“Disengaged workers cost the U.S. economy $350 billion a year in lost productivity. Here’s how the happiest companies boost morale and the bottom line.”
That’s the promise of a Fast Company article titled “Secrets Of America’s Happiest Companies.” Those “happiest companies” were selected by an outfit called (I’m not making this up) CareerBliss. They derive a “Bliss Score” from “employee generated company reviews.” They do not even attempt to connect their data to profitability.
OK, so we’re not sampling here, we’re just taking what comes in through the web site. And then, CareerBliss “evaluates company reviews for the key factors which affect work happiness.” They list ten factors, but the form used for evaluation only has nine questions.
The top company on the “Happiest Companies” list is Pfizer. People there should be really happy. It should be a great place to work. Uh-oh.
Pfizer isn’t on Fortune’s “Best Companies to Work For” list. And guess what? The reviews of Pfizer at Glassdoor tell a very different story. There, only 52 percent of employees would recommend the company to a friend. Pfizer is described as “bureaucratic, hierarchical, formal, too big.” That doesn’t sound happy to me.
There are three problems with putting the emphasis on happiness. Happiness is devilishly hard to quantify. Happiness is affected by many things, most of which are not at work. There is no persuasive evidence that making people happy makes them better workers.
So instead of worrying about happiness, which is hard to measure or control, pay attention to the things you can do something about.
Take care of the hygiene factors like pay and benefits. Pay attention to improving the way your bosses at all levels do their jobs. Select, train, and support those people so that they are effective at helping their team and team members succeed.
Who knows? That just might make some people happy.
