According to David Sirota, co-author of The Enthusiastic Employee: How Companies Profit by Giving Workers What They Want (Wharton School Publishing), companies who create environments where employee morale is high – such as Intuit and Barron's – tend to outperform their competitors. (The authors' research is based on the results of 2.5 million employee surveys taken since 1994.) For example, the share price of companies who were identified to have high morale increased an average of 16% in 2004, compared to “low morale” companies whose increase was a mere 3% and to the industry average or 6%.

How do you foster high morale? Sirota explains that employees want three things:

• Equity. Employees want to be treated fairly. They want to know that their efforts will result in fair pay. They want to be treated as adults with skills, experience, and potential.
  
• Sense of Achievement. Employees want to be proud of what they do and for the organization they work for.
  
• Camaraderie. Employees want friends. They want to be part of a team.

Sirota further states, “Recognition is also important. Employees do not have to be told that you love them, but you want to be appreciative of good work. It sounds very corny, but people are corny. People need this kind of feedback.”

So, if employee development begins with “catching people doing something right and telling them,” why don’t we as managers do more of this? Why don’t we spend a minute giving employees what they want? Why don’t we spend a minute giving feedback on a job well done and another minute discussing ways to do it even better/faster next time?

What do YOU think?