Why Company Culture Matters

You’re not the first to push back on the words “happy” and “feel good” and that’s okay. But, whether you embrace it or not, you want happy employees at work.  They make everything better. And, we have the research to prove it.

And no, we’re not talking about rainbows and unicorns.  We’re talking about employees who come to work inspired. They’re joyous knowing they’re right where they’re supposed to be.  They belong.  They matter.  And it feels good.  It’s the same feeling you get when you relax around a campfire, score a goal, or give a friend a high-five when you both relate.

Happy? Or Engaged?

So stop for a moment. Think about you. Are you better when you’re happier?  If you’re a parent, do you hope your children grow up happy? Or simply “engaged” or “satisfied”?

And while your employees are not your children, we want them to live a life they love, and that includes while they work. We know what it FEELS like to be happy – there’s a lightness in our step, a sparkle in our eye and joy in our interactions.  Engagement and satisfaction don’t have this effect.  We also know what happiness LOOKS like and what it doesn’t look like.  We can tell when smiles are real, or flat and faked.

Happy employees matter

At Choose People, we measure what matters – and happy employees matter. In fact,  we literally measure the question, “Do you feel good about coming to work?”  We’re looking at the emotional health of your organization.  Once when we asked this question, the employee paused, sighed and told us, “In my last job there would be days when I would be driving to work where I would rather get in an accident than arrive to work.” That’s just not okay.

Of course, that’s only one question we measure. We have many more. And we have hours of research and loads of data that prove happiness matters.

And no, we don’t believe you can make someone happy. And you’re not responsible for making your team happy.  However you are responsible for creating an empowering context within which they can be happy.

Learn more about how to increase your team’s joy and improve your company’s culture.