Fortune’s list of 100 Top Employers is a perennial attention grabber for me. It’s thorough. It’s titillating. It’s outright entertaining to read about the “over the top” perks offered by America’s most sought after employers.
This special issue goes far in fueling the conventional thinking that happy or satisfied employees drive higher levels of operating performance. The most recent academic endorsement of that theme comes from Knowledge at Wharton, which referenced an interesting piece of research by Professor Alex Edmans showing a strong causative relationship between employee satisfaction and share price appreciation.
Employee motivation and happiness on the job are very complex. With each passing year, new research adds a thicker veneer of esotery to the topic. A subscription to the Academy of Management Journal or Personnel Psychology will prove the point. Wading through this research quickly makes one glassy eyed. To stay “grounded,” I must remind myself that employee satisfaction is important, but at the end of the day it’s only a necessary – and not a sufficient condition for high levels of employee engagement.
Employee happiness and satisfaction are passive mental states. One can be very happy on the job —- so happy that he or she spends the bulk of the day at the water cooler or in a side hall chit chatting with co-workers. The employee may be happy; but are they engaged and committed to the enterprise?