My last posting looked at the relationship between happy employees and happy customers. Taking this one step further, do happy employees ensure organizational success?
My answer: it depends. It depends on a lot of things – such as the utility and value of your firm’s product/service offering, market demand, and competition (to name a few).
If your organization provides a product or service that doesn’t meet market needs and/or has little real or perceived value, or if your competitors are doing a way better job, you won’t be in business long no matter how happy your employees are. And you won’t have satisfied customers either.
The answer also depends on your business model. The marketplace can change rapidly, putting pressure even on those firms with happy employees & customers. Conversely, some companies with a toxic workplace or culture do well in spite of themselves (sad, but true).
Let’s get real … sometimes bad things happen to good organizations. and sometimes good things happen to bad organizations. But which type of organization would you rather work for?