Good to Great: How to Scale With an Outsourced CFO

Happy employees result in healthy retention, increased productivity, and happier customers. It’s easy to tell how happy employees are almost from the moment you walk into a business. Happy employees are highly engaged, warm, and connected. They share a sense of purpose that is contagious to both co-workers and customers. 

It pays to invest in your people. Helping your employees to be happy at work doesn’t just happen. It takes foresight, concerted effort, and focus. Sometimes it’s the little things that help employees to feel happier: a bright, clean workplace, attractive incentives, grateful managers. Let’s take a closer look at some of the results of having happy employees.

Retention

Hiring and training new employees can be very expensive and time-consuming. Additionally, losing key players can take quite a toll on your business’ morale. You can avoid these problems by retaining your employees instead of having to find new ones.

Let’s back up a little and consider why your employees came to you in the first place. Why do people get jobs? The answer is simple: they have bills to pay, and they have to earn money to survive. Yes, many employees find great satisfaction in their work. They may love what they do, love their co-workers, and even feel loyalty to their superiors, but they have to earn a living. If you want your employees to be happy, you need to pay them well. 

When the going gets tough, workers may start to look around for other opportunities to see what else is out there. If, when they look around, they find that you are paying them as good as or better than other employers, they’re more likely to stay put.

Productivity

Studies show that happier employees are more productive in the workplace. What can you do to help your employees to be happier during their workdays?

• Build ownership among your workers. When your workers feel that their contributions are valued and that they have meaningful responsibilities, they feel happier.
• Keep your employees informed. There’s nothing worse than showing up for work every day and not really knowing or understanding how your work contributes to the whole. Keep your employees informed about developments, successes, challenges, and more, and they will feel much happier.
• Treat your employees like the adults they are. Be straightforward and respectful with your employees, especially during difficult times.
• Treat them occasionally. Showing up to a meeting with a box of doughnuts or a basket of fruit gives employees a fun surprise and makes them feel valued.

All of these things can help employees to be happier, and when they’re happier they are more productive. Increased productivity increases your bottom line.

Happier Customers

Put yourself in customers’ shoes for a moment. When you walk into a restaurant or a shop and the first person who greets you is happy and smiling, how do you feel? On the other hand, when you walk into a shop and the clerk doesn’t even look up from his phone and acts as if you were bothering him, are you likely to spend any money? 

Today’s customers have plenty of options in almost every industry. Whether your employees are interacting with customers face-to-face, over the phone, via texting, or even through social media, their level of happiness comes through. If your employees are happy, your customers will be, too.

Happy employees result in better retention, increased productivity, and happier customers. Are you doing all you can to increase happiness in your workplace?

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