Revolutionary Dream Team Creation Guideline
Success doesn’t make you happy so much as happiness makes you more successful.
In today’s world, the competition between companies of all sorts is more than fierce, it can be cut throat. When an organization strives to be the top or one of the best in the world, many times they will stop at nothing to do just that. But in order to make a splash on the oversaturated market, companies are exhausting all of their efforts, including but not limited to: marketing, advertising, providing high quality products, and having a great team behind those products, in order to reach their potential customer base. But how are these companies reaching success?
You may find yourself asking why a dream team and happy employees are important for the company’s overall success. When you have an amazing team of professionals involved with your organization, there are no limits to what you can do. Creating this team of outstanding individuals is how your business will stand out and how it will rise above and thrive in today’s market. In fact, Zeynep Ton, an MIT professor, found that companies that look out for long-term employee happiness can actually be more efficient and profitable.
Not to mention, one of the largest companies in the world, Google, made their employees happy and it paid off. For example, Google implemented a new policy known as the ‘20% Time Program’- a policy that allowed their employees to engage in personal time to think, dream, or create, and get paid for it. Since Google started its own “20% Time” program, the results were: the creations of Gmail, Google Earth, and Google Talk, to name a few.
Why Should a Business Want Happy Employees?
If you have happy people behind the business, they will be more likely to care both about their job and the organization. There will be a happy and thriving team working towards one common goal: succeeding as a business, and isn’t that what every business wants?
For example, companies with engaged employees outperform those without engaged employees by a staggering 202%. Not surprisingly, happier employees increase workplace productivity, driver higher company profits, and make it easier for their organization to recruit great talent.
According to a study done in 2010 on employees from several different companies, James K. Harter and colleagues found that lower job satisfaction foreshadowed poorer bottom-line performance. Gallup estimates the cost of America’s disengagement crisis at a staggering $300 billion in lost productivity annually.
When an organization overlooks the simplest needs of an employee, their desire to be happy, they will find a severe lack of motivation and lack of caring about their role as well as the organization as a whole. When the employees as a majority are unhappy, management and owners need to examine ways they can reverse these negative feelings.
Of course, every employee will have a bad day or two, no matter which type of job they do. But when management, Human Resources, or owners can recognize patterns of constant lack of motivation or caring within the company, they can then examine other contributing factors. For example, do the current policies in place need to be updated? Does the organization need to offer more support for their employees? How can the organization help reduce stress or workloads for the individuals that need it? These are just a few of the questions a business needs to ask itself in regards to the overall happiness of its employees.
One important factor all businesses need to keep in mind is: perceptions of work conditions have proven to be important to the well-being of workers.
This alone is regarded as being one of the main contributors to unhappy and unmotivated employees. Is the workplace keeping the employee safe and healthy? Are the employees free from harassment or judgment when they are in the workplace? Are there trustworthy relationships between upper management and the employees? If you are answering no to any or all of the above questions, it is time to re-examine the way you are doing business. These questions all relate to the happiness and well-being of the employee, which, as proven before, will affect the overall success of the business and its goals.
Organizations should consider the following when it comes to overall employee happiness and the contributing factors of the workplace:
- Job security
- Opportunities to use skills and abilities
- Organization’s financial stability
- Relationship with immediate supervisor
- Compensation
- Benefits
- Communication between employees and members of upper management
- The work itself
- Autonomy and independence
- Management’s recognition of employee’s performance
- Feeling safe at work
- Overall corporate culture
- Flexibility for a work-life balance
- Relationships with co-workers
Sometimes a lack of a bonding and trustworthy relationship between the employees and the management can cause tension and stress amongst the team. It is important to allow friendships to be built within the organization because these bonds will strengthen the team and those apart of the team to meet the goals of the business. Working together to reach for one or many goals is truly how a business will find success.
For example, as commerce becomes increasingly global and complex, the bulk of modern work is more and more team-based. One study, published in The Harvard Business Review last month, found that ‘‘the time spent by managers and employees in collaborative activities has ballooned by 50 percent or more’’ over the last two decades and that, at many companies, more than three-quarters of an employee’s day is spent communicating with colleagues.
Another simple reason business should want happy employees is this: Success doesn’t make you happy so much as happiness makes you more successful. It’s natural to believe that success will bring you happiness, but a variety of psychologists, including Harvard’s Shawn Achor, have argued that this common sense understanding is actually backwards. Once again, it is thought by many that a happier employee is more likely to be successful in their role which in turn will allow the business to become more successful as a whole.
How to Create YOUR Dream Team at Your Company
1. We have scoured sources and examined top companies from all over the globe to provide you with the best advice on how to form a team everyone will dream to become a part of. Below, we have gathered seven of the best examples from top notch corporations that will show you how to create your dream team.
2. At Apple, the CEO understands that family comes first and all employees deserve to spend time with their families over important holidays. Apple motivates their employees by allowing them time off over special occasions and preventing them from overworking themselves. The CEO, Tim Cook, announced in a company-wide memo “In recognition of the hard work you’ve put in this year, we’re going to take some extra time off for Thanksgiving. We will shut down with pay on November 21, 22 and 23 so our teams can spend the entire week with their families and friends”.
