Ultimately all employees really only want one thing.
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Every year Fortune magazine releases a list of the 100 best places to work. For the sixth year in a row, Google has earned the number one spot on their list. Even though money and perks are a huge draw for working at the company, those aren’t the main reasons people love working there. People love working at Google because their founders built their company around the one core desire of every single person on the planet.
Because Google has figured out the one thing any leader needs to know in order to be successful: your employees just want to be happy.
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Your business is constantly evolving, but the nature of your employees is staying the same. You may incorporate the latest technology and keep up with the latest business trends. You may offer a lot of perks and excellent benefits. But the people diligently working on their fancy computers at their treadmill desks are still the same exact people they always were. They may behave a little differently, but that’s just a surface, situational change. A new work environment full of perks won’t suddenly make disenfranchised employees passionate about your organization. It won’t suddenly make someone a leader. It won’t suddenly motivate someone to do something they really don’t want to do. That would require changing human nature and trying to do that is just tilting at windmills.
So stop focusing on the wrong things.
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It is harder to get a job at Google than it is to get into Harvard. Why? Because Google has figured out the one thing any leader needs to know in order to be successful: your employees just want to be happy. That’s it. Their happiness isn’t based on all gadgets and perks they have– it’s based on how the company makes them feel. And making your employees feel like they matter isn’t really all that hard.
Employees want to be allowed to be creative and work on fun, compelling projects that are important to the company’s mission. If your people don’t feel like their work matters, all they are doing is punching a clock and doing enough not to get fired. There is no passion, no joy and your company won’t ever see the innovation that drives the most successful companies out there. Don’t light a fire under your people and demand more. Light the fire in them by giving them work that appeals to why they chose this profession to begin with.
If you want happy employees, listen to what your people are saying and seek their input for solutions.
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Your people want to be recognized for good work. Remember when you were in school and you got a gold star or a note on a paper from the teacher recognizing your great work? Man, that felt great! And it still does. No one wants to work their tail end off and not get any recognition for doing a great job. If your employees know that no matter how hard they work, they’ll never get so much as an “Atta boy,” they’ll stop giving you their best. As I always say, you have to shine a light on your people. Recognition is probably the single best motivator any leader has in his or her tool kit.
They want to be given opportunities to grow. Your employees want to know they aren’t stuck in a dead end job and that you care about them continuing to grow their skills and to grow as individuals. Encouraging their growth also lets them know you want them to have a future with the company. Knowing you are invested in them makes your employees more invested in working for you.
Show them their voice matters. Employee surveys are a great way to gauge your company’s climate—but only if you actually make changes in areas where you get the overall lowest scores. If you want happy employees, listen to what your people are saying and seek their input for solutions. You can give them some trendy perk to try to appease them, but if it doesn’t address their areas of concern, you’re still going to have unhappy employees who don’t feel valued.
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Once an employee becomes disillusioned with your company, they are done. You will never be able to get them back, no matter what you offer them. That’s a good way to lose great people and great people are the key to your company growing and evolving. Instead of focusing so much on what you give them to get more work out of them, focus on how you make them feel. The perks people expect and the technology you offer are all going to constantly change, but your employees’ need to be happy never will.
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Photo: Getty Images