Make Your People Happy, Like John Lewis Does
I often ask groups where they have found the best customer service. Two companies stand out and always come up: Apple and John Lewis. And when lists are published of the UK’s most admired businesses you can be sure that John Lewis is at or near the top. So I felt greatly honoured yesterday to be speaking alongside Charlie Mayfield, Chair of John Lewis (at Tomorrow’s Company “Tomorrow’s Value” event).
To Be Happy at Work, Be a Florist Not a Banker
One thing that is clear from the results is that working in a high pay profession doesn’t necessarily make you happy: There have been similar surveys before, especially in the USA. Myplan.com found Financial Analysts were bottom of a list of 300 professions for happiness, while singers and fire fighters came top. City and Guilds notes that those in vocationally-trained skills-based jobs are happier than those in academic-trained, office-based jobs.But the overwhelmingly happiest are the self-employed, those in full control of their work. This is released in the week that Richard Branson wrote that the best measure of business success is happiness. You won’t be surprised to know I agree with that! And I firmly believe, based on our experience working with a wide range of companies, that all workplaces could be happy. But, as with those happy self-employed, we need to give people control of their jobs and the trust and freedom to feel ownership and satisfaction. If banking focused more on making their people feel valued and motivated, and less on short-term financial gain, then maybe they would not just be better places to work but give better service to their customers too. I like to think that in that kind of culture scandals like PPI miss-selling might never have happened. Check out the Happy Manifesto or my list of 80 ideas for a happy workplace, if you want help making your organisation happier.
