CEOs: Bet Your Stock on a Great Workplace

Wharton researchers have discovered there's a significant difference in stock performance between great workplaces and lousy workplaces. You'd think this would be common sense, but it's not -- most U.S. workplaces are either miserable or apathetic. Specifically, 19% of employees are miserable, or as Gallup calls them, "actively disengaged"; 52% apathetic, or "not engaged"; and 29% inspired, or "engaged." That means tens of millions of American employees are not engaged in their jobs.

Bottom line, great workplace stock outpaces average workplace stock by an average of about 3% per year, according to Wharton. So if you invested in a portfolio of great workplaces versus average ones over 25 years, you'd double your money. Which would you prefer for your retirement or your kid's college savings?

Honest to God, this chief executive gave up long ago on fellow CEOs who run vast workplaces of misery and apathy. I know and socialize with many U.S. and international CEOs, and I can tell you that at the end of the day, many aren't deeply concerned by the disengagement of their workforce. Okay; so be it. They will attempt to win through acquisitions and price cutting.

But these leaders will struggle to build anything with a soul and character and rich purpose -- something with infinite possibilities for innovation and entrepreneurship, with real and dynamic explosions of customers. Nor will they build something as profitable as it could be.

My big question: Why don't boards of directors push for higher returns on investment in their employees and demand workplace audits? There's actually a worldwide gold standard currently used by the best managed companies in the world. It's called the Gallup Q12: The 12 best questions ever invented to ask employees what they think of their workplaces and managers.

Think of the Q12 just like a financial audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers. If every board in the world started requiring a Gallup audit of employee inspiration presented right next to the quarterly operating statement with benchmarks, it would dramatically improve stock performance. It would also change the world.