Even if you are not one of those rare folks blessed with a gift for finding joy in the concentration camps of life, you intuitively know that you and your work team would be more productive, more satisfied, and more creative if work engaged not only your head and your hands but your heart and soul as well. What most of us know intuitively research confirms: when employees find meaning at work, they care enough about it to develop their competence; they work harder and are more productive; they stay longer and are more positive about their work experience. But there is more: when employees are more positive, customers generally respond in kind. Employee attitude is a key lead indicator of customer attitude, and satisfied customers help the businesses they patronize to survive and thrive. In brief:
Employee competence, commitment, and passion or energy are among these intangible assets. Employees can be competent, even committed, but still lack passion for their work. Meaning reinforces employees’ passion for work because it ties what they do to a greater good that also pays off in the marketplace. Passion for work is an intangible asset that has a direct impact on a firm’s market value.
Consider some additional data points on the value for both employees and customers of abundant organizations (exemplified here in organizations that employees like to work for, that investors admire, that invest in people, and that have positive work practices):
Franklin D. Roosevelt, U.S. president during the Great Depression of the 1930s, said, “We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals. We know now that it is bad economics.” This is even more true in today’s transparent and fluid cultures.
- Employees who find meaning at work are more competent, committed, and contributing.
- In turn, employee competence, commitment, and sense of contribution lead to increased customer commitment.
- In turn, customer commitment leads to better financial results for the company.
Employee competence, commitment, and passion or energy are among these intangible assets. Employees can be competent, even committed, but still lack passion for their work. Meaning reinforces employees’ passion for work because it ties what they do to a greater good that also pays off in the marketplace. Passion for work is an intangible asset that has a direct impact on a firm’s market value.
Consider some additional data points on the value for both employees and customers of abundant organizations (exemplified here in organizations that employees like to work for, that investors admire, that invest in people, and that have positive work practices):
- Over a 10-year period (1998 to 2008) “best companies to work for” have a 6.8 percent stock appreciation versus 1.0 percent for the average firm.
- Over a seven-year period, the most-admired firms in Fortune’s list of admired companies had doubled the market returns of competitors.
- The probability of an initial public offering (IPO; a new company) succeeding goes from 60 to 79 percent when the new company invests in its people.
- Sixty-one hospitals in the United Kingdom had a 7 percent decline in death rate when they invested in the well-being of their staff.
- A one-standard-deviation increase in high-performance work practices yields $27,044 increase in sales per employee and $3,814 increase in profit per employee.
- Only 13 percent of disengaged employees would recommend their company’s products or services, compared with 78 percent of engaged employees.
- Disengaged employees are 10 times more likely to say they will leave their company within a year.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, U.S. president during the Great Depression of the 1930s, said, “We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals. We know now that it is bad economics.” This is even more true in today’s transparent and fluid cultures.
