It’s no secret that a happy workplace is a more inviting environment than a tension-filled office. Or that happy employees are more motivated to work a little harder and a little longer than employees who are not as motivated.

That’s pretty elementary stuff. But do employees really need to be happy, in order to perform well? Is a happy workplace a business necessity, or an employee perk?

Do businesses gain any hard, quantifiable advantages if they pay attention to employee happiness?

These are questions that are being explored more and more by workplace psychologists. And the information they’re uncovering may make Friday afternoon company pizzas obsolete.

Even if you believe that the only point of a business is to make money, you must still look after the happiness of your people, simply because studies show that happy employees will make you more money!

A 2010 report by Hewitt Associates found that companies with high levels of “happiness” or engagement (65% or greater) in their employees, outperformed the total stock market index. On average, these companies posted shareholder returns 19% higher than the average in 2009.

On the other hand, companies with “unhappy” or disengaged employees (40% or less engagement), had an average total shareholder return of 44% less than the rest of their market.

Similar results were reported by Alex Edmans, a Wharton professor. In his 2008 paper, Does the Stock Market Fully Value Intangibles? Employee Satisfaction and Equity Prices.  He used a value-weighted portfolio of Fortune magazine’s list of the best companies to work for in America in 1998. By the end of 2005, this portfolio had earned over twice the market return while also outperforming industry benchmarks.

So, according to the research, it seems that having happy employees gives a company a distinct competitive advantage in the marketplace. This information supports what we at NRI have believed all along – a great workplace is the foundation of a successful business. 

True, there was a time when employee happiness did not necessarily translate to the bottom line. When our economy was based more heavily on manufacturing, workers on an assembly line had fairly simple and limited tasks to complete. This meant that they were easy to train, and easy to replace.

Today’s workers, even those in manufacturing, have had the complexity of their work tasks increase. Computers and software are used at all levels of employment, and require training that ranges from very simple, to very complex.

It is no longer as easy to replace one worker with another. Today it is quite costly to recruit, train, and onboard a new hire. Keeping employees happy and engaged, particularly with respect to top talent, has become a key component in outpacing the competition. A happy workplace is not a business luxury, but a distinct contribution to the bottom line.

That conclusion won’t surprise anyone whose primary work tasks them to deal with people, especially with people under stress. In corporate relocation, we’re used to dealing with people stressed by many aspects of the relocation process: both the logistics and the emotional aspects of leaving the familiar for the unknown.

We’re also familiar with how much performance and focus improve when most, if not all, of that stress is relieved and reallocated to relocation professionals.

If it doesn’t surprise us, it’s because our experience has shown us that when people work with a positive mind-set, performance on nearly every level – productivity, creativity, and engagement – improves significantly.

What we’ve found at NRI, is that at heart, people want to do good work, and they want to be engaged in their work. And if happy employees will make you more money… then it’s just good business!

“Good leaders make people feel that they’re at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning.” –Warren G. Bennis

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, it costs about a third of an employee’s salary to replace them. Other studies, though, have shown that, depending on the industry and the seniority of the employee, that figure can go up to as much as 250 percent.

When you read these figures, it’s easy to understand why it makes sense for companies with remote departments or branches to invest in a corporate relocation program.

But with the disruption that is unavoidable during a relocation, is it possible to keep employees engaged and motivated throughout the process? It might not be as difficult as you think…
More than 100 studies have found that the most engaged employees — those who say they’re fully committed in their jobs and loyal to their employers — are significantly more productive. These employees are also the catalysts for higher customer satisfaction, and they invariably outperform their peers who are less engaged.

Additionally, a recent study showed that employee engagement and a company’s financial performance are connected: companies with high levels of employee engagement outperformed the stock market in 2010.

So, of course it makes sense that most companies want enthusiastic, engaged employees. But few companies seem to know how to inspire their employees to that goal. In fact, in many companies, there seems to be an enormous disconnection between how the company views and promotes “engagement”, and what employees feel motivates and inspires them.

Many engagement programs rely on what’s known in marketing circles as “push persuasion”. These programs use pre-determined concepts of what the customer (in this case, the employees) find engaging, and design the program around those concepts.

The concepts are often developed through the use of mind-numbingly long surveys which are focused on what the company imagines should be important to employees. Unfortunately, most of these surveys miss the mark by a mile.

But what if you designed an engagement program using “pull persuasion”?

In “pull persuasion”, the program would be designed by starting at the opposite end of the “push persuasion” funnel: that is, starting from the perspective of the employee, not the company.
It’s an idea that has been used very successfully by companies such as Apple, Amazon, and Zappos to create an experience that is meaningful for their customers (the “users”), while providing valuable insights and passionate, long-lasting customer loyalty to the companies.

Their customers stay longer, spend more, and recommend the company to their friends. Customers also are less quick to go public with their complaints, more willing to work with the company to find a solution for problems, and they contribute ideas for improvement because they believe the company values their feedback.

So, if you applied that same methodology to building employee engagement, what would you do differently? How would it feel to “pull” instead of “push” towards an energized, engaged workforce?

Although there has been some encouraging news in some housing markets, the economy continues to sputter. And where once decision-makers would have taken a a more extravagant approach to choosing a corporate relocation service provider for company relocations and expansions, it’s only prudent to now consider a more measured, more efficient approach to relocation.

One of the easiest ways for a company to trim relocation costs is to look for a firm that carries lower overhead costs to deliver their services. For an increasing number of medium-to-large companies, the choice of provider is a smaller, more flexible firm that can adjust their service delivery to the unique needs of each client.

This willingness to consider smaller service providers mirrors the change in the operating environment. For many businesses, the emphasis has shifted to being nimble and avoiding long-term commitments. A company that, as little as ten years ago, would have signed a commitment for 5 or 10 years, now want to maintain operational flexibility.

The fact is that in the current recession, it doesn’t make sense to commit to unnecessary services that are often rolled into the kind of “one-size-fits-all” relocation services “bundle” that are customary among relocation service behemoths.

Working with a smaller firm doesn’t require sacrifices for the relocation clients, either. By utilizing today’s excellent technology and judiciously combining resources with carefully selected partners, a smaller company can deliver just about any service a relocation client requires.

And when you’re the CEO or CFO, you like to see your relocation decision-makers proceeding cautiously with your company’s hard-won assets. Even for companies that would like to believe their business is strong enough to weather the current recession, with so many economic unknowns, trimming relocation costs allows a wait-and-see approach to determine if growth forecasts align with reality.

In the short term, small to mid-sized relocation services companies with solid service offerings, strong assets, and a stable,U.S.based workforce will provide the best options and values for relocation needs. For companies with relocation contracts ending in the near future, there is little to be lost by exploring more flexible and potentially desirable relocation options. If relocation is one of the choices for a business, a smaller relocation services provider can provide more flexible options to maintain operational flexibility, while still delivering a full range of quality services.

We always take the time to understand the nature of your business, its goals, and prospects for the future, and how we can best help you make the right corporate relocation decision for you. If a change in relocation may be in your future, give us a call. A short conversation could pay off dividends in relocation savings and benefits!