Many of us have always thought that if your employees are happy, everything goes better all day. You might have noticed that we even incorporated this into the Benari motto: Pay Attention · Add Value · Have Fun.
According to recent research by Dr Nancy Rothbard of my very own Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and her colleague Dr Steffanie Wilk of Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University, it’s true. It seems that employees who start off happy provide better service and are significantly more productive.
Employees who show up miserable take more small breaks which leads to them being about 10% less productive, and then there’s the way they deal with customers and other employees. Apparently all those little things that some companies do that are often laughed at as silly turn out to boost results significantly at a small cost.
It makes sense to give your people a few minutes to positively transition to work when they arrive. Those free donuts and coffee and a bit of chit chat might be what leads to a profitable day rather than some red ink.
This causes me to reflect upon how we reward managers. Perhaps there should be a year end bonus for the manager with the happiest and most smiley crew. I’ve know for a long time that if people love what they do and who they work with they can’t wait to come to work. They develop an excitement and passion that infects the entire organization…and those it touches.
They are a happy crew and happy people tend to smile…a lot.
As we’ve all observed, smiles are contagious. Unfortunately not smiling can also be contagious.
In the world of EOS we teach leadership teams to always spend the first five minutes of any meeting sharing good news. You might try this yourself and notice the difference it makes.
By the way, about my comment “my own Wharton School”, I happen to be Professional Faculty and Region Manager Africa for the Wharton Global Consulting Practicum which is part of the graduate school. I mention this since I’m always interested in hearing about things Africa, particularly marketing project opportunities.