Why does employee satisfaction matter?

Employee satisfaction is the measure of how content people are with the work they do and where they do it – the workplace. If people aren’t content with what they do and their workplace they’re more likely to be disengaged, which impacts your business in different ways:

• retention – employees who are satisfied are less likely to look for other work
• customer satisfaction – employees who aren’t satisfied at work are less likely to be invested in the satisfaction of your customers
• productivity – content, happy employees are more committed to their roles and business goals, leading to higher levels of productivity
• workplace culture – people who aren’t satisfied with their work and workplace are more likely to contribute to the factors that negatively impact workplace culture.

Engaged employees are likely to have high satisfaction, but if employees are simply satisfied with their role it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re highly engaged. While employee satisfaction is related to employee engagement, employee engagement is about the emotional connection that people feel towards their work and employer.

Read Why employee retention is an enterprise risk for more on the impacts of employee retention.

How can I improve employee satisfaction?

If you suspect you have issues in your organisation you can start by using surveys to measure employee satisfaction. This will help to point to specific issues driving low job satisfaction. If there are issues related to employee dissatisfaction (e.g., non-competitive remuneration levels or a toxic work environment), you’ll need to address those as a priority before introducing other more general strategies.

Let’s dive into our top strategies for improving employee satisfaction.

Foster a culture of continuous learning and development

Formal training, on-the-job coaching and other career development opportunities benefit both employees and the businesses they work for. Investing in employee development demonstrates that the organisation cares about its employees’ professional and personal goals (while helping to create a more capable and agile workforce that can meet business needs).

Give employees opportunities to use new skills and share learnings to develop a culture where ongoing development is seen as genuinely valued across the organisation.

Train the people who lead teams in coaching and how to give feedback. Integrating coaching into the everyday work experience ensures managers are having regular conversations about development not just as part of an annual performance review.

Check out 5 tips for setting employee development objectives every leader should know to find out more about development objectives.  

Promote a healthy work-life balance

A poor work-life balance leads to a range of unwanted outcomes including burnout and low job satisfaction.

While every business has performance objectives to reach, these should be appropriately resourced.

Presenteeism (where people continue to work while sick) and leaveism (where people continue to work while on leave or even take leave to catch up on work) indicate that there’s an issue with work-life balance. (While some businesses and managers may fret over absenteeism – where people take more leave than deemed reasonable – this actually indicates that there’s more of a problem with job satisfaction, rather than an issue to be addressed through micro-management or other dated measures.)

Consider how you can offer flexible work arrangements including flexible hours and remote work.

Promote a work-life balance and offer employees resources for how they can manage the demands of their work with their personal life. Discussing values and time boundaries (when people are expected to be online) can be practical ways of promoting this with team members.

Give employees the digital resources they need

Tech issues can be annoying at the best of times so make sure that your employees have the resources they need to do the work they do, collaborate with team members and fulfil development and coaching needs.

YakTrak is an easy-to-use resource that can keep development goals in sight and coaching conversations on track.

Offer great employee benefits

Offering competitive pay is a bare minimum expectation. Get creative with the benefits you offer. Consider the following:

• mentorship programs
• professional development opportunities interstate or overseas
• job security for people on temporary contracts
• opportunities to take on more responsibility
• discounts with corporate partners
• formal reward and recognition programs.

Give people feedback regularly

Ensure that managers and team leaders regularly engage with their people. Regular meetings and check-ins with direct reports provide an opportunity to discuss goals, strengths and areas for improvement.

Using YakTrak to capture employee development goals and track coaching conversations ensures that people are getting the regular, meaningful feedback they’re looking for.

Measuring employee satisfaction

Get in touch with us today to find out how YakTrak can support your employee satisfaction strategies.

Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash