News Articles >

6 May 2008

In an ever increasing competitive business world, we are frequently told to concentrate on customer service as a way of increasing profits.  This has led to an upsurge in outward customer focused measurements and reviews.  Often overlooked is the morale of our own employees, and it is no surprise that there is a direct link between employee moral and customer satisfaction.

David Maister, a leading business consultant, has stated that a 15% increase in team happiness results in a 42% increase in profits. Measuring team happiness is therefore vitally important for all businesses. But how do you go about doing that?

For several years now each member of the team at k&h has completed a monthly team happiness form. In February this year we had a record team happiness score of 8.17 as averaged across the team (the lowest score being 5.15 when we first introduced the process four years ago).

At k&h everyone has to score their happiness on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the happiest.  As well as giving a score, each team member  is invited to say what needs to happen to increase their score to 10, what has particularly made them happy this month, what has particularly upset or annoyed them and how to avoid the things that have upset them happening in future.

The happiness score has become a fantastic barometer for measuring the morale of the team and allows me to notice very quickly if there are issues that need to be addressed. It is also very cathartic for people. Rather than just moaning about their frustrations to their colleagues, the process gives them an opportunity to vent them in a positive way, allowing me to understand what their concerns are and hopefully address them.

I do believe this has allowed us to increase our profitability at k&h. Why not give it a try in your business?

If you want a copy of the template that we use then just let me know.