Tuesday, May 09, 2006

I love you, you love me, we're a happy ...



family...." Ok, enough. You get the picture. Yep, I spent Sunday afternoon making memories with my 4 year old daughter as we watched, "Barney, Live!" at the Nokie Theatre.

The problem? I'm still hummin' this Barney tune two days later! My brother called me Sunday night and asked what I'd been up to. When I told him that I'd been to the Barney, Live concert he said, "Did you take your shotgun?"

Very funny, David.

Since I've not been able to get this song out of my head, it did make me ponder the reality (or lack thereof) of the happy family in the workplace.

According to The Happiness Institute (I'm not making this up, it's a real name), a recent survey found that more than half of all American workers are reportedly either looking for a job or are open to other offers, and they’re looking for more than just money.

HI says that one of the most common reasons people look to leave their place of work is because they feel “undervalued." In contrast, the research suggests that the key to keeping employees at their jobs depends on how well employers engage them and promote their development.

More specifically, the top five factors, identified in the study, that help keep people in their current jobs are:

1. Having opportunities to learn

2. Working for a company with a reputation as a good employer

3. Having pay set fairly

4. Having a manager who understands them

5. Working in a company that retains high caliber people in general.

Bottomline: pay is important and its impact on our happiness at work is clear. But, it's only one variable in determining one's happiness at work.

So, blog-reader, how happy are you? Is your company doing a crack-job on all five variables? Or, are they just doin' crack?

If you had to rate your level of happiness at work, would you say that you are a 1 (meaning, you are so unhappy that you spend your work-days surfing job boards and talking to headhunters), or are you a 5 (meaning, you spend all day at work humming, "I love you, you love me....").

Just curious,

Dennis Smith
T-Mobile Recruiting and Barney-Blogger

No comments: