According to a recent IPSOS study1, France ranks at the bottom of the pack (12/15) in terms of workplace well-being. While two-thirds of French people give their company a rather positive rating on this point, France is far behind India (88%), the United States (77%), or even Germany (75%). This lack of well-being is explained by an unfavorable work environment but also by the proliferation of what some specialists call the “bullshit jobs” : these jobs without real “meaning” for the employee, not giving the feeling of having accomplished something concrete and useful at the end of the day. The lack of workplace well-being directly contributes to this phenomenon.
Workplace Well-being: A Major Issue for Companies
On the occasion of the International Day of Happiness (March 20), we looked into the best practices of the liberated company that can help you develop well-being within your company, and more specifically within your sales organization.
Provide a Motivating and Challenging Professional Environment
To promote happiness at work, a trend is developing that aims to free companies from certain constraints: “the liberated company”, without fixed hours, without rigid hierarchy, but with an operation based on trust and common goals. To move towards this organization, you can call upon new jobs dedicated to workplace well-being, which have emerged in recent years: the Chief Happiness Officer (CHO), who ensures employee happiness by managing internal events to strengthen the team, regulating tensions, or paying particular attention to individual situations. But to also ensure the well-being of clients and service providers, there are Customer Business Managers or Customer Success Managers, responsible for satisfaction and loyalty.
Beyond the work environment, a particularly competitive profile who loves to take on challenges, like a salesperson, needs motivating daily tasks to be happy, in which they feel useful. These employees are particularly fond of sales challenges, as long as they are innovative, mobile, and interactive.
Provide Visibility and Autonomy on Performance
For motivation to last, give the salesperson the means to track their performance autonomously. Forget the old-fashioned, soporific Excel spreadsheets they receive once a week; nowadays, there are interfaces that offer a clear, precise, and real-time overview of objectives, whether qualitative or quantitative.
Foster Collaboration Rather Than Unhealthy Competition
Avoid isolating salespeople and implementing competition that can sometimes prove unhealthy for the company, by encouraging your employees to share their best practices. Pooling their know-how and relevant information, gathered in the field for example, will value their work and give them the feeling of being useful to the organization.
Offer Growth Opportunities
There is nothing worse for the well-being of your team members than an employee who feels stuck or limited in their progress. It is essential to support developments within your sales force, in a fair and accessible way. Having a salesperson who feels they can no longer grow within their company will foster a lack of motivation and internal conflicts.
To help your salespeople grow and take on responsibilities, offer them training. New tools have emerged: micro-trainings, directly accessible on mobile or tablet, which allow employees to progress daily.
Implement Benevolent Management
The “old-school” manager model, who imposes hierarchical differences and communicates only through results, can no longer work in 2017. Make way for the coach! Unlike the manager, the coach will implement open and flexible communication, which is reassuring for the employee. The idea is not to pamper your team at all costs but to focus your attention on what is important for the employee.
The coach must be attentive to their salesperson, talk to them, pay attention to what is said and unsaid (expressions used, postures adopted, omissions, etc.) to be able to react and advise them at the right time, but also to help them formulate their own strategies.
The Liberated Company as a Driver of Performance and Happiness
With the help of these tips and by “liberating” the company from pyramidal structures, the salesperson will be better able to progress, perform better, and thus be happier in their company.
And you, what methods do you apply within your company to make your employees happier in their work?
To continue motivating your teams daily, discover how to create truly innovative challenges with our White Paper: Sales Challenge – The Keys to Success