Optimistic employees are positive, productive and engaged. Recently, an article in Business Week by Michelle Conlin entitled “Is Optimism a Competitive Advantage”, examined the link between workplace optimism, employee engagement and the impact on the bottom line. It is a timely topic because as Conlin writes,

"At a time of widespread uncertainty it's understandable that companies are trying to make employees more hopeful. "The more optimistic have better coping mechanisms and can help their organizations recover more quickly," says Binna Kandola, whose British firm, Pearn Kandola, has conducted "happiness audits" for PricewaterhouseCoopers, among others."

Organizations that can encourage and foster optimism in their workplace have a distinct advantage, and the proof is in the numbers!



The Proof

* Michael Treacy, author of "Double-Digit Growth—How Great Companies Achieve It  
No Matter What" worked with Hewitt Associates to demonstrate the relationship between double-digit growth companies and engagement. Employee engagement scores were 21% higher in double-digit versus single-digit growth companies.

* Hewitt showed similar results with its Employee Engagement and Best Employer Database of 1,500 companies. In companies where 60 to 70% of employees were engaged, average total shareholder’s return (TSR) stood at 24.2%. In companies with only 49 to 60% of their employees engaged, TSR fell to 9.1%. Companies with engagement below 25% suffered negative TSR.

* Best Buy says a 2% increase in employee engagement at one of its electronics stores corresponds, on average, to a $100,000 annual rise in sales at that location.

Leaders Drive Optimism

Conlin offers two examples of companies that turned their business around by creating a healthy, happy workplace. The common thread in both examples is the role leadership plays in driving optimism and engagement. Smart leaders know that in order to win in the marketplace, they have to win in the workplace.

The key is training leaders and managers to be, as Conlin writes, “optimism ministers”. This includes giving them the tools and support to recognize and reward their teams. The following is an excerpt from Conlin’s article that illustrates how Douglas R. Conant, President and CEO of Campbell Soup, used recognition as a way to transform the Campbell’s workplace and business.

From “Is Optimism a Competitive Advantage” by Michelle Conlin:

HR managers often point to Campbell Soup as the most compelling example of how an all-out assault on pessimism can alter a company's fortunes. When Douglas R. Conant became chief executive in 2001, Campbell had a reputation as an exceedingly pessimistic workplace. Management's engagement scores were the lowest of any big company Gallup had surveyed. Its stock was in the pits. Takeover rumors were rampant. And a leading securities analyst of the food industry likened the company to a "buggy whip" maker.



Conant decided that winning in the marketplace meant first winning in the workplace. He gave every employee the equivalent of a user's manual that explained how he himself operated. He replaced nearly all of the company's top 350 leaders, a signal, in part, that he was serious about heeding employee complaints that the place was broken. Then he set about transforming Campbell into a more employee-centric company. Conant created Campbell University, upgraded the recognition program that showers gifts and other awards on high performers, and penned up to 10 handwritten thank-you notes to employees a day. Today, according to Gallup, Campbell's engagement scores are among the highest of any company it measures, and its earnings growth has handily beaten that of its peers.