I read this when it was first published. In it, 37Signals talk about their workplace experiment in terms of three things. These are three changes to their workplace which were expressly designed to make employees happier.
- Shorter work weeks
- Funding people’s passions
- Discretionary spending amounts
The trick is to make changes in the workplace which improve the quality of life of your employees while, at the same time, being smart about tax implications. Paying people more money will not motivate them because it leads to an environment that rewards certain activities over others (especially in a commission driven environment). These activities are not often good activities. More money tends to be a demotivator – that’s not to say it’s not important to pay your people what you can afford. One of the worst addictions to be in the grips of is the monthly salary. So – pay as much as you can afford in order to remove that from the table as a barrier for happiness but if you want to improve the quality of life for employees, it’s very simple.
If you’re a customer-facing business, then the first one is hard but not impossible to implement. The taxman doesn’t care if you work 4 days rather than 5 and, as long as the work is being done, neither should your customers. And some industries already do this. Try and get a haircut on a Monday. This is investing in employee productivity.
The second is only hard because it involves cash but really we’re talking about a training budget. It doesn’t all have to be business relevant because the business will prosper with better educated, happier employees. Whether someone wants to learn to be a programmer or wants to take up sailing as a hobby, it’s important to be an enabler. This is investing in employee happiness.
Harder to justify but employees should be given freedom in improving their productivity. Whether this is buying a bigger monitor or two, a new computer, a bicycle, vanishing off to a conference or needing new software tools or books, then why would you not invest in it. This is investing in employee environment.
As an employer, I enable some of this already in my business. I don’t personally receive any of these benefits but I know they’d make me happier.