editorial

Be Happy!

by John G. Falcioni, Editor-In-Chief

In the 1980s there was a song that, if you heard it once on the radio in the morning—and there was little chance that you wouldn't—would stick with you for the rest of the day. The tune, sung a cappella by Bobby McFerrin, was "Don't Worry, Be Happy."

Bringing joy to the job has never been an easy task. Not during the '80s, and not in 2004, when cutbacks and other economic ills have turned many employees into devoted customers of Prozac, Paxil, and other popular anti-depressant drugs.

For employees at winning companies that hire and retain talented workers, life is surely a lot healthier than for those at companies struggling to balance their P&Ls. Human resources experts will tell you that employee satisfaction often has a bearing on a company's performance. And, as I've personally witnessed at companies like National Instruments in Austin, Texas, the HR folk are right.

So maybe "Don't Worry, Be Happy" was a bit pollyannaish, but don't tell that to those who spoke with Jean Thilmany. Her story, "Showing Up Happy," is in this issue.

Formula for Job Satisfaction by Jean Thilmany, Supplement Editor

What does it take to make someone happy? When it comes to keeping your top engineers satisfied with their jobs, the answer may surprise you. It's not the money. In fact, salary enters only minimally into the contented-employee equation. Good managers realize they can't keep all their employees happy all the time, but there are a few things they can do to appeal broadly to the type of smart, driven engineers they hire. This time in Engineering Management, we examine how several companies structure their workplaces specifically to attract and retain top talent. What's striking is that no matter how large or small the organization, no matter what it makes or what it does, the good ones have seized upon some seemingly universal rules for keeping employees content and productive. We then flip the equation to look at it from the employee point of view. The word "finance" came up again and again when speaking with executives, managers, and employees about job satisfaction. Executives and managers interviewed in this issue say they tell their engineers how the company is doing financially and keep them in the fiscal loop. Managers need to understand the ins and outs of financial oversight. In 1996, Kent Schien started a successful St. Louis engineering services company, Innoventor. He says in this issue that he needed to work in management at both big and small companies before moving on to start his own business. At the small company, he mastered the ins and outs of financial management by working directly with the organization's balance sheet. That kind of hands-on learning wasn't possible at his McDonnell Douglas job, although he learned to be a good project manager there. We think you'll find some vital information in this issue, whether you work for a big organization or a small one.

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