What Exactly Makes a Company a Place Where it’s Employees are Happy to Come to Work Each Day?

The “ Great Place to Work®” organization is an independent organization with offices throughout the world and it has conducted research over a 20 year period which has shown that are several key issues which dictate whether employees are happy at work or not.

Their major findings of this 20 years of research is as simple as it is startling - that trust between managers and employees is the primary defining characteristic of the very best workplaces.

At the heart of their definition of a great place to work - a place where employees "trust the people they work for, have pride in what they do, and enjoy the people they work with" - is the idea that a great workplace is measured by the quality of the three, interconnected relationships that exist there:

• The relationship between employees and management.
• The relationship between employees and their jobs/company.
• The relationship between employees and other employees.

“As companies become great, the division between management and labor fades. The workplace becomes a community. Employees take pride in their job, their team, and their company. They feel that they can be themselves at work. They celebrate the successes of their peers and cooperate with others throughout the organization. People take pleasure in their work - and in the people they work with - in a deep and lasting way. They want to stay around for their careers.”

With the above in focus it is important to understand some basic but absolutely vital principles with regard to creating happiness in the workplace and when these are applied you will already be, at the very least, one step ahead of the pack in employing and retaining great employees, and, really, isn’t that where you want to be?

Principle No. 1 - People Make the Difference

Organizations are not successful; it is the people who work in organizations that are successful. It is they who drive the organization forward, slow it down or even put it into reverse.

Dig deeply into organizational problems and you are likely to get to people. Conflict, stress, misunderstanding, poor communication, demotivation, resistance, low morale, poor productivity, all have their origins in people and relationship issues.

The value of an organization can be measured by the expertise of its staff and their ability to work together. The bottom line will reflect the skills of staff and the quality of their interpersonal relationships.

Principle No. 2 - Cost of Conflict

People are often promoted to managerial positions because they are technically competent. This role, however, requires new and complex skills of motivating, influencing and empowering. We don’t inherit these skills, we are not taught them at school and many of our work models are outdated and inappropriate.

Indeed, it is suggested that companies can spend more money on servicing their managers’ vehicles than on developing their people skills. One could compare the cost of a car breakdown to that of conflict with its inherent impact on morale, time and of course, profits. Research indicates that the typical manager loses 25% of his/her working day to unwarranted conflict. This is time and money lost day after day after day.

Principle No. 3 – Don’t Walk Backwards Into the Future

Psychological research has made enormous contributions in recent years to the understanding of relationship dynamics. Your organization may be using state of the art information technology and yet managing its people on outdated principles of psychology, stifling energy and creativity and in effect, wasting the people resource. Vow today to only use the most effective people management principles and you will reap major rewards from it.

Principal No. 4 – Being in a relationship is not an option

Being in a relationship is not an option; it is part of the condition of the human being, except for those of us who decide to be hermits. Whatever your job, whether you produce sell or service you will do this in the context of other people – people are your working environment..!!!

How skilled you are in that environment impacts on the success you enjoy. Having staff skilled in interpersonal relationships is not a soft option; it is fundamental to the business and impacts directly on productivity, morale and consequently the bottom line profit.

We must remember that the only training in human interpersonal relationships that many people have is derived from their family, their friends and their romantic relationships with others. If you stop to think about it, how many people do you know in your organization that are estranged from their family, spouse or certain members of their circle of friends?

Is it always “the other persons fault” or do you think your co-worker should bear some of the blame? Well let me tell you that for most people this is the only experience of relationships that they have to refer to. And let’s face it; for the most part this is not the type of training that you would want your people to let loose on your customers.

Once you realize this fact and commit to training your people accordingly then the relationships they have with their fellow workers and with your customers will become infinitely better. Once again this will affect your bottom line in a very positive way.

Principle No. 5 – Each one of us has our own different perspective of the world we live in

The program is based on the fact that our differences define our uniqueness. Each of us has our own unique window of our world, fashioned by our socialization and our place in history. We have our own needs, defined by our values and beliefs. When needs are not met, or are denied to us, we are in conflict. This is what causes unhappiness and distress, not only in our working lives, but also in our personal lives as well.

Principle No.6 – Always make the other person your starting point!

Always, always, always make the other person your starting point. If you want to get along with people it's important to know about them, what they like, what do they need, because the most important person in the world to them is themselves..!!! That's got to be your first reference point if you are interested in building any kind of relationship with that person. That is the foundation from which everything else in the relationship, be it a personal or business relationship, should be built from. Do this regularly and you will be on your way to becoming a relationship expert.

