So like millions around the world, my niece and I were both saddened to hear that, at the age of 83, Maurice Sendak had died.

He left behind him an impressive legacy of books that were hugely popular with both children and adults. And while a lot of children’s literature tends to follow safe, well-scrubbed formulas, the world Sendak’s children inhabited was a world of adventure, uncertainty, and fear of the unknown.

The drawings that illustrated his books were the same. The monsters were darkly scary, with lots of spines, and scales, and very, very big pointy teeth. They threatened to eat, and tear, and destroy little children in a number of horrific ways – and you believed every one.

His stories, too, drew on the dark and scary things that inhabit children’s imaginations. In Sendak’s books, the world didn’t always make sense, and what you believed didn’t always turn out to be real. And the children in Sendak’s books were complex creatures, with rich emotional lives and a capacity for both good and bad.

What made Sendak’s work so groundbreaking was its refusal to pander to children, and its brutal honesty. He believed that children, even very young children, should not be denied truth in the assumption that they wouldn’t be able to fully understand or fully comprehend, or that doing so was protecting them. He believed that children were able to face the dark corners, where the wild things are, and make empowering decisions about what course of action to take.

And it occurred to me that, so often, the executive suite treats rank-and-file employees as though they were children who need to be “protected” from harsh realities, or who are incapable of understanding the elements making a difficult decision.

Interestingly, office gossip being what it is, employees usually know when there’s a looming problem; they know when there’s a monster lurking close by. And not having any input, instead of making them feel “protected”, tends to make employees feel helpless and powerless.

So, taking a page out of one of Sendak’s books, one company decided to pull the monsters out of the dark corner, and let their employees help them figure out what to do.

Like so many companies, data storage giant EMC had to decide where to make cost-cutting measures. Most companies would have left top management to decide where to make the cuts, but EMC tried something different. Using their social media platform called EMCIOne, they asked their employees to tell management where cuts could be made.

Thousands of employees logged on and pointed out existing inefficiencies that, it turned out, their bosses were unaware of. In the end, the cuts that were made were less painful because employees felt they had some input, and the decisions were better for the company’s overall future.

Chances are you work in an organization that typically makes top-down decisions. How different would the process look if everyone participated in critical, life-changing decisions?

In “Where The Wild Things Are”, probably Sendak’s most famous book, young Max goes on an adventure where “the walls became the world all around”. What would happen if managers, like Sendak, decided to trust their employees and let the walls become the world all around?

But it seemed to me that, if you do “business as usual”, all you’ll get is the usual business. I always thought there was a greater link between employee morale and the bottom line, but it was more of a gut feeling, rather than anything formal. Nevertheless, I set about incorporating my ideas into the culture of NRI anyway, on the premise that “It may not help, but it certainly can’t hurt” to have happy employees.

Interestingly, our results at NRI fall right in line with those revealed in an interesting presentation on TED given by Bloomington psychologist Shaw Achor.

 Achor is the CEO of Good Think Inc., where he researches and teaches about positive psychology, particularly as it relates to the workplace. In his TED talk, Achor suggests that old ideas about workplace happiness (that when work makes us happy we will be more productive) should be the other way round.

 Instead, he suggests that if we come to work already happy, we will be more productive, we will be happier and more productive at work.

 The secret, Achor says, is to cultivate a positive mindset outside of work – and productivity and profit will follow.

 The concept isn’t entirely new. There’s been about a decade of research now that shows that when people work with a positive mind-set, performance on nearly every level—productivity, creativity, engagement—improves.

 In turn, those results have led workplace psychologists to assume that success makes people happy, and that companies that focus on their energies on rewarding success will have happier (and therefore more productive) employees.

 By itself, this assumption isn’t surprising: research has consistently revealed that those things we value having in our society (marriage, a comfortable income, health, friends, meaningful work) are correlated with levels of reported happiness.

 But Achor suggests that happiness may be the most misunderstood driver of performance. For one, he points out, most people believe success precedes happiness. “I’ll be happy once I get that promotion”, or “A 15% raise would really make me happy”, or “If I make my sales target, I’ll be happy”.

 In fact, Achor says, we’ve been looking at happiness as the result of success when, instead, success is the result of happiness.

 In one case study with KPMG in New York and New Jersey, in 2008, Achor worked with tax managers to see if he could help them become happier. Achor first evaluated two groups of managers, a study group and a control group, on their general sense of well-being. How engaged were they? Were they depressed? Did they feel satisfied with their work?

 The study group was then asked to choose one of these five activities that correlate with positive change:

•  Jot down three things they were grateful for.
• Write a positive message to someone in their social support network.
• Meditate at their desk for two minutes.
• Exercise for 10 minutes.
• Take two minutes to describe in a journal the most meaningful experience of the past 24 hours.

