Make Your People Happy, Like John Lewis Does

I often ask groups where they have found the best customer service. Two companies stand out and always come up: Apple and John Lewis. And when lists are published of the UK’s most admired businesses you can be sure that John Lewis is at or near the top. So I felt greatly honoured yesterday to be speaking alongside Charlie Mayfield, Chair of John Lewis (at Tomorrow’s Company “Tomorrow’s Value” event).

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The Ultimate Purpose

And he did not disappoint, speaking about “Employment Ownership, Happiness and Business Success” he was clear that “what matters most to us at John Lewis is the happiness of our people.” Indeed this belief is enshrined in the founding principles of the company:

“Our ultimate purpose is the happiness of partners through their worthwhile and satisfying employment in successful business”

At John Lewis all 80,000 staff are partners. The company seeks to ensure that every role has the potential to provide fulfilment. Charlie explained that they don’t guarantee jobs for life but do seek to create “careers for life”, ensuring “every partner has the opportunity to develop in the business”.

In my speeches I like to ask people to raise their hand if, in their organisation, the focus of management is on making people feel good. As usual last night only two or three raised their hands but one of them was Charlie.

If focusing on making people happy works for John Lewis, would it work for your organisation?

Trust and Fairness

Charlie emphasised that, even in today’s high tech world good business – for both customers and staff – is about relationships. Trust and fairness is central to happiness at work, he argued. Absolutely. What people dislike is being micro-managed and told what to do. What most want is to be given clear guidelines and then trusted and given freedom to do their best within them.

Is your workplace based on trust and fairness?

Democracy

John Lewis is famously owned by its employees and so includes many democratic structures. Charlie meets quarterly with an elected group of 70 partners. They question him on the business and then vote on whether he is still the right man for the job. “It certainly concentrates the mind”, he commented.

But Charlie also emphasised that a company didn’t need to be employee owned to have democratic elements. “Democracy is all about the voice of the people being heard by the leadership”. And a core belief is that “success is not down to the brilliance of one individual but to the effort of the many”.

How good is your leadership at hearing the voice of your people?

At Happy we have participated in the Worldblu list of the the world’s most democratic workplaces. The list includes many inspiring businesses and shows how listening to that voice of your people makes a lot of sense, and can be introduced to any organisation.

Charlie gave the example of the John Lewis board, where five of the members are selected by the workforce. As a result it focuses on the important things, he explained: “At the last Board meeting, out of five hours only 20 minutes was spent on the numbers. The rest was spent discussing leadership and people development.”

The focus at John Lewis is clearly the well-being of its people. And this approach has produced a truly great business. What can we learn from their example for our own companies?

Related resources

How John Lewis Puts Staff Happiness at the Core of its Business – Sarah Gillard talks about her experiences at John Lewis in this video from 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.

Support your aspiring and current managers to be empowering and confident leaders with Happy

Happy offers leadership programmes at Level 3, Level 5 and Level 7, from new managers/supervisor level all the way up to senior leadership teams and CEOs. These programmes are based on the ideas of trusting your people. They are practical and based on applying what yo’ve learnt. We aim to inspire and ignite change in your organisation, as well as giving you valuable management skills such as business strategy, decision-making, negotiation and project management.

We also offer programmes tailored specifically to people from Global Majority backgrounds. The content is the same, but have been designed to give new and experienced managers the skills they need to navigate organisational culture with a clearer perspective on their own potential, as well as building their confidence and expanding their professional strengths.

Henry Stewart

Henry is founder and Chief Happiness Officer of Happy Ltd, originally set up as Happy Computers in 1987. Inspired by Ricardo Semler’s book Maverick, he has built a company which has won multiple awards for some of the best customer service in the country and being one of the UK’s best places to work.

Henry was listed in the Guru Radar of the Thinkers 50 list of the most influential management thinkers in the world. “He is one of the thinkers who we believe will shape the future of business,” explained list compiler Stuart Crainer.

His first book, Relax, was published in 2009. His second book, the Happy Manifesto, was published in 2013 and was short-listed for Business Book of the Year.

You can find Henry on LinkedIn and follow @happyhenry on Twitter.