Someone asks: “what do you mean by the softer side of business”? First let me tell you about the “hard” side of business. The hard side is the product, the quota’s being met, the clocking in and clocking out, meeting deadlines, goals accomplished, productivity, making money, paying salaries…etc.

So the softer side would be everything else, along the lines of increasing productivity, decreasing employee turnover, increasing employee satisfaction, improving reputation, being a sought after employer, having high job-satisfaction… etc.

You really can’t have one without the other, both sides co-exist. Some companies ignore the softer-side only to find that everything that goes on with the “harder” side of business starts to fail. When the softer-side is functioning well, is on the “up-and-up”, everything on the harder side increases as well.

How would you rate your company’s softer side? Are employees happy to work in your company or do they dreed coming to work? Is the culture a positive or negative? Are there changes that need to happen to make your softer side more productive?