3. Blake Irving, CEO of GoDaddy, offers his employees excellent and competitive incentives. When his employees reach a certain goal, they are allowed to enter ‘the cash machine’ – a glassed case with a fan that blows around several bills of different denominations. Those employees that get inside can grab as much as they can within a certain time limit. “They can make 600, 700 bucks,” says CEO Blake Irving. It’s just one of the many ways Irving rewards the company’s 3,500 customer-care agents. There are also NASCAR races, special events with inspirational speakers like Aron Ralston, and even dinners with the CEO himself.
4. An awesome technique used by Starbucks includes providing proper training and support to your employees so they can give your customer base an amazing customer experience. Starbucks achieves this by focusing on the following factors: atmosphere, quality coffee, customer service, and partner (employee) satisfaction. Howard Schultz (now chairman and CEO), believes that happy employees would lead to higher customer satisfaction. And you can see that ring true today, as Starbucks employees are always helpful and engaged with their job and customers.
5. Advice from Glassdoor tells followers to fully engage and interact with your employees. This will prevent boredom and allow your employees to have a chance to shine as well as use their skills. Theglassdoor.com specifically states that the best way to mobilize your employees as brand ambassadors is to make employee engagement a top priority. Not only will this affirm your employer brand, but it’s also proven to boost productivity levels internally.
6. Unilever uses techniques such as implementing innovative ways to ensure employee motivations and overall satisfaction. At Unilever, they believe that if you use the right tools and strategies, you will be able to gather better information in regards to overall employee satisfaction. Unilever is also a leader in launching several campaigns that positively affect the workplace as well as the community. For example, in 2013, Unilever held a global ‘Winning with Integrity’ week that comprised of surveys and interviews regarding human rights, and it encouraged the suppliers of Unilever to operate to the standard set by the company. This campaign was continued in the form of the ‘speaking up’ initiative in 2014, which also helped the company learn the concerns of employees around the world.
7. Amazon practices the technique of recognizing individuals and their ideas and awarding them when appropriate. Amazon supports creative and innovative thinking and fully allows their employees to take part in doing so. None of Amazon’s 14 leadership principles emphasize collaboration and working together—instead, they highlight images of digging and climbing and privilege individuals owning ideas, testing and defending them, making them more effective and efficient. Amazon also emphasizes the importance of respecting one another within the workplace.
8. According to the book ‘Make More Money By Making Your Employees Happy’, as reviewed by Forbes, Dr. Nelson tells her readers that a little employee appreciation goes a long way. Dr. Nelson cites a study from the Jackson Organization, a survey research consultancy, since acquired by Healthstream, Inc., which shows: “companies that effectively appreciate employee value enjoy a return on equity & assets more than triple that experienced by firms that don’t. When looking at Fortune’s ’100 Best Companies to Work For’ stock prices rose an average of 14% per year from 1998-2005, compared to 6% for the overall market.”
Five Ultimate Tips for Creating Your Dream Team
While there are several tips and tricks available for you to use, we have gathered five of the ultimate ways for creating your very own dream team.
1. Show appreciation to all team members, even if it’s just a small notion of giving a pat on the back.
2. Offer proper training and support.
3. Keep your employees motivated and engaged with their role.
4. Allow your employees to use their skillset and encourage the sharing of ideas.
5. Reward your employees when they have given hard work and a job well done.
Most Useful Blogs for Advice on Creating Your Dream Team
If you are looking for further online resources for creating your dream team, have a look at the list of blogs below.
https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/ They cover everything from job seeking advice, product or feature announcements, to the latest company headlines.
hrexaminer.com A magazine focused on people, technology, ideas and careers of senior leaders in Human Resources and Human Capital.
hrbartender.com Personalized advice from a previous HR Consultant.
http://www.hrzone.com/community-voice/blogs With a number of contributors, they cover several topics within Bristol.
http://cezannehr.com/hr-blog/ A powerful, configurable HR software solution that’s simple to deploy, easy to manage and remarkably cost-effective, whatever the size of your business.
https://takeitpersonelly.com/ The World of Work: HR, Workplace Culture, Leadership, Social Media, & Technology
http://www.blogging4jobs.com/ Contributors who are HR Professionals offering advice.
http://www.monster.com/blog/ Connecting people and opportunities.
http://www.talenthq.com/blog/ Advice on creating high performance teams.
http://www.cornonthejob.com/ The writer’s adventures in both agency and corporate recruiting has handed over a wealth of knowledge, experience, joy, and opinion.
http://fistfuloftalent.com/ Daily insights for HR and recruitment strategies.
http://steveboese.squarespace.com/ Steve Boese’s HR Technology.
http://hrringleader.com/blog/ Advice in all things HCM and HR Technology.
http://joshbersin.com/ Major global trends in leadership, management, HR and talent management technologies.
http://www.askamanager.org/ Direct advice from a manager.
https://www.effortlesshr.com/blog/ Helpful articles for HR techniques.
http://evilhrlady.org/ Demystifying the HR Department.
http://positivesharing.com/ Keeping positivity in the workplace.
http://blog.datis.com/ Thought leadership through Health and Human Services.
http://corp.talentwise.com/blog Transforming how you screen and onboard new hires.
In conclusion, no matter how big or small your business is, stay one step ahead of your competition by paying attention to those who matter the most to your business: your employees. Put into practice the tips and advice listed above to see real results and positive changes in your day to day lives of your employees and the overall success of the business itself.
