything will go up. They did not want people simply to feel 'happy'.
So what is their secret?
They first implemented an open-book management process for all employees to:
- Track financial results,
- Keep score, and
- Understand the economics of the business.
Even in financial services, where I have spent much of my career, few employees really understand the key financial indicators which drive business success or failure in their company.
Workers in Zingerman's also take part in fun activities, which are not only designed to make employees happy but to improve performance in areas such as customer service. All their meetings end with a chance to relate some positive news or action they've witnessed at work. Junior employees are encouraged not just to bake bread or sell cheese but to study business and food science, so creating a culture which is both intellectually stimulating and unifying. Yet most companies have rigid training programmes focused only on the specific job of the individual or on some future role for which they have potential.
Zingerman's has created an entrepreneurial culture that truly empowers employees. This empowerment leads to engagement and real happiness in their work, which has resulted in a great organisation. I am sure Zingerman's also has policies on flexible working and well-being, crèches and free meals but they do not see these as the key to the success of their culture.
So what does this mean for HR strategies supporting business success?
Over the years, I have come to understand that while the obvious feel-good policies are not wrong; these are not fundamentally what drive business outperformance. Neither is an over-reliance on monitoring culture or employee engagement levels through surveys, useful as these can be.
Professor Spreitzer at the University of Michigan has determined four key drivers for a thriving, happy workforce:
1. Providing decision-making discretion,
2. Sharing information,
3. Minimising incivility, and
4. Offering performance feedback.
These may seem rather mundane goals but I have found them to be at the heart of culture change that has had significant impact on bottom-line performance. These certainly align with Zingerman's successful approach:
- In one bank I worked for, I found the key barriers to high engagement were not pay or working hours or a lack of crèches or gyms but rather:
- The lack of information and empowerment from leaders,
- A lack of team identity, and
- Most telling, a lack of performance feedback and a frustration from employees that little was done to manage poor performance.
There is no golden solution to creating real happiness at work
Each organisation is at a different stage of development. However, I would encourage all business leaders to focus on identifying the levers they have to enhance employees' feelings of empowerment, engagement and fulfilment.
As we have seen, these can be as simple as:
- Providing better education to employees on the business in which they invest so much,
- Ensuring that employees are trusted to make decisions which affect their work,
- Giving honest performance feedback while managing poor performance,
- Encouraging supportive teamwork, and
- Providing opportunities for employees to share ideas in a respectful work environment.
HR can play a crucial role in developing policies which will enable these changes but at the heart of creating real happiness at work are leaders and managers who enable employees to achieve real fulfilment in their work at whatever level they operate in the organisation.
