Employee Happiness = Company Benefits

I was not expecting the conclusion of Groundswell to be about energizing employees, but the examples used in chapters 11 and 12 made it seem as though companies have nothing to lose if they are able to properly motivate their employees. I think this makes a lot of sense, if an employee was very unhappy with their work environment, they could easily go online an anonymously complain about the company they work for with posing as an unhappy customer. Best Buy is such a big company that one would imagine dealing with low level employees would barely matter to them - especially in this economy, if someone was clearly angry at work or bad at their job, they could be easily replaced.  I never would have guessed that a company like Best Buy would have such happy employees, but if their voices are really heard through Blue Shirt Nation (which by the way, I just googled as is a discontinued site), then I understand how they are able to have at least a few employees who are as enthusiastic as Ashely. Even if only twelve out of 1,000 submitted ideas are put into action, like in the Intel example (225), being able to put their ideas out into the open must make employees feel as though they can have the opportunity to make a difference at the company they work for, regardless if they are one in thousands of employees. 

Intel and Best Buy are not the only big companies that ask lower level employees for new ideas. I'm sure many of you have seen this new Domino's commercial:

 

Domino's has clearly been making an effort to revamp their image for years. They have admitted fault in things like their cheesy bread's former quality and pizza toppings,  and now they are introducing a new product that they claim was invented by one of their store managers rather than in a "test kitchen" like the rest of their products. In my opinion, a commercial like this not only entices new customers because of a new product, but also because they would be supporting the person who invented the product, a person whose face they have seen. Domino's is a huge company, usually companies that size are pretty much faceless to the public. The commercial shows that just because Domino's is a big company, they listen to the "little people," their lower level employees. Even though I do not like Domino's pizza (though I must admit I have not been there in a very long time), this commercial makes me like them a little more. When other Domino's employees see this commercial, I would think it would make them feel a bit of company pride. Though they do not say how the employee featured in this commercial was able to get his idea into production, when Domino's employees see a fellow employee on TV, it tells them that if they have a good idea they might be able to get it into production.