"I
did then what I knew how to do and when I knew better, I did better."
- Maya
Angelou
I hope you know better when it
comes to your employees, your people, your team. The happier they are, the more
they share your core values. The more engaged they are every day, the more
success your company will have financially and the happier you will be going to
work every day.
There are two take-a-ways here:
Core Values -- it is important to have them, communicate them and surround
yourself with people who believe in them. Second a great way to monitor
the happiness of your employees everyday - simple, inexpensive and powerful.
Watch the video and read the article below to find out more.
Video of a company that embraces
their core values and the results of having a great company where people love
coming to work. (14 minutes)
A Strategy For Measuring
Employee Happiness (And Acting On The Result)
By David Tomas
Happiness and work are two terms that, when put together, some might say form
an oxymoron. In our company, we do all what we can to ensure that these two
words are synonyms for every one of our employees. Employee well-being is
important to us, as reflected in our first core value: admire people.
But we've also found it impacts the success of our company overall.
While the idea of happiness and engagement at work are discussed
frequently, the problem for many entrepreneurs is, how exactly do you
measure happiness? And once you do, then what? We've devised a
system that can easily be adapted for your business needs. Here's how it
works.
Check in on Each
Employee With the Traffic Light Survey (easy approach at end of article)
If your company wants to increase
profit, they can compare the current period's profit amount with those of
previous periods. Increasing company happiness is no different. You
must be aware of current happiness levels to be sure in the future the levels
are, in fact, increasing.
To do this, we ask three simple questions each day through an
online form that includes a comment section. For the first two questions,
employees can choose between options "super green",
"green", "yellow" and "red".
- What mood did you arrive in
today?
- What mood are you leaving in
today?
- On a scale of one to four, how
much did you like the tasks you did today?
Our traffic light survey takes
less than a minute to complete and encourages employees to be more self-aware
and frank. We use a Google Doc that sends the results to a central location
where we analyze the outcome averages and outliers and compare them to previous
periods. But there are many other ways to collect and analyze this data,
including a device by Celpax.
We also ask employees to fill out
a more extensive survey once a month through an online form that includes
various topics such as the work-life balance, remuneration, employee relations,
ability to express opinions, opportunities for professional growth, alignment
of company goals and personal goals, etc.
Hold an Open
Discussion
The next step is
crucial: discussing the results and brainstorming solutions. Our team
meets every Monday for 45 minutes. We discuss many things, but the survey
is always on the agenda.
One person reads the
results, stating averages and any good or bad comments. "Green" or
"super green" has essentially the same meaning as it does on the
road: keep going. A "yellow" response signifies that we need to slow
down and leave it to the person to decide if there is an issue or if it has
since been resolved. A "red" response signifies that we need to stop
and address the issue. Importantly, employees are always welcome to speak
privately with anyone in our no-doors office if they prefer.
Our team also meets once a month
for a longer period of time, where we discuss opportunities for
growth and go over the statistics of the more extensive survey,
comparing it to the previous month's results. We discuss ways to improve
results for the upcoming months.
We have found that this open
discussion structure builds trust. Your "boss" isn't analyzing
your results and giving you feedback; this isn't a pass/fail exam. This is an
exercise with the pure intention of, as a team, being more aware of our happiness
and taking actions to increase it. It's also a great example of our second
core value: always find a better way. If what someone is doing causes them
stress or unhappiness, we must find
a better way.
Take Action
Three years ago, we went through
a period that resulted in a lot of red answers to the traffic light survey. We
were able to identify a pattern. The workload had increased exponentially due
to the addition of a new, half million-dollar client that needed some very
technical deadline-driven work. It required a big commitment, and
the stress was overwhelming the team. Many employees stayed at work
late, some worked during the weekends and others simply
felt overwhelmed. All, at some point, answered the survey negatively.
After we established this
pattern, we knew we had to do something. We were still trying to stay
afloat, and the client provided a safety cushion - but they were
also causing unhappiness. As a team, we made the difficult decision to let
the client go. It was a risk for our company, but we knew it was the right
thing to do to remain aligned and true to our core values.
The results we saw in the health
of our company were surprising. In 2012, our EBITDA margin was 6 percent. In
2013, the year following the client's departure, we realized an increase in
this margin to 10.5 percent. In 2014, it rose to 15 percent. I believe the
increase of the EBITDA is the result of our team's motivation to put in
their best work and treat each client with the absolute best customer
service. Our focus on happiness has also contributed to our high
employee retention rate. Only one employee has left in the past three
years due to personal reasons.
If you want to improve
productivity, increase motivation and enhance the flow of positivity and
creative solutions at your company, you have to start somewhere. Regularly
surveying your team for both day-to-day happiness and longer-term
satisfaction gives you with tangible, analyzable results. Just as
with anything else that needs improvement, you need a benchmark. An organized system for
surveying and acting on feedback gives you that for relatively little
time and money, and in my experience, give you the best return on
investment yet.
Follow this link to see an inexpensive, simple way to
monitor and get a report of the daily happiness level of your team. Device is
on the wall by the door and every employee simply hits red or green as they
leave each day. A report is generated with trend lines. Cost $1 per
employee per month.