style="font-size:15px;"> When Gallup released their alarming State of the Global Workplace study revealing that only one-third of U.S. employees are “engaged” at work, many organizations scrambled to remedy this unengagement plight, looking for quick fixes and easy ways to increase happiness in the workplace (Crabtree, 2013). Gallup followed up to the frenzy, saying that “Indulging employees is no substitute for engaging them” (Sorenson, 2013). Or as Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup, succinctly put it, “The idea of trying to make people happy at work is terrible” (Crowley, 2014).
Let's face it: Free lunches and snacks have little direct impact on long-term human performance (Sorenson, 2013). I can be happy at work without acting in the best interest of the organization. Scanning Facebook and catching up with an old friend on work time make me happy, as does saving money by refilling my personal stock of home office goods from the supply cabinet. Happy, but not engaged. We do not need more cool perks, we need more meaningful investment in growing our people. Focusing on short-term pleasures over long-term engagement is not sustainable and may even disillusion people over time.
Any office can buy a quick-fix pinball machine and sit perplexed as nothing changes. Those perks are well intentioned but are not change agents. We can admire the companies who work this way, but we admire them for how thoroughly and intentionally they foster a positive workplace culture, not for a day-to-day focus on fun. These hailed companies don't just brighten employees' Fridays, they engage them constantly. Moral of the story? Focus on strong culture, not free candy.
Ultimately, engagement is about knowing the organization's purpose and our purpose within it, having the tools to perform at our best, and having passion to contribute to our full potential. It is about maximizing strengths, making meaningful contributions, and feeling valued. Even the best office perks will not change a boss who is a jerk, a job with no potential for growth, or mind-numbingly boring work. Highly engaged employees can even seem like a handful at times. They care too much, they have wild ideas, they push the envelope, and they get frustrated when things fall through. At Netflix, they recognize it as the “person who picks up trash lying on the floor” (Hastings, 2009). At Basecamp, they call it “giving a damn” and list it as one of their core values (We the Basecamp). It can't all be sugarplums. A little dissatisfaction is natural and can fuel drive, productivity, and improvements.
Martin Seligman, former president of the American Psychological Association and founder of the field of positive psychology, breaks down happiness into these three elements (Seligman, 2008):
● The Pleasant Life: The rosy glow of ebullience and good cheer, with as much positive emotion as possible. Unfortunately, this is about 50 percent heritable, only 15 to 20 percent modifiable, and loses luster rapidly.
● The Engaged Life: The sense of flow, being drawn into and absorbed by the present moment, when time seems to stop. It arises from knowing your highest strengths and using them as much as possible.
● The Meaningful Life: The purpose, fulfillment, and belonging that come from using your highest strengths in the service of something beyond yourself.
Together, these three parts comprise happiness, but not in equal measure. Pleasure has almost no contribution to overall life satisfaction (Seligman, 2008). Long-term happiness stems foremost from meaning, closely followed by engagement. Once both of those are in line, pleasure serves as the cherry on top. Employees at a place like Google, where meaning and engagement already abound, can properly savor a massage day because their other happiness needs are met. What drives talent to the organization is not the perks but getting to do cool things that matter.
Luckily for employers, both meaning and engagement are surprisingly malleable through our habits, interactions with coworkers, and overall perspective (Achor, 2012). Each of these five simple, quick hacks, every day for 21 days, is enough to elicit statistically significant changes.
● Write down three things for which you are grateful.
● Write a positive message to someone in your social support network.
● Meditate at your desk for 2 minutes.
● Exercise for 10 minutes.
● Take 2 minutes to reflect on the most meaningful experience of the past 24 hours.
That's it. Simple reframing and small new habits are enough to significantly boost our levels of meaning and engagement. In fact, high levels of social support may be the greatest predictor of life satisfaction, particularly when we provide them, rather than receive (Achor, 2012). Employees who initiate social interactions, pick up slack, invite people to lunch, and organize office activities are 10 times more likely to be engaged at work than those who keep to themselves. That is the kind of culture we should be striving to develop.
Beyond increased levels of employee satisfaction, companies with high engagement perform better financially. Parnassus exemplifies this well. They invest based on both performance and principles, almost exclusively in firms proven to have outstanding workplaces, many of which are included in the 100 best companies to work for list (Parnassus). From 2005 to 2013, Parnassus had a 9.63 percent annual return, compared with the Standard & Poor's (S&P) annual return of 5.58 percent during that time (Crowley, 2013). From 2008 to 2013 (during the recent recession), their annual return was 10.81 percent, compared with the S&P of 3.97 percent (Crowley, 2013). The founder says, “The performance of the fund confirms what I've always believed: treating people well and authentically respecting them does lead to far better business performance. We proved it works” (Crowley, 2013).
Strong engagement is essential for ultimate success, and too often we see organizations trying to increase happiness in all the wrong ways. Employees appreciate perks, but those don't serve to engage workers or even boost happiness beyond temporary pleasure. What people truly want is an intrinsic connection to their work and their company. They want to want to keep coming back, to be inspired to move forward. And as Gallup CEO Clifton says, “There aren't enough foosball tables in the world to provoke that kind of commitment” (Crowley, 2014).
Chapter 3
Common Misconceptions: (Or, Why Culture Isn't Just HR's Problem)
Now that we have dispelled the magical powers of foosball tables and gift cards, you may find yourself wondering what other preconceived notions about culture are untrue. Here are the most common misconceptions we hear during our culture conversations.
Misconception #1: Culture Is Just HR's Problem
We may lose it if we hear another executive say their culture sucks because their HR department is not getting it right. The bottom line is, culture affects the bottom line. It's everyone's responsibility, not just the folks sitting in HR. Culture is a top issue for all business leaders. Eighty-seven percent of organizations now cite it as a top challenge because the ones who are getting it right are getting ahead (Dupress, 2015).
● Employee engagement programs can increase profits by $2,400 per employee per year (Wang, 2015).
● Ninety-one percent of highly engaged employees always or almost always try their hardest at work (Wang, 2015).
● Half of workers would rather “go to the DMV” or “watch paint dry” than attend a status update meeting (Mateo, 2015).
If you are in HR or executive leadership, it is not your job to single-handedly create the culture. Align and strategize, but remember that it is about we not me. Just like it can't all happen at once, it can't come all from one place. Ask the question, “Who do we want to be when we grow up?” Ask employees to define driving forces, and take time to make them collectively yours.
