Business owners are some of the busiest people in the entire world, with a constantly full plate and an ever-growing to-do list. A successful business is full of countless moving parts that all depend on each other and a number of outside factors in order to function properly. Accurate accounting, effective marketing, efficient human resources, good customer service, proper management and several other elements must be combined to create one healthy business, and each of these departments has only one other thing in common: employees.
No matter the industry, field or company, every business in the world is made up of people, from a law firm in New Mexico to a car dealership in (old) Mexico. In our modern age of automation and digital solutions, it can be easy for some managers or business owners to temporarily lose sight of this fundamental element. Even if other aspects of your company seem to be more pressing– and they almost always will– you should take all the necessary steps to keep the people of your business happy and maintain a high level of employee satisfaction.
Understanding Employee Satisfaction
On the surface, employee satisfaction is as simple as it sounds; it is a term used to describe whether employees are content and happy where they work and in the position they hold. However, the truth of employee satisfaction goes well beyond this and asks whether or not individuals truly feel fulfilled and successful within their position. While much of this is out of the control of the employer, maintaining and improving employee satisfaction is about providing an environment in which employees can be successful and happy.
Of course, nothing can guarantee that employees will be happy, but there are some basic steps employers can take to contribute to a positive work environment. While policies and procedures can go a long way, the culture of a workplace plays a huge role in employee satisfaction, and this is almost always set by managers who have direct interactions with employees on a daily basis.
The Dos
In order to have success in improving the satisfaction of your employees, you must try to see the business from their perspective. This can be a difficult task for owners who are so emotionally and fundamentally tied to their business or managers who have been in a position of authority for many years. However, it is one of the most critical aspects of understanding employee satisfaction, and therefore it is the only way to begin to improve it.
In addition to this, you will need to understand the basic factors that generally contribute to employee satisfaction. While every employee is different– and each has his or her own different notions of a happy workplace– there are a few common elements that are consistently known to contribute to employee satisfaction, including:
- Job security
- Benefits, especially health care and retirement
- Compensation
- Opportunity to utilize skills and abilities
- Safe work environment
- Manager-employee relationships
- Recognition of job performance
- Communication to upper management (having their voices heard)
- Independence and autonomy on the job
- The actual work itself
Since few employees are willing to openly voice their complaints or opinions to management if they are unsatisfied, the best way to gauge the level of employee satisfaction is with an anonymous employee survey. There are many templates available online for scientific employee surveys, and these can be the most helpful tools to get meaningful, accurate data about the satisfaction and happiness of those in your company.
The Don’ts
Although it can be difficult to identify and change the factors that can help improve employee satisfaction, making it worse can be quite easy. If you want to ensure that you lose the best and brightest members of your staff, you only need to take the following steps:
- Be misleading or vague about the job and expectations when hiring
- Be openly willing to lose employees
- Frequently make changes to policies and procedures with little or no notice
- Frequently make changes to the pay structure
- Ignore the opinions and requests of your employees
- Ignore the achievements and contributions of your employees
- Demand unrealistic adherence to all policies with no exception
- Demand strict adherence to rules that you do not follow yourself (do as I say, not as I do)