 The study participants performed their activity every day for three weeks. After the study was over, both groups were re-evaluated, using the same criteria as before. On every measurement on the life satisfaction scale (generally accepted to be a good predictor of productivity) the study group scored 5 or more points higher than the control group.

 Just doing one thing differently changed the way these managers felt about work, and how they did their business. But to achieve these positive results, they had to “do it differently”.

 So often, companies get stuck in a rut of always looking at things for the same direction, doing things the same way, using the same resources which they’ve always used – even though times, and the company’s needs have changed.

 On sales calls, I’ve certainly seen and heard this reluctance to “create happiness” by choosing to look for the features in a relocation program or relocation service provider that will make happiness an effortless “habit” for both the company and their transferees.

 Instead, sometimes companies choose to keep doing “business as usual” simply because they’ve always done it that way. With partners who – while they are predictable – no longer serve their needs. And no longer bring them happiness.

 And when you think about it, you can’t really get much more conservative in your approach to business than a firm of accountants. So, if KPMG found that going with a fresh, innovative approach positively affected their bottom line, what do you think doing the same could do for your company?

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!

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?

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!

Steve Jobs certainly left a leadership legacy in technology product development and innovation that is beyond dispute. But his remark shows how clearly he understood the real purpose of the sleek media devices that Apple is famous for.

Jobs understood that, while technology is important, the rationale for all technology should be focused on the human aspects of its use.

In our business of corporate relocation, staying up-to-date on technology is critical. We use software and programs to track, analyze, and record each aspect of the many-layered relocation process. And in all this technology, it would be easy to get so buried in the numbers that we forget why we’re using all the software and algorithms.

It would be easy to forget that the reason we’re using all that technology is because what we do in corporate relocation affects people’s lives in very real (and non-technical) ways.

Steve Jobs understood that his real legacy lay, not in the technological artifacts of Apple, but in the lives those products touched and changed.

In the same way, we make it a point to never, ever forget the humanity behind the numbers. Our clients, and every transferring employee are not, and never will be, nothing more than a spreadsheet. That’s why our clients always get their NRI Consultant’s personal contact information right there on the business card. It’s just the way we work.

Sure, we know that other companies may brag about the sheer numbers – but at what price? If all their technology is doing is facilitating the equivalent of a cattle drive, how are the transferring employees going to feel when they’re shunted, and shoved, and shuttled en masse?

Unhappy employees become disengaged. And disengaged employees are less productive. And technology is supposed to support productivity; not destroy it!

This is where Jobs’ quote above seems particularly insightful and valuable – and relevant to how we do business. Because like NRI, Apple never forgot that technology without humanity is a one-dimensional offering. And that technology should never reduce people to a numbers game, but instead be used to enhance our lives.

What we don’t need is more legislation and regulatory rules. Home values and sales have declined over the last four years and past incentives and programs have done nothing to improve the situation. If anything, buying and selling property has become more challenging, time consuming and costly for the consumer, the Realtors, the lenders, and corporate relocation programs.

The summit should focus on creating jobs which is what would really help the recovery.

Tedious and time-consuming.  RFP’s can contain over 100 grilling questions documenting history, processes, procedures, and mind numbing statistics.  While reassuring to the buyer that we’re legit, in the end, I’m told, it’s hard to tell the bidders apart.  Why?  Maybe RFP’s aren’t getting to the heart of the matter. What people truly want is extraordinary service.   How can we convey just how special and unusual it is to find a company like NRI that truly offers exceptional service in an RFP?

Unexpected notes of gratitude can tell everything and I just received this one today:

I have to say that of all the Relo companies we work with NRI is tops. Nancy has been so responsive and helpful all the way through this transaction. I was amazed that she got back with me so quickly even on the weekends.  Nancy went above and beyond on this transaction. My emails and phone calls were answered immediately. We both tried very hard to close it before she left for vacation. Gayle stepped in and helped me with the closing. Nancy and Gayle are really good at their job!

It is a pleasure doing business with your company. I am impressed with the knowledge and professionalism of everyone I worked with on the sale of your clients property.

Best,

Linda Sowell
Principal Broker
Sowell and Company Realtors

Notes like this make our hearts sing.  What makes NRI great?   It’s not our technology and it’s not our processes or procedures.  It’s our people.

And in the middle of that day, just when she needed it most, Nancy received a handwritten note:

“Please forgive me for being so late with this note.  We have been so busy enjoying the West Virginia and Virginia parks, stores, farm markets, weather, etc.  The children have a wonderful new school and have adjusted well.  It has been a joyous time for us that couldn’t have been possible without you.

Thank you so much for your patience, perserverance, organization, great communication, and especially just being there to listen to our venting – and supporting us through our stress.  “Thank you” just doesn’t seem like strong enough words to convey our gratitude. 

We appreciate everything you have done.  Our best to you.

Thank you!”

And that made Nancy’s day – happy.