Job satisfaction is defined as the level of contentment employees feel with their job. This goes beyond their daily duties to cover satisfaction with team members/managers, satisfaction with organizational policies, and the impact of their job on employees’ personal lives.
Satisfaction with:
▪︎Compensation and benefits
▪︎work environment
▪︎team members and managers
▪︎ job impact on personal life
What is job satisfaction ?
Job satisfaction, an unquantifiable metric, is defined as a positive emotional response you experience when doing your job or when you are present at work. Leading organizations are now trying to measure this feeling, with job satisfaction surveys becoming a staple at most workplaces. It’s important to remember that job satisfaction varies from employee to employee. In the same workplace under the same conditions, the factors that help one employee feel good about their job may not apply to another employee. For this reason, it is essential to have a multidimensional approach to employee satisfaction, covering the following areas:
▪︎ The challenging nature of work , pushing employees to new heights
▪︎A level of convenience (short commute, access to the right digital tools and flexible hours)
▪︎competitive pay, which employees maintain a good quality of life
▪︎The promise of career progression in sync with employees’ personal growth targets
▪︎ Regular appreciation by the immediate management and the organisation as a whole
Factors determining job satisfaction of employee:
There’s no one definition of job satisfaction, and factors contributing to it will depend on the nature of your workplace. For example, a satisfied employee in the manufacturing sector looks different from a satisfied software developer. However, there are ten traits that every workplace geared toward employee well-being and satisfaction will have in common.
▪︎Does your company are about its employees ?
Remember, it’s not enough to only care – communicate this care regularly to employees through newsletters, rewards, informal recognition, paid incentives, and other forms of communication. Companies with a high job satisfaction level, such as Google and Starbucks, also feature employee happiness and satisfaction stories as part of their communication strategy.
▪︎Does the workplace have room for employees to engage in their hobbies?
Today, most of us spend a significant part of the week at work, but this doesn’t mean we want to ignore our hobbies or personal interests. A workplace where employees have enough free time to read a book, catch up on the news, have a pleasant meal, for example – and where such behaviors are not considered slacking off – will better enable job satisfaction.
▪︎Do employees feel respected from their peers?
A workplace where employees feel regularly criticized or under some type of scrutiny is ripe for dissatisfaction. You can detect their dissatisfaction via one-on-one conversations with employees, or through anonymized data collected via employee satisfaction surveys and take appropriate measures to improve their experience in this area.
▪︎ Is there a culture of two way feedback?
Employees need regular feedback (both positive and constructive) to know that they are on the right track. Also, they want to share their opinions with managers/HR/senior management to guide the future of the company. This culture of two-way feedback is essential to maintaining employee satisfaction. It is doubly necessary for you to act on the feedback you receive.
▪︎Where do you stand on the issue of work life balance?
Companies must try to build a non-toxic culture of high performance, where productivity isn’t prioritized over well-being. Positive work-life balance is integral to this. As per the 2019 Workplace Happiness Report by udemy, work-life balance adds meaning to the job for 37% of professionals. Mandatory work-from-home days, paid time off, and flexible working benefits are great ways to help employees achieve this.
▪︎Do employees feel secure about their role ?
Job security is now a major concern as technology upends existing processes, and automation threatens legacy models of working. As a future-focused employer, you must clearly explain how an employee’s role will transform over the years and equip them for this change. Apart from basics such as compensation, employee benefits, and workplace amenities, these ten factors go a long way in either improving or negatively impacting employee satisfaction. And here’s why you can’t afford to have dissatisfied employees.
▪︎Does your organisation follow fair and inclusive policies?
Diversity and inclusion in the workplace have a positive impact on the business bottom line, while also improving a company’s culture and work environment. By ensuring fairness toward all your employees, regardless of age, gender, or disability, you can increase the average level of satisfaction across the company. In other words, job satisfaction shouldn’t be limited to a select few – everyone, across the company, should experience the same level of well-being.
▪︎How do employees rate their relationship with their reporting heads?
We have all heard the axiom that employees don’t quit jobs, they quit bosses. And this is confirmed by studies – a poll by Gallup found that 75% of voluntary attrition can be attributed to the behavior of immediate supervisors and not the job itself.
5 reasons why job satisfaction is so important
By actively working on satisfaction in the workplace, you end up with employees who are more engaged, involved, and eager to go the extra mile. This benefits your company in several ways.
1- satisfied employees translate into satisfied customers :
If employees are unhappy at work, the chances are that this will reflect in their interactions with the customer. Contact centers, specifically, cannot afford to have dissatisfied employees – this is sure to show in every word they say and every campaign they work on.
2- Voluntory turnover will come down:
Sometimes, turnover can be good for business, as it brings fresh talent into the organization. But voluntary turnover looks different – you risk losing top talent you have carefully trained over the years. Also, this talent takes with it tribal knowledge once it leaves the company, which could toughen up the competition for your products and service offerings. On the other hand, a satisfied workforce is less likely to quit.
3- You increase the chance of referral:
Employee referrals are the most effective method of recruitment, none. A report by Jobvite found that referrals make up 7% of all applications but an overwhelming 40% of all hires. An employee satisfied with the work conditions and the pay scale is far more likely to recommend their friends than a dissatisfied employee.
4- Satisfaction is directly linked to your productivity:
In a positive work environment, employees are more likely to bring their best to work every day. For example , research by the social market foundation and the university of Warwick’s centre of competitive advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE) found that happy employees are 20% more productive than unhappy employees on average.
There’s also a secondary reason for this – high-satisfaction workplaces prioritize employee wellness. Therefore, they are more likely to look after themselves, and address stress/burnout/health issues, before it impacts work.
5- In the long term, you can dramatically reduce HR costs:
Typically, you need to plan for both fixed and variable costs as part of your HR budget. Low satisfaction could significantly dent the variable aspect of this equation – dissatisfied employees require targeted surveys, specialized learning and development, additional career assistance, and ultimately may lead to rehiring and retraining costs in the case of turnover. All of this needs you to invest more than you had expected.
By making job satisfaction a priority at your company, you can stay ahead of the curve and ensure that there are no unprecedented issues arising due to low satisfaction.
Driven by these benefits, more and more organizations are investing in job satisfaction initiatives. And this has had a marked impact on job satisfaction, as seen in the following statistics.
Eduindex News 