4Cs Blog: Happy Employees = Happy Customers

Engaged Employees Are Not Always Happy

Why Having Happy Employees Is The Wrong Goal

Seriously, can anything be changed in 10 easy steps?

Nothing in life comes easy and in her recent article titled ‘Why Employee Happiness is the Wrong Goal,’ Liz Ryan steps up and says making happiness your goal at work is ‘insulting to employees.’ Why? Because happy is nowhere near sufficient to describe the relationship between work and a truly engaged worker.
Ms. Ryan’s article is a refreshing change from the litany of articles written about employee engagement because she captures the essence of the engaged employee, the one who gives discretionary effort, the one who goes above and beyond. And this employee as she explains, is not always happy!

Employee Retention Does Not Have To Be So Hard

Just Look at What You've Got!

What kind of company hires outsiders instead of promoting from within? Maybe not a good one but that doesn’t stop many companies from doing it. Why would anyone who values their employees think this is a good idea and what message are they sending to those employees? To be passed over is damaging in so many ways but it especially damages morale, trust and company culture. Many business leaders fail to see how harmful this practice is and how employees interpret it to mean ‘somebody from the outside is better than anybody on the inside’. This is demoralizing to say the least.

John Hoolon from TLNT recently reviewed a study released by Lee Hecht Harrison that explored why organizations are missing the opportunity to hire from within. The study confirmed that many companies have pipeline problems, as a third of employers think that their internal talent pipeline is poor or non-existent, and only 4 percent think that their talent pipeline is excellent. This might explain why so many go outside rather than promoting from within. Yet Hoolon points out that only half of talent managers have regular informal conversations with their employees about their future with the company. This suggests that employees have good reason to become restless because their managers ‘simply aren’t spending enough time talking to their people about where their careers are going’.

Employee Satisfaction Linked to Stock Market Performance

Low Satisfaction Scores Decrease Profits

It is no surprise that great companies are also profitable, and that they attract and keep top talent but does the opposite hold true and does that mean that companies with unhappy employees work for companies that are not as profitable?
In a recent Glassdoor research report Dr. Andrew Chamberlain explores whether satisfied employees impact stock performance. In his research he compares the financial performance of companies with satisfied—and less satisfied—employees and the correlation between stock returns and employee satisfaction. The Glassdoor Research report is called “Does Company Culture Pay Off?” and it is fascinating for employee engagement-driven gurus like us, to learn that the answer appears to be ‘yes’.
Chamberlain examined the portfolios of 30 companies with the lowest employee satisfaction scores and found that they under-performed the stock market as well. He also found that there is a meaningful link between employee satisfaction and stock market performance among publicly held companies.

What Will You Achieve By Doing An Employee Survey?

The Most Important Reasons

If you are considering surveying your employees, the first key step is to ask what you want to achieve by doing so. What are you looking to get out of doing an employee survey? If you are not entirely sure, consider our key objectives and see if you can relate to them. If you are already convinced that an employee survey is needed but you are having trouble convincing senior management to agree with you, then you might find this list could help strengthen your case too!

Employee Engagement Begins With You!

16 Things You Should Do At The Start Of Every Day

Our employers can beat themselves up trying to please and inspire us. If our heads aren’t in the right place, no action plan is going to move the needle for a dissatisfied employee. You could say a person like that ought to go find a new job but there is a possibility that, with a little attitude adjustment, these grumpy employees could open themselves up to a better work experience by simply organizing themselves a bit better. In essence by being in a good place mentally, there is a much greater chance that we will have a much more positive attitude towards our work day and be that much more open to responding positively to efforts from our managers to make us feel good about being there.

If You Are Miserable At Work It Could be Your Own Fault

How You Can Make Work A Better Place

The way you think about yourself could be the most important reason why you are so unhappy at work. This may sound a bit ‘self-helpy’ but your attitude says an awful lot about you and how you view life. And as we know, like attracts like, so chances are extremely high that if you have a negative attitude towards yourself, you will attract other people who feel the same way. So if you find you are unhappy at work, that you are always taken for granted, used, misused, or even abused by your manager or a fellow employee, it is time to do a self check. Chances are you might be drawing this kind of response from others because you attract negativity. And at the end of the day, if you have the wrong attitude, work will never be great because you won’t let it be.
In a nutshell, if you value and honour yourself, believe that you are strong, successful, kind, loyal, and honest then those are the kind of people you will attract. Look at who your work friends are - it will tell you what you need to know.

Don't Waste Your Employees Time

Action Matters More Than Results

The two most critical phases of the Employee Opinion Survey (EOS) process happen after you have conducted your survey and have received your survey report. Once you’ve reviewed the survey results and identified your organization’s primary areas of strengths and opportunities for improvement, you need to communicate the survey results to your employees and decide what to do next.

It is during these two steps that employees will judge the value of the organization’s leadership, how well their voices are being heard in terms of improving their work experience and the strength of management’s commitment to continuous improvement.

Research has shown that, after an employee survey, employees are much more interested in seeing action taken than they are in seeing the results of the survey. Although it is important to share the highlights of the survey with your workforce, employee surveys have little or no value if nothing is done to make improvements in the organization. This is why successful Action Planning is a critical component of successful employee surveys.

Why It's Important To Know Your Employee Satisfaction Score

Know Where You Stand

We believe that the overall level of employee satisfaction is one of the most critical measures of any employee survey, since it encapsulates what is important to your employees and how they feel about their jobs.
Employees’ overall satisfaction with their jobs is affected by a number of factors, including their relationships with coworkers, managers and/or supervisors, their impressions of senior leadership, their ongoing work activities, the availability of resources to do their jobs well, the perceived effectiveness of communications, the career enhancement and advancement opportunities available to them and how equitable they perceive the organization’s pay policies to be.
In essence, an employee satisfaction score reflects the more immediate impact of employees’ day-to-day work environment and their relationships with coworkers and managers on their state of being. In contrast, employee engagement reflects employees’ desire to work for an organization over the longer-term and their willingness to go “above and beyond” the call of duty to help their organization succeed. However, dissatisfaction with their work environment can often subvert their sense of commitment, which leads to employee turnover.

Celebrating Employee Birthdays Can Build or Bust Morale

Should We Celebrate or Not?

Would you sue your workplace for saying you were ‘over the hill’ on your birthday? Some people have sued, so while celebrating employee birthdays is one way to show your staff they are appreciated and valued, you have to do it with care. In a recent SHRM article, titled ‘To Celebrate Birthdays at Work or Not?’ all the little do’s and don’ts to planning office birthday parties are provided to help us make sure we are recognizing our employees without risk of offending or discriminating against anyone. There were also some great ideas and ways to celebrate employees who are open to some recognition on their special day.

Foster a Compassionate Workplace

Emotions in the Workplace Impact Employees

When we study organizations, we rarely consider how shared emotions can impact employees. New studies have shown that emotions in the workplace do have an impact on employees and on overall work culture. Sigal Barsade, a Wharton management professor, says that what she calls ‘companionate love’, is when colleagues, who are together day in and day out, show that they care about each other’s work and non-work issues, they are careful of each other’s feelings, show compassion, affection, caring and listening when things don’t go well, or when a co-worker needs to talk. 

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