If you need empirical evidence, a 2013 study conducted in the UK found societies and communities that do
the right thing are generally more happier. The study reviewed the way in which communities recover from a crisis. When communities worked together to find solutions, they ended up happier than those that did not come together to recover. One example featured South Korea, a community who came together to take care of each other in response to the most recent global economic crisis. They did the right thing. The article quoted the President of South Korea:
“Korea has already proposed a new way forward from the global crisis. […] We decided to share the burden. Employees chose to sacrifice a cut in their own salaries and companies accepted to take cuts in their own profits because they wanted to save their employees and co-workers from losing their jobs.”
More specifically, a 2015 study found that happy employees are 12% more productive at work. After 9/11, the airline industry financially struggled because people were afraid to fly. Southwest has been the only airline to never file for bankruptcy. Many attribute that to their culture of love, happiness, and caring. After the crisis, Southwest leadership and employees worked together to keep the company intact and help the community recover. Leadership took voluntary pay cuts, employees suggested they bring their own lawn mowers to cut the lawn themselves – everyone pulled together to help the business succeed and employee satisfaction remain high.
The point is when businesses do the right thing, employee satisfaction remains high and people will want to take care of the business. In HR, we have a duty to both the business and our people to not only do the right thing ourselves but ensure we create a culture in which others are compelled to do the right thing.
Unfortunately, not all HR pros know what the right thing is. They are so focused on the business they forget their decisions make an impact on people. When done wrong, it’s quite painful and gives all HR pros a bad reputation. Lately, much of the chatter I hear from HR makes me sad.
“A new hire asked for religious accommodations for Jewish holidays. What do I do?”
“A job candidate called saying they are wondering about our policies on employing felons. I’m freaking out. What do I do?”
“We want an exempt employee to work 10 more hours per week than they have in the past and were hired to work. We aren’t paying them any more to work these extra hours. Can we make them work the extra hours? What if s/he says no? Is this insubordination?”
In each of these cases, it seems the people asking the question have one thing in common – they have lost the ability to empathize with other people. They are no longer doing everything they can to partner with others to find solutions. These HR “leaders” are gossiping to their peers about certain situations. They are choosing to do the wrong thing.
Read the full article on LinkedIn.
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