Strategic planning for employee happiness: a business goal for human service organizations.

Employee happiness can impact substantially on an organization's performance. It can influence employee retention, absenteeism, and work performance. Because of this importance, such happiness is inseparable from the real business of the organization and should be considered a business goal. Implementation and development of the strategic plan associated with this goal becomes the responsibility of a highly placed project team that has as its mission ensuring employee satisfaction. The strategic plan includes procedures that allow management to listen effectively to employees, assessing and responding to their values and needs. In this paper we discuss the workforce and environmental characteristics that are involved planning for employee happiness and the steps in creating an organizational culture in which this can become a business goal.