Principle No.7 – Treat others as they would like to be treated, not as you would like to be treated

Treat others as THEY would like to be treated, not necessarily as you would like to be treated. The common phrase that a lot of us have heard in our youth is "Treat people as you would like to be treated". Well I hate to argue with my mother but that phrase is not altogether correct.

Let's take eating for example. If I didn't know you and I took you to a restaurant and because I loved to eat squid I ordered it for you as well, then you might get upset if you didn't like to eat squid. Then I might get upset that you didn't eat what I ordered for you, and how silly would that be..??.

Just as it would be silly for me to assume that you liked to eat what I liked to eat, it is also a mistake for me to assume that your needs in a relationship are the same as mine. If you want to get the best out of your employees, colleagues or personal relationships treat people as they would like to be treated…(sorry mum..!!)

Principle No. 8 – High self-esteem is the fuel for high performance

High self-esteem is the fuel for high performance. When you think you are special, you act special. When you act special, your organization, your family and society benefits.

Value is added by enabling, enriching and engaging other people's strengths.

Spread happiness around you. Improve the self-worth of the individual and you improve the worth of the organization. Leadership is about making people feel they are special so they act special. The goal of great leaders is not to get people thinking more highly of the leader, but thinking more highly of themselves. Do this and you will achieve God like status in your organization.

Principle No. 9 – You listen people into existence

You listen people into existence - when you listen to them they feel of value and of worth. Don't just listen to them for the sake of listening itself but rather try to think of ways that what the person is saying actually makes sense. That way the other person knows that you are thinking seriously about what they are saying and they will feel empowered but when you ignore them they will get upset and annoyed at you. Listening people into existence is one of the most important things you can do with your staff.

Principle No. 10 – Get rid of the “You Shoulds”

Remember - It's OK to be different, to be yourself, but don't expect others to always be the same as you. Well first of all, we’ve got to understand that we are very, very different. The difference is not minor between us. The difference between us is quite dramatic. It’s so dramatic that it’s as if we are from different planets.

Now what I’m trying to suggest is that if you’re looking for quality relationships in your life, work or otherwise, it’s really important to learn this – you’re different, but you’re OK.

It’s OK for you because you will have a different set of needs, through that window of the world that you have.

And what we really don’t need is anything that is going to kill a relationship. And that’s why I suggest that the ‘should’s’ – the value judgments, ‘You should care more about people.’ ‘You should take more pride in your work.’ ‘You should…’

You know that finger-pointing, prescriptive ‘should’?

That’s the killer of relationships and that should be totally eliminated from your communications.

The ten principles mentioned above are a fantastic start to creating a workplace that potential employees will be clamoring to join. While this is a great start you may want to go further and Turbo Charge your efforts.

Any company that wants to make itself an even better place to work and have high performance employees with less stress and conflict should be aiming for increased levels in three areas which are absolutely vital:

1. Openness

2. Trust

3. Collaboration

An increase in openness, trust and collaboration amongst all staff members in any organization will reap fantastic dividends both in the levels of workplace satisfaction and in the financial bottom line. This is what your company should be aiming for.

And how do you achieve this you may be asking? Well there are many ways to do this and following the principles above will certainly get you heading in the right direction but if you really want to find out the absolutely best and quickest way to turbo charge your company then why don’t you take a look at what many of the major corporations throughout the world have started to do just recently. It’s new, it’s revolutionary, it’s taking the business world by storm and it absolutely works.

What I am talking about is a revolutionary new system that diagnoses the levels of staff satisfaction across a range of seven critical indicators. But hang on, there’s more! Not only does it diagnose the levels across the indicators but it automatically generates a report detailing the results, then generates a personal action plan for each employee and also offers solutions via activities to improve in any of the areas where it is required!

Some executives have called it “a spark of genius”, others “a Godsend for our company” while others still have vowed “never to be without it ever again”. It truly is going to be the “next big thing” in improving companies’ abilities to communicate on a human level. It is the culmination of 17 years work from one of the world’s leading organizational psychologists. Major companies are already using the system and now you can too. If you want to develop a culture of more openness, trust and collaboration in your organization than contact the folks at www.highperformanceemployees.com to find out just how easy it is to start making your place of work “an even better place to work”.