7 Tips for Improving Job Satisfaction & Employee Happiness in a CompanyIt’s a fact that low employee satisfaction and morale is a big led down for any company. Job dissatisfaction is a troublesome aspect for any business as it leads to low productivity, high turnover, and high employment costs.
According to statistics by Harvard Business Review, about $550 billion are lost every year by companies due to employee disengagement. That’s an eye-watering amount, but there are always efficient solutions to increase employee engagement and keep your staff happy.
So, if your employees are giving you the cold shoulder, it’s time to make some changes. Following are a few tips to help employers improve employee satisfaction.
1. Recognize the Cons of Micro-Management:
Every employee wants to feel as if they are playing a critical role in the company. They want to feel independent and encouraged to make decisions and work on them.
However, unfortunately, supervisors and managers who practice micro-managing bottleneck employee creativity and role to the point of no return.
Micromanaging and the inability to delegate tasks to the right people are wrong ways to assert authority. To avoid creating a hostile working culture, it is crucial to understand Job Satisfaction and the Importance of stopping micromanagement.
It is vital to create a balanced working formula where managers should learn to empower employees to save them from low productivity, lack of motivation, low morale, and ultimately, job dissatisfaction.
2. Career Development and Growth Opportunities:
Why would individuals want to invest years of their lives in a company that offers no career path or growth opportunities?
Every employee eventually looks to move to a better position, and lack of those opportunities can cause severe damage to morale and productivity.
An SA report presented by LinkedIn Workplace claimed that about 94% of employees preferred to remain at a company if they invested in their careers.
When the companies provide training opportunities and a clear career growth map, it allows employees to picture a long and successful career at the company.
Therefore, employers must work on constructing a dedicated growth roadmap for their employees, so they don’t feel the need to look elsewhere.
3. Celebrate your Employees:
A happy employee means a winning company. One of the key reasons for worker dissatisfaction is the lack of recognition and appreciation.
Employees dedicate a significant portion of their timeto a company in hopes of being applauded for their efforts.
If companies do not celebrate their employees’ hard work, this leads to dissatisfaction and lack of motivation.
According to a State of Employee Engagement report, about 63% of employees feel they do not get enough appreciation.
Therefore, take out a few minutes every day to stop and celebrate the contribution and values every person brings to the company. If someone has achieved a milestone, applaud them and encourage others to do so too.
4. Set Milestones and Rewards for High Performance:
If you want your employees to be ambitious and passionate about their jobs, you need to give them something to work for. It is vital to set achievable goals and milestones to keep employees engaged.
It is essential to bring healthy competition into the workplace, so everyone is always doing their best. And when employees reach those goals, appreciate and reward them handsomely.
Remember, nobody wants to work hard for free, and not having a proper reward system leads to employee disengagement.
Giving rewards is an efficient strategy to develop a viable reward system that appeals to the employees and reflects their values.
5. Allow a Flexible Work Schedule:
A person can’t work the same hours every day and not burn out. Flexibility is crucial in keeping employees engaged and happy.
Employers need to give their staff some form of autonomy and control over the time spent in the office and their responsibilities.
Thanks to the ongoing pandemic, the idea doesn’t seem that farfetched. It is easier to work from home with a flexible schedule in today’s world. The corporate culture should learn to value the human factor in today’s working environment.
Flexibility is possible, and giving employees a bit of space to avoid burnout is ultimately beneficial for the company. Employers can even allow employees to arrive later or leave early according to their commute mode.
6. Promote Health and Wellness:
As discussed before, the “human factor” should be given the importance it deserves in the working culture. Arriving daily for work doesn’t mean efficiency; it only means stretching out to meet employer expectations.
Companies need to show that their staff’s well-being is a priority because they are the parts that make their business work.
Employers should encourage a healthy work environment where they don’t stress the employees to a mental breakdown.
Employees feel happy when employers treat them more like humans than robots. If you want the employees to feel fresh at 8 am, you should not encourage late sittings or late-night calls.
If an employee shows signs of physical strain, they should be offered support and compensation.
7. Encourage Employee Feedback:
Not giving and taking employee feedback creates uncertainty. Humans need feedback; that’s how they can analyze and evaluate their efforts and the results they yield.
Both employers and employees must give feedback regarding the workplace, their performance, and what improvements are required on both sides.
Healthy and positive employee feedback increases motivation and also builds trust. It must be genuine, positive, and constructive, and its intent should be purely to encourage employees.
On the other hand, workers should also be allowed to give constructive feedback about the company and its working model.
Companies should value employee feedback as it makes them feel empowered and an appreciated part of the company.
Conclusion:
No office or company is perfect. Perfection is a myth; neither the employer nor the employee should crave it. If there’s anything companies want to do to avoid unhappy employees is to work towards increasing job satisfaction.
According to a study by OfficeTeam, 66% of employees said that they would probably leave their job if they didn’t feel appreciated. Therefore, employers should pay extra attention to increasing job satisfaction through effective and productive strategies.
The tips we’ve provided in this piece are a foolproof plan to keep employee turnover rates to a minimum.