It is also based on gallup data. They determined that employee happiness was not correlated to company success. They did find that the following questions in order were highly correlated to company success.
1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
12. This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?
These questions are also rephrased versions of questions mentioned in most management books I've read that are focused on employee development. The more I dig into employee development and management the more I realize a lot of startups, claiming they're data-driven, just skip over all data related to actually managing people, managing work spaces, etc.
Bingo. I see this all the time with companies who claim to use some variant of "agile methadologies": heavy use of tracking and upward visibility, but a complete disregard for the parts that protect developer productivity and independence.
>I realize a lot of startups, claiming they're data-driven, just skip over all data related to actually managing people
Absolutely. We started Cally [0] to help people be more data-driven about leading & building teams. There is tons of research on what actually makes a team high performing, engaged, inclusive, but most managers are taking shots in the dark
Happiness can come from many sources not on that list. For example, you could hire cheerleaders to entice your male team and make them happy, but that is unlikely to make them more productive. Sounds ridiculous, nobody would do that right? But a company in China did.
So you let them sit for 8 hours, go home and watch football. What's next? They're happy forever and don't bother you? No, it's likely something from the list.
The list seems likely to be important, but I note that no form of material compensation is listed, and even people who don't particularly care for material wealth will probably put food-and-shelter above most or all of that list (with a possible exception for point 8, with people and companies that have a particularly strong Cause).
Study after study provides evidence that compensation is the most important motivator up to some individual range/level, at which point its leverage quickly tapers off. Food & shelter would definitely be below the cut-off but a 5% increase could be huge for some and meaningless for others. The challenge is everyone's curve is going to be different.
This list jives with the internal motivators that appear to drive really great work above the survival level: safety, opportunity and recognition.
I agree this is a pretty good list. However I feel like a lot if this should be a side effect of the general culture in the company.
I've seen several times people going to management seminars where they teach this kind of stuff and it can come of as extremely off-putting when just boxes like that try to be checked.
Faking personal interest or friendship is worse than showing no interest. People previously telling me to fuck off now addressing me by first name and giving praise with a smile (but still telling me to fuck off between the lines) I quit at least one job because of things like that.
I answered no to a lot of these... not exactly an eye-opener, as I'm looking for a new job. Still, I'm not super unhappy with my current role, but this does help put into perspective why I want a change.
The ones that stand out most to me are 6 and 11. My old manager definitely encouraged development and would talk about progress. Company's shuffled around a lot and now it just seems like everyone's kind of going through the motions, just trying not to screw up or get let go. No one's discussed advancement, opportunities, growth, etc. for a while now, and that coincided with my decision to leave.
You highlight an important point: your direct manager can really make or break a lot of these but they're ultimately beholden to the same macro environment as you. I try to shelter my direct reports but if we M&A, cancel major projects or change strategic direction my teams are not isolated from the impact which can be really hard on things like working towards specific career goals and directions.
My biggest self learning while becoming a manager is that the developer acid test of "smart, gets stuff done and not an a-hole" still applies, maybe more than before. I used to get personally invested in my work and now I care about each person.
A former employer got Gallup in, intending it as a self-congratulatory exercise for management. Imagine their surprise when Gallup reported we were in the bottom 6%...
Nevertheless at the time and for a few years after, that company dominated its sector.
That's the point: those questions influence both employe happiness and company success. But employee happiness does not _directly_ influence company success.
But OP claimed that the two aren't even correlated.
Correlation just means that when goes up, the other tends go up (or down, as the case may be). It doesn't make any claim on whether there's a direct influence or not. Hence the common refrain: correlation is not causation.
I'd be surprised if any single factor directly and unambiguously influences success.
You could hire a bunch of jolly simpletons, have the happiest company in the world, and go bust before the year is out.
You could make it perfectly clear what is expected of everyone, give them all the kit they need, implement all their valuable suggestions then depress them by paying them minimum wage and discouraging fraternisation and have a similar outcome.
It does seem like it would correlate, but one might also think free food would contribute to it, too. These points help focus on precisely what kinds of things to perhaps focus on to contribute to happiness in certain ways.
Those are all excellent questions. The last question is very important, since employees who feels like they're 'stuck' in their position will become downhearted and lose motivation.
Interestingly that sounds like almost exactly the same points the book The Progress Principle brings up (which is based on one of the largest qualitative diary based research projects on company success.)
I've read the cliff-notes version of first break all the rules. (its floating around the web).
It has the list - and also interesting discussion of talent and having employees in positions where their talents are used.
IIRC - it also suggests never trying to change people - which I've taken to heart in both work and personal aspects of my life.
Employees who answer no to many of those questions can still be happy and employees who answer yes to all of them can still be unhappy. I'd wager that they are strongly correlated, but it is still important to separate them.
We use the anonymous employee feedback via "office vibe" to monitor various things like employee happiness, engagement, wellness, personal growth, relationship with peers and managers, etc. And questions like the above often pop up in the surveys.
Fitting title. I remember close to 10 years ago I proposed a lot of these ideas on my company as a low level manager. I was only asked "how old are you?" And told "your paycheck is us telling you you're doing a good job." Aha
It is also based on gallup data. They determined that employee happiness was not correlated to company success. They did find that the following questions in order were highly correlated to company success.
1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
12. This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?