In the last ten years, there has been an increase in businesses focusing on employment satisfaction. It is also a top priority to understand the mental health of their employees. Companies now focus on bringing in business/money and keeping their employees happy. It is now a thing of the past where a company can offer an employee a good amount of money and hope it keeps them happy.
What Is Employee Satisfaction and How To Improve It
Employee satisfaction involves how happy an employee is at their current workplace. Many factors are included with this as well such as workload, flexible working hours, compensation, available resources, alignment with company culture and opportunities in their careers. However, the commute to work could also impact employee satisfaction. Let’s look at how you can improve employee satisfaction and be a successful business manager.
Ask For Employee Feedback and Take It On Board
The forest step to ensuring you are doing everything right for your employees is encouraging feedback. A professional and successful business requires honesty between the company and its employees.
Once feedback has been given to you, you must ensure you are acting upon their feedback. You can’t just nod at what they say and sweep it under the carpet. Furthermore, you need to take into account their opinions of the company and what can be improved. They may have spotted something that nobody else has identified in your company.
Avoid Micromanaging
Micromanaging is something that can disrupt an employee’s productivity. It can also stop people from being creative and having a larger input into a company. If you micromanage your employees on their daily tasks, you will soon see employees burn out.
You will notice that it will cause more stress on your employees if you dictate everything they do. Set them a task, ask them to work on that task and then take it from there. Offer them help but don’t enforce it. If they have any questions and they need assistance then make sure you welcome it.
Recognise and Understand Performance
Everybody wants to know they are respected in a company. They want to know that people above them understand their value to the company and what they can offer. If you recognise people’s hard work and reward them for it, you will soon see an improvement in people’s attitudes when working for your company.
Encourage Healthy Lifestyles
Another important factor in keeping employees happy is ensuring they live a healthy lifestyle. As the saying goes, a healthy body leads to a healthy mind. Ensuring your employees maintain good health is a great way to ensure they are happy. However, this isn’t something you should force upon people.
If an employee wants to start work early and leave work early for a gym class then you should understand that. Flexible working schedules are a great way to ensure your staff participate in sporting activities.
Once you start giving your employees flexible working hours, you will soon see the benefits it has on the employee.
Encourage A Comfortable Working Environment
Another step towards improving employee satisfaction is by improving the work environment. If employees use old equipment that affects their day-to-day tasks, you must ensure you give them the best equipment. It could include a poor internet connection as well. If employees can’t access the internet or it is slow, consider upgrading it. Employees can soon feel undervalued if they are not given the best equipment possible.
It has a massive impact on employee satisfaction so that is why you must ensure you are giving them a comfortable work environment. It doesn’t just include equipment. It also includes other factors such as good office lighting and heating units that work effectively.
Make Sure You Keep Employees Informed
Another important factor when working with your employees is to ensure they are well informed about what is happening. Job security is important to people so ensure they know their job is secure. If there are upcoming workplace changes, inform your staff about those changes. You never know, if you are moving offices, this could affect some employee’s travel time massively.
If you are more transparent about your company, IE potential jobs that are up and coming or there are growth opportunities, you need to let your employees know about this. Additionally, you can ask for employees’ input on these topics.
Constantly Encourage Employee Development
An employee having a career opportunity is something they always do. They should understand that they can work towards a goal in the next 6-12 months. It could be a potential career change or working towards a different career path. All of this is very important when it comes to employee satisfaction and career progression.
A great way to understand an employee’s career goals is to give them 6-month reviews. Every six months, ask them how they are getting on and what they want to achieve inside your company. Listen to their feedback and see if it is something you can offer them help with.
Regular training is something that many employees also seek as well. If there is something that an employee is struggling with or doesn’t understand how something works, offer them help. An employee is much happier if they know what they are doing and why they are doing it. So, make sure you offer them enough training to help them understand their work more.
To Conclude
Improving employee satisfaction is very important for a successful business. Furthermore, there are a lot of things you need to do to make sure your employee is happy. Giving employees a pay rise is great but they would want something more than just a pay rise here and there. Being transparent, understanding the expense they pay for a Hyde Park parking spot when commuting to work and offering flexible working hours are all important.
Communication is essential for a business. Not only should you ensure you are transparent with your managers but you should also communicate effectively with employees below them. Make sure you have regular feedback from your employees to ensure they are happy with the way things are going. At the end of the day, nobody wants to work nine to five just for a salary. They also want to enjoy working for you and enjoying the little bonuses, social events and other benefits along the way.
