Job satisfaction basically refers to how happy employees are in their positions. This is measured on an annual basis with polls and surveys and lots of other complex data gathering tools. One of the main findings of these surveys is that job satisfaction has plummeted over the last few years. Indeed, in America alone, just over fifty percent of employees report being unhappy in their place of work. Why is this?
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It’s difficult to suggest a reason for this rather worrying trend. You might, for instance, suggest that it’s because standards in the office have dropped. But that’s hard to argue when there are companies like Google and Netflix. These businesses are well known for doing everything they can to keep employees happy on the job. Google even have – there’s no other word for them – play areas. These adult fun factories have ball pits, slides and other fun little things that make it hard to believe anyone working there could be unhappy.
You might suggest that people are unhappy in their job because they are unsatisfied with their level of career. Around fifty percent of people now end up in a career that ultimately is not even slightly related to the degree that they studied for. This may make their position in life unfulfilling and could account for this lull at work. The fact is there are probably lots of reasons why this is happening. For you as a business owner, the cause isn’t important. You need to think about the impact.
Happy And Hardworking Hand In Hand
If an employee isn’t happy in their position, it’s very unlikely that they will be working to their full potential in the office. Looking at this in the most simplistic way possible, think about how you would feel unhappy in your job. If you’re unhappy, there’s no reason to worry about losing your position. You might see it as a push in the right direction to force you to strive for more. So, at the very least employees might not be offering their full potential. That’s an issue because it probably means that efficiency levels are in the toilet.
If efficiency is low, you will struggle to compete on the market. Your costs will be high, and you may find customer service levels are pretty darn poor. As such, you may find yourself dealing with disastrous reviews once customers have interacted with your employees. You might be starting to see the issue here. If your employees are unhappy in their job, it could lead you to lose money. But that’s not the only issue. It might also lead to legal problems.
We have to think now about a more serious reason why an employee might feel unhappy in their career. It could be that they don’t feel safe in their position, either mentally or physically. If that’s the case and something does happen, your business will be held accountable. You don’t want that but if employee satisfaction is already low an incident could be just around the corner. So, it is important you think about what you can do to improve the situation.
Satisfying Your Employees
First, you need to make sure that your employees are physically comfortable in your business. This might mean providing chairs and desks that offer good back support. Or, it might mean setting up sofa areas for coffee breaks. Though, obviously, it will depend on your business.
After that, you can think about looking more in depth into the issue. Right now, you’re probably not monitoring the happiness levels of your employees. You should be regularly checking how they feel in the workplace and trying to resolve any issues that they may have. It’s possible to do this using something like employee assist programme solutions. With a service like this, you can keep a check on employees, and it doesn’t have to eat into the time you spend running a company.
You may also want to think about adopting an open door policy in your business. Or, some sort of informal meeting on a regular basis with the people who work for you. Many employees will no doubt feel unhappy simply because they don’t see themselves as part of the company. Instead, their voices are lost, and this is an issue. By opening your door, you can show them that they are vital members of the team at the heart of your business.
As you can see then, there are lots of ways to improves levels of employee satisfaction, and it is in your best interest to do this. It could be the difference between maximizing levels of potential and falling behind the competition.
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