The world is growing more interconnected all the time. Businesses of all sizes are playing more critical roles than ever in everybody’s lives and in social change. As a result of all this, it makes a lot of sense to try to better understand how these relationships touch our lives — and what we can do to foster them. How do happiness and a sense of belonging in the workplace translate to repeat customers and a healthier bottom line?
For the data-minded among you, it’s well worth noting that the correlation between happy employees and healthy revenue is well-documented. In 2013, it was observed that companies which made an appearance on the “official” Best Companies to Work For listing on a regular basis nearly uniformly outperformed their rivals from a profit perspective. Apple is, off-and-on, the most valuable company in the world, and they make the list every year.
This means there’s a compelling case for treating your employees like family and ensuring they’re satisfied with their position within your organization. It means the flow of goods and services from company management down to your end user is beginning to look a little less like a “chain” and more like a “cycle.” In other words, good feelings and contentment in your talent pool has an uncanny habit of trickling down to your clients and customers, and then all the way back to the top again.
Here’s how to make it happen.
Provide New Opportunities Within and Without
Maybe it goes without saying — maybe you’ve felt this desire yourself — but employees who feel continually challenged in their jobs and careers tend to be happier people overall. Boredom and a lack of worthwhile challenges can be the quickest routes to malaise.
You should encourage your employees to pursue cross-training to build out their skill sets. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even sponsor off-site volunteer opportunities. Who knows? Maybe they’ll learn something out in the world that they can bring back and incorporate into your business.
The point is this: Employees who are challenged, and who challenge themselves, are far more likely to think outside the box and to feel confident making the attempt. And better problem-solving skills means a company that’s prepared to meet whatever global challenges are thrown its way in the future.
Build a Strong Sense of Values and Culture
We won’t hammer on company culture here too much since every part of this conversation touches on it somehow. But the truth is, just about every human being on Earth desires to be a part of something larger than themselves and to offer something worthwhile to the world.
Perhaps more than anything else we’ll talk about here, this is what underscores the direct link between satisfied employees and enthusiastic repeat customers: the sense of shared values.
It’s true that we don’t always have the luxury of aligning each of our purchases with our personal sense of values, but as business leaders, don’t we want to make that easier to do, rather than harder? Shouldn’t we proudly champion the things we care about? The smallest family-owned business all the way up to the largest multicontinental corporation has a significant amount of weight to throw around as a global citizen. What are you doing with yours?
Since there’s no social issue more urgent than global climate change, why not use this as a case study? In poll after poll, consumers everywhere are communicating the fact that they’re ready to make “personal sacrifices” — up to and including going without some of the products they find most important — if it means addressing some of our social and environmental problems.
That means your company can either be part of the problem or part of the solution. Based on these numbers, your bottom line probably depends on you making the right decision.
You don’t have to wade into politics at the drop of a hat or try to pander to flavor-of-the-month social trends. However, you do want to watch for all of those no-brainer opportunities to do something that improves your corner of the world, helps your employees feel they’re a part of a pro-social organization and, in turn, communicates to your clients and customers that you’re an enthusiastically responsible citizen of the world.
If that’s not a win-win-win, and proof that good will flows in two directions at once, we don’t know what is.
Find Ways to Solicit Feedback on a Regular Basis (And Never Stop Changing)
Here’s a dispiriting statistic: Of the companies out there that bother administering employee satisfaction surveys, about 27 percent of them don’t even look at the results. More than half review the responses but make no real changes. These are the makings of an unhappy employee pool — and your clients and customers are bound to notice the difference.
To be honest, you don’t even have to go to great lengths or make some grand gesture to feel out your employees’ thoughts on working for you. It can be something as simple as a casual conversation, a low-key email or however else your organization prefers to speak to one another.
In fact, the point here is to simply keep your ears open at all times for ways to do what you do, but better. It’s pretty easy for a lot of business leaders to get wrapped up in the stresses of the day and forget that the folks who report to us have stressors of their own — and possibly an earful of advice about how to help the business run more smoothly or play a more positive role in the world.
Said more simply still, it’s about cooperation. We seem to have outgrown the days when decision-making and culture-building were one-way streets decided upon by CEOs. If you’ve built your organization on a foundation of mutual trust, easy communication and shared responsibility, the difference will be obvious to your clients in the ways we’ve just talked about — plus many others.
