Merry Christmas, WebPunchers. I’m Matt Jones, your Professor of Online Reputation Management. It is Christmas time, a time of year those of us at WebPunch look forward to. I wanted to start this videocast by giving you a quote by Charles Dickens. He said, “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another.” One of the reasons I love this quote is I feel so happy during Christmas time. Part of the reason is because there are so many opportunities for service and as a business owner, sometimes we might think, “Okay, well, I’m really here to make as much money as I can for myself and my company and how is reaching outside of what I’m looking for really going to benefit me?”
That’s a good question. Science has the answer and science has found that those who serve are actually happier people and have happier organizations. There was a study done called “The Secrets to Happiness” by Time Magazine that was published in 2015. In the article, Jenny Santi, the author, talked to different experts and scientists, and one of the things they found is that people who do acts of altruism and do service, it stimulates the same part of the brain that is stimulated when people eat chocolate or have sex. Now, I’ve heard people like those feelings. So, when you do serve other people, it literally feels good and when people feel good, they’re more likely to treat others well and perform better in the office, as we discussed in the last episode.
Another thing that the study found is that when you do acts that are specifically directed towards people you love or organizations that you really feel passionate about, you actually feel happier than when you write a blank check to some umbrella organization that does a lot of different things. So again, be specific, be there for the people that you love, support the causes that really mean something to you, and you’re more likely to be happier.
There are other specific reasons that can benefit your company when you do acts of service. One of the first things is that your employees will feel more united. As they come together and they’re working for a cause that doesn’t necessarily benefit them directly, people feel a great unity, and the more unified your organization is, the better off it’s going to be.
Another thing is that happier employees equal happier customers. That’s an idea from Richard Branson that we talked about last time. So the more you do that, the more you’re servicing, you’re going to feel better and you’re going to have happier customers as well. One thing that’s less altruistic but is going to benefit you is that the more you serve, the better reputation your company is going to have in the community. No one wants to do business with the Grinch. Remember that.
Another thing is that you’re going to have better hires. So the better your reputation is, the more people will want to work for you. Also, one thing that people want to hire nowadays is millennials because they’re starting to enter the workforce and they’re becoming the workforce of the future. There was a study done that was funded by the Case Organization and published in “Forbes Magazine.” They found that millennials look for three things. The top three things are, One, what does your company do or what’s the product that they’re putting out? Two, what are the benefits and compensation package? And three, what is the culture of your organization and what causes do they support? People want to be associated with a company that’s going to be doing good and that has a mission beyond making money.
Anne Frank once said, “No one has ever become poor by giving,” and I love that. I understand there are a lot of people right now that are feeling the pressure of the financial constraints that this holiday season can put upon them, but serving doesn’t have to cost a dime. You can actually go out and take part in different organizations that visit people who are lonely or sick. You can go to the Dollar Store. There is a lot of good and a lot of materials that can be used by people by spending just a few dollars. It doesn’t have to be expensive to do good and to make people happy.
We at WebPunch are big believers in happiness and making this world a little bit better place, one act of service at a time. I’m Matt Jones and we’ll see you next time.
