My organization recently launched a new employee engagement survey that ties into a slew of work that's taking place at the hands of our talent management team and others in the HR group and as I clicked and clacked and responded to the array of questions it got me thinking about the notion of happiness in the workplace - because at the end of the day isn't employee engagement little more than a measure of employee happiness (or satisfaction, if you will)? Which, as I'm wont to do, led me to thinking about some things that were engrained into my head early on in my career as another organization I was working for at the time was preparing to launch their first volley into the engagement survey arena:
- Don't ask questions you don't want answers to
- You should want to ask the difficult questions
- Be ready to respond when the difficult questions secure the answers you didn't want
- Failure to respond to those answers is nothing but costly, in terms of dollars, time, and integrity
It was these ideas coupled with professional and life experience that has shaped my take on what I want out of a job and a career, and why culture has been such a significant part of the equation for me when I've been in a position to think about next steps over the better part of my career so far. And the thing is, it's not just me that thinks this is important, which is in large part why organizations that want to do the right thing are asking the difficult questions and addressing their employees' needs and concerns as best they can. It's why so much of talent acquisition (at least in forward thinking organizations) is focused on helping potential employees understand not just the cash value of working somewhere, but the intrinsic value as well. It's why when I think about the talent management equation of recruit + retain + reward, I get excited and want to help my organization be better at fostering the employee experience at all points in an employee's relationship with us. It's why most HR professionals can agree that happy employees are better, stronger, faster employees. It's why cool infographics like the following take hold on the internet:
Header Photo Credit: kevinschoenmakers via Compfight cc
This is a very informational inforgraphics. It is absolutely true that happy employees are the ones who perform better, they consistently beat the deadlines, they have the motivation and discipline to work hard. As a result they have good relationships with their coworkers and with their bosses.
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