According to a January 2009 Employee Job Satisfaction report by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), employees who are satisfied with their jobs are more committed, productive and more likely to stay with an organization. When employees are dissatisfied, there is higher turnover and a higher instance of absenteeism.
Life has become more challenging for employees, thus increasing their personal stress. For this reason there seems to be a shift in what satisfies employees.
It is probably not surprising that with the current economic environment, job security was the most important aspect to job satisfaction in this report. In order of importance, the top five indicators of job satisfaction were:
1. Job security
2. Benefits
3. Compensation/pay
4. Opportunities to use skills and abilities
5. Feeling safe in the work environment
Additional findings from the report show that:
Employees whose organization had been somewhat affected by the current financial crisis were more satisfied overall than employees whose organizations were greatly affected by the recession. Three out of ten employees were very satisfied with their compensation.
Ways organizations measured job satisfaction:
- Exit interviews
- Feedback from employees
- Performance reviews
- Speaking with employees
- Tracking turnover data
- Conducting employee attitude surveys
What organizations can do?
- If positions are eliminated, be proactive with communicating to remaining staff to help ease their concerns about possibly losing their position.
- Look for ways to use and train available talent. It is predicted that in the next decade or so, transitions of baby boomers into retirement will create a shortage of skilled workers.
- Assess your compensation and benefit packages and look for other motivators for employees if resources limit raises or improving benefits temporarily.
- Review your emergency management plan and make sure all employees are trained, know how to respond and feel safe in their work environment.
- Continue to meet with employees to identify internal issues that need to be addressed. Map out and implement a plan of action to resolve identified issues.
- Communicate, communicate, communicate. Organizations can never over-communicate. Effective communication helps employees understand the organization’s vision, plan and goals. Specifically, when an organization is having financial problems, be sure to use clear and open communication to help employees understand and don’t hesitate to solicit their help in identifying ways to manage costs.
Ways organizations communicate with employees:
- Company-wide meetings
- Blog from CEO
- Intranet
- Emails
- Bottom up communication in the form of employee feedback
Finally, most employees desire to do a good job. It is the organization’s responsibility to communicate effectively with employees, let them know what is expected of them, give them the tools they need to do their job and reward them for a job well done.
These management strategies can take an organization a long way toward keeping satisfied employees and achieving business objectives.
