How to Make 85,000 People Happy, According to John Lewis

Keeping 85,000 people happy at work is an imposing task. After experimenting with how to make people happy for 100 years, John Lewis has learnt that not everyone finds happiness in the same places. Sarah Gillard discovered how to navigate this challenge in her role as the Director, Insight and Assurance within the Personnel function at the employee-owned John Lewis Partnership. In this two-minute video from the 2018 Happy Workplaces conference, Sarah offers three tips derived from the company’s decades of experimentation.

Hi, we are Happy

We are leading a movement to create happy, empowered and productive workplaces.

How can we help you and your people to find joy in at least 80% of your work?

Watch the session below

Read the transcripts

The first thing that we’ve learnt is really that people enjoy different things. I think the people who joined our Ukulele Orchestra they were surprised, and their audience was surprised, at just how enjoyable it was for them to play, and for people to hear them play. But this is a really fun part of our Head Office environment now, the Ukulele Orchestra.

These are people running in a fun run. But what I think we really recognise is that with 85000 people there is definitely no ‘one size fits all’ in what’s going to make those people happy, so experiment. I think the message is: ‘Get the hygiene right and then really focus on community and experience’ because, in our experience, that is what makes people happy.

Secondly, even though we’ve spent a century trying to work out how to make people happy we definitely don’t score 100% on all our employment engagement surveys, although of course that’s always the aim. I think though the important thing is to aim for 100% and realise that you’re never actually going to achieve it. And embrace the dissatisfaction. Part of what makes us human is being dissatisfied – that’s what makes us strive to be better – and really finding out what’s at the source of that dissatisfaction is probably going to help you improve the experience for everybody, even people who think they’re already as happy as they can possibly be.

And finally, one of the things that we’ve worked out is that a lot of the good stuff is free: saying ‘thank you’ is free, having your manager recognise that you’ve done something really well is free, having people around you know that you’re caring for aging parents, or that you’re about to get married, or that you’ve had a birthday, or that your child is about to start a new school, these are the things that actually make people feel happy, and feel part of a community. And a lot of things like singing clubs or running clubs or exercise clubs these are free to setup and free to do right now; and it doesn’t take Brownsea Castle on Brownsea Island, an amazing hotel, to make people actually happy, feeling part of community is what makes people actually feel happy at work and not just a cog in a machine, And that’s probably the most important thing we’ve learnt over a century of experimenting in how to make 85000 people as happy as they can be.

Keep informed about happy workplaces

Sign up to Henry's monthly Happy Manifesto newsletter, full of tips and inspiration to help you to create a happy, engaged workplace.

Sarah’s first tip is to embrace the differences.

“People enjoy different things,” she says. “I think the message is: Get the hygiene right and then really focus on community and experience, because in our experience that is what makes people happy.”

Sarah’s second tip is to embrace the dissatisfaction, counter-intuitive as that might seem.

“Part of what makes us human is being dissatisfied. That’s what makes us strive to be better and really finding out what’s at the source of that dissatisfaction is probably going to help you improve the experience for everybody, even people who think they’re already as happy as they can possibly be.”

The third tip is to recognise the amount of enriching things that are cost free.

“Saying ‘thank you’ is free. Having your manager recognise that you’ve done something really well is free. Having people around you know that you’re caring for ageing parents or that you’re about to get married or that you’ve had a birthday or that your child is about to start a new school – these are the things that actually make people feel happy and feel part of a community.”

Related resources

11 takeaways from the 2018 Happy Workplaces conference: read Henry’s blog about all the big ideas discussed at the 2018 Happy Workplaces conference
Take The Happy Challenge – Henry’s challenges managers to make no decisions for three months
8 Principles From Some of the Best Workplaces on the Planet – Pim de Morree looks at eight trends from some of the world’s most engaged workplaces

Learn the 10 core principles to create a happy and productive workplace in Henry Stewart's book, The Happy Manifesto.

About Sarah Gillard

Sarah has been at John Lewis for a decade, moving into her current position as Mission Director at John Lewis Partnership in early 2020. Sarah is responsible for creating new revenue streams for the John Lewis Partnership and working with Strategy, Research and Innovation teams.

Next Conference: 2025 Happy Workplaces Conference

Our Happy Workplaces Conference is our biggest event of the year, and we’d love for you to join us on Thursday 12th June!

This year’s event will be held in London, venue TBC. We may also offer a hybrid option for people to join us online simultaneously — do let us know if you are interested in joining online and we can add you to the waiting list.

As always, our next conference will be filled with interaction, discussion and space for reflection.

Book now and get our special half-price Early Bird rate — just use discount code Happy2025.