The bottom line goal of most business is to make money. Well-run businesses make their money more efficiently and last longer than their competitors (Southwest Airlines offers a perfect example). Michael Gerber taught us in The eMyth that we should build our business as if we’re going to franchise it. Dr. Deming taught us about systems, systems, systems.
Theoretically, we want to rid our organizations of any unnecessary or wasteful dramas. Ideally, we’d cut out all the nonsense and become increasingly productive. Workers would support each other as team members and continually educate themselves because that’s the smart and logical thing to do.
As Mr. Spock on Star Trek never fully grasped, much of what goes on in organizations today is nonsense. As I state in my workshops, “If it doesn’t make sense, don’t try to make sense out of it!” Every day we bring to work an emotional self that needs drama and connection in order to express itself. Shrewd executives and managers realize the power of tapping into this need rather than trying to control or dampen it.
We should address this emotional need by creating great employee experiences — and do so with as little energy, effort, or dollars as possible. At first, this thought might seem Scrooge-like. However, it’s far from that, and any marketer will tell you the importance of trying to get the highest return on marketing dollars by creating great client or customer experience as efficiently as possible.
There’s a two-step approach to getting this right. The first is to identify the basic needs of each group of employees, which can be viewed through Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. After identifying these needs — in a sense, understanding your marketplace — analyze your efforts using the formula of cost, ease, and impact, just as a marketer would.
For example, a marketing firm might determine whether to use direct mail or telemarketers. They can identify the cost of each approach, evaluate the ease or difficulty of implementation, run test studies to identify the impact, and then roll out the more efficient program while continually testing to improve it. A perceptive employer will take the same approach when marketing to its employees: What’s the cost of the program? How difficult will it be to implement? What will its impact be?
Consider two examples. In the first, I recommended that one client assemble a “fun committee” to balance negative dramas with positive ones. I suggested the company contribute $10 per employee per week toward this committee and let employees implement any program they wanted as long as they followed the cost/ease/impact formula. The employees chose either healthy Friday lunches or biweekly car washes, and the carwashes won out 2 to 1 — a clear ROI distinction.
In the second example, the owner of a temporary construction firm learned that one employee wanted full health insurance while the owner had been providing a $50-per-month medical services discount card. Health insurance would have cost roughly $300 per month, so before deciding he asked his staff whether they’d prefer the insurance or free truck washes every Friday. Most preferred the truck washes, which saved the owner thousands and created very happy employees.
The bottom line: Bring good strategic thinking to your soft stuff as well as the hard stuff. Building great employment relationships is essential if you want to have a great company. For additional practical guidance, see Navigating Workplace Challenges: Insights and Solutions.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can small businesses identify what employees value most?
Start with simple surveys or short interviews and prioritize options by cost, ease, and expected impact to test what resonates before scaling.
Are low-cost perks really effective at improving morale?
Yes; small, regular benefits that match employee preferences often deliver outsized morale and retention gains compared with costly one-size-fits-all programs.
How should a company measure the impact of a new employee program?
Track simple metrics such as participation rates, turnover, punctuality, and short employee pulse surveys before and after implementation.
What if only a few employees request a benefit like health insurance?
Survey the group and consider alternative benefits that may offer better value or broader appeal while addressing the underlying need.