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Many offices aspire to be fun places to work, but does that mood boost the numbers? Google does it, but how and the impact and value of those efforts may surprise you. Do you really need to have the same benefits that Google offers to have employees who want to come to work at your office, or is it more about simply focusing on employee engagement that elevates stock prices and raises revenues? There’s a case for both and here are three reasons why you want to seriously consider focusing on the employees you have the privilege of leading… that is if bottom line revenue numbers are important to you.

Low Turnover

When a company focuses on engaging employees, they experience less turn over, unhappy employee actions (i.e. strikes, lawsuits, etc.) and even experience employees willing to put in extra hours toward productivity. In USA Today, the article making such claims, read “Do Happy Workers Mean Higher Profits?” and was filled with turnover statistical comparisons and validation. The question remained unanswered was whether or not Google, American Express, and Marriott, all on the Fortune “Top 25 Best Companies to Work For” list, invested in engaging employees and providing the great benefits they offer BEFORE they were sitting on excess cash and profitability, during, or after? What can you do, no matter your profit margin, to engage employees, drop the turnover costs,  and begin move revenue up as a result?

Perk Appeal

Did you know that Costco has gained 30.5%, including reinvested dividends, in the past 12 months? Part of this is due to their “perk appeal”. They pay employees well and have good benefits when compared to other discount stores. Upon an employee’s death, Google pays 50% of that employee’s salary to their family for a decade. Would those you lead stay longer, complain less, and produce more if they believed you cared about not only them, but the people they go home to? Do employees in your office truly enjoy coming to work and the accompanying perks? Do you have perks, such as sizable vacation time, but the unwritten message is you really shouldn’t take any? Examine your perks and your perk appeal as minor modifications could elevate how much employees are willing to engage in the success of the organization.

Real Value Doesn’t Cost Much

While great benefits are a nice to have and perk appeal is a plus, according to the “Happy Workers” article, what makes the biggest impact are things that don’t have significant costs. Things like a pat on the back from a senior executive or permission to work from home for a day or two don’t have big costs, but habitual lack of value placed on employee needs and desires can cause a company to underperform the market average… for a long time.

Maybe you can’t do some of the things that the Fortune 25 can do, but there’s more to it than that. Employees cite their boss or leader to be one of the top three reasons they stay or leave a company. Are you the kind of leader that creates loyalty and engagement that then lead to increases in numbers or are you the leader focused on the numbers at all costs who doesn’t see exactly what it’s costing you or those who report to you? You don’t need pom-poms to make people happy; you might just need to remember that leading them is a privilege and focusing on them has power…personally, professionally, and profitably speaking.

I’m Monica Wofford, and that’s your Monday Moment. For more information on leadership development and training provided by Contagious Companies, go to ContagiousCompanies.com. Have a great Monday, an even better week and of course, stay contagious!