Employee Fulfillment vs. Employee Happiness

Happiness is fleeting and can be influenced by trivial matters. It is also quite personal; what makes one person happy might not make someone else happy. Yet despite the mercurial nature of happiness, many organizations now routinely survey their employees with questions such as “How happy are you at the company?”

Writing in Inc. Emma Brudner, Director of People Operations at Lola.com, says that companies would be better off finding out if employees are fulfilled, rather than happy. Fulfillment, she says, occurs when organizations deliver on expectations set during hiring interviews and when the employee is learning and growing. “Employees can feel fulfilled overall even if their happiness fluctuates,” contends Brudner. For example, personal growth can be uncomfortable in the moment, but valuable overall.   (Tweet it!)

Brudner suggests that measuring fulfillment is much more effective than attempting to measure happiness. Doing so, she says, will encourage self-reflection. It also “innately places accountability jointly on the employee and the company, versus solely the latter.” To assess levels of fulfillment she suggests companies pose one or several of these questions on their next employee surveys:

• How likely are you to recommend the company as a place to work?
• How much would you say you're growing in your role?
• How well do the expectations set out in the interview process and the reality of working here align?
• Are you glad you joined the company? Why or why not? 
• How would you rate your fulfillment at the company, on a scale from 1 to 10?

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Do you think employees at your organization are fulfilled, and, if so, what does the organization do to further that fulfillment? To join the conversation, click "comments" above.

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