Transform Your Employees into Passionate Advocates

Employee happiness is becoming a hot topic among CEOs and in boardrooms – and it’s about time. But businesses shouldn’t focus on happiness for its own sake. If you want happy employees, you can just pay them more. But only a few of the things that make employees ''happy’' will result in sustained benefits for your company.

The only route to employee happiness that also benefits shareholders is through a sense of fulfillment resulting from an important job well done. We should earn our employees’ passionate advocacy for the company’s mission by helping them earn the passionate advocacy of their customers.

That’s an ambitious goal. Here’s how to make it happen:

1. True ownership by line managers. Most large companies depend on human resources to measure and manage employee engagement. But real engagement – passionate advocacy – comes from making customers’ lives richer, and there isn’t much that HR alone can do to help employees achieve that. So companies like Apple and JetBlue Airways deliver employee survey results directly to operating managers, who can then sponsor shop-floor change initiatives. Perhaps more important, managers feel full ownership of the results and for making progress.

2. Simpler measurements. Most companies gauge employee satisfaction through the time-honored annual survey. These surveys often result in tremendously detailed reports across a large number of metrics. Smarter firms survey employees more often, ask just a few basic questions and simplify the reporting. The feedback can be difficult to hear – employees tend to be tough graders. But these rapid-fire surveys can be powerful motivating tools.

3. Direct feedback from customers. The most important step is providing your employees with a steady stream of raw feedback from customers. When front-line employees and managers hear directly from customers, the effect can be dramatic. Positive feedback inspires staff to keep up the good work. Criticism often inspires employees to improve their performance on their own or to seek additional coaching so they can do better next time.

Loyal, passionate employees benefit companies as much as loyal, passionate customers. They stay longer, work harder and work more creatively. And they may lure other great employees to the company. That makes everyone happy.

*Rob Markey is co-author, with Fred Reichheld, of "The Ultimate Question 2.0: How Net Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven World." He is a Partner at Bain & Co.'s New York office and head of the firm's global Customer Strategy and Marketing practice.

© 2012 Harvard Business School Publishing Corp.

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