Time and again, I am reminded that the most successful Great Clips franchisees focus on creating a culture of engagement in their salons. We’ve featured many of those franchisees in this blog, including Bob Bell, who believes that a culture of performance, teamwork, and respect has played a key role in his business growth and success; and, Jeff and Janie Lehman, who encourage their salon staff to give back to their community as part of their team-building culture.
Why do they do this? Bob, Jeff, and Janie would say that connecting with their employees, both personally and professionally, through a positive work culture is the right thing to do—and it’s also good for business.
Research shows that engaged employees contribute to higher measures of success, including profitability, lower employee turnover, and increased productivity. When employees are engaged at work, they’re more satisfied with the work they do, and employee satisfaction can have a direct affect on business outcomes.
A Harvard psychologist, Dr. Frederick Herzberg, spelled out the five elements that lead to employee satisfaction in a landmark 1968 Harvard Business Review article, “One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?” (This document was published almost 50 years and is still the most in-demand HBR reprint!)
Prof. Herzberg said the primary drivers of worker satisfaction are achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, and advancement and growth. Since Dr. Herzberg nailed it almost a half-century ago, hundreds of other researchers have turned their attention to measuring engagement and figuring out ways to increase employee satisfaction. Here are just a couple of the interesting articles I found:
Science Found the 5 Things That Drive Employees to Go Above and Beyond
Marcel Schwantes, founder of “Leadership From the Core,” makes the point that happy employees are more productive. “They contribute above and beyond expectations, and are also less likely to quit… When employees are emotionally committed, they will go the extra mile.”
The Happy Secret to Better Work
“Happy brains are 31% more productive than negative, stressed or neutral brains, and dopamine—released when we’re happy—turns on the brain’s learning centers.” Those words come from Harvard professor Shawn Achor, in a Ted Talk that’s been viewed more that 15 million times.
Here’s what Achor says about the power of positive feedback: “If managers just increased their praise and recognition of one employee, once a day, for 21 business days in a row, what we find is that six months later those teams…had a 31% higher level of productivity, which is extraordinary. Think about a team and think about what a 31% change of productivity would look like, and then determine if a small change like that would be worthwhile.”
In other words, happiness begets success, not the other way around. Even more interesting: We can train our brains—actually rewire them—into increased satisfaction. All it takes is doing one positive thing every day for as little as a month. (Take note: Focusing on the negative will also rewire our brains—in a bad way. You don’t need to be an employee-engagement expert to extrapolate what that means for an employee constantly getting negative feedback at work.)
The salon teams of Great Clips franchisees like Bob Bell and the Lehmans (and hundreds of other franchisees who have invested in this walk-in hair care business model) are undoubtedly the beneficiaries of a great culture that helps them grow and succeed…and find happiness at work.
Soooo, click here—and let the toe tapping begin!
Are you looking for a way to own, operate, and grow a business while giving others the opportunity to succeed? Then becoming a Great Clips franchisee might be the right choice for you. Send me a note or give me a call. I’d love to talk to you.