Employee satisfaction is the intangible yet powerful force that facilitates more engaged and productive workplaces. Happier employees are naturally more inclined to do their jobs better and for much longer than their dissatisfied counterparts.
However, not all organizations have caught up to the changing needs of their workforce:
- 65% of US workers are satisfied with their current jobs
- According to the latest Gallup report, 51% of employees are disengaged in the workplace, while 13% are actively disengaged. Only 36% count themselves as engaged.
- 47% of HR chiefs cite employee retention and turnover as their top workforce-management challenge
Want to improve employee satisfaction?
Satisfied employees have the power to drive positive change through your company. Shifting the way employees view their role and speak about it to their colleagues can translate into more productive and loyal teams. Connecting with the needs and desires of your workforce and opening up communication with the right intranet solution can not only boost staff culture and morale, but also have a significant impact on retention and business performance.
What is employee satisfaction?
Employee satisfaction measures the degree to which an employer meets the needs and desires of their workforce. It could also be described as the overall level of happiness individuals have in their role. Satisfied employees are often more engaged employees which drives massive improvements in the productivity and creativity of teams.
According to Harvard Business Review Analytic Service, 71% of business executives consider employee engagement as very important to achieving overall organisational success. If satisfaction is the precursor to engagement, organizations should begin with understanding what their employees want and need from them to facilitate the improved performance they want to see.
Why is employee satisfaction important?
This link to engagement makes employee satisfaction a key factor in any successful organization. When employees are truly satisfied at work, the sentiment will spread throughout the organization and drive organizational improvements:
Happy colleagues will create more happy colleagues. As job satisfaction rises, a boost in morale often is followed by a boost in productivity and eventually in your bottom line. According to research done by Oxford University, apart from being faster, happy employees also have 13% more sales compared to their unhappy colleagues.
Creating motivated and satisfied workplace culture takes time, however it can lead to even bigger long term gains. An eleven year research project on corporate culture and performance showed that good company culture could help you increase revenue by more than 4x. By investing into their people, organizations are laying a foundation for a more motivated and efficient workforce which will offer a return on investment year over year.
Retaining the best talent is a top challenge for many organizations. According to a 2017 study, 81% of employees would consider leaving their jobs for the right offer, even if they wouldn't be looking for a job at the moment. Surprisingly, it wasn’t just for the money. 23% of those seeking a job wouldn’t need a pay increase to leave and 74% of younger employees would actually take a pay cut for the chance to work at their ideal job.
Satisfied employees are key to reducing turnover. However, as the saying goes, money won’t buy you happiness. While it’s an important factor, a study found that workers from organizations with high retention rates cite job satisfaction and healthy relationships with their colleagues and managers as the main reasons for those staying at their current job.
The infectious nature of a satisfied workforce extends beyond your company walls. When employees are engaged and happy, they translate that into their customer facing actions. Monsanto found out in a survey that the strongest factors that can influence customer satisfaction dramatically include employee satisfaction and employee work-life balance.
Companies that take care of their workers also see more customer loyalty as well. Organizations with higher employee engagement strategies, enjoy 2x more of customer loyalty which means higher customer retention and increased potential profits.
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How to improve employee satisfaction
Improving employee satisfaction can help you maximize individual performance and unlock collaboration within teams. In the long run, it can also help you increase profits and attract and retain talent. Keeping employees happy and giving them a good experience at work requires organizations to go beyond meeting their basic financial and security needs and provide them with a chance for social connection and personal growth.
7 ideas to improve employee satisfaction
- Recognize employees for their work
Shining a spotlight on the personal and professional achievements of your staff helps foster feelings of accomplishment and connection within the organization. This can lead to better overall performance and drive. In one study conducted by Fortune, 37% of respondents stated that more personal recognition would encourage them to produce better work more often.
Employees that feel acknowledged for their work are also more likely to stick around. Findings from SurveyMonkey show that when recognized, 63% of employees are ‘very unlikely’ to be looking for a new job. Recognition can come in many forms, ranging from public recognition in front of peers to incentive programs and team outings.
- Listen and respect
Great leaders know the power of listening to their employees. Empowering individuals to share their ideas inspires more creative problem solving, better solutions, and happier staff. In fact, a recent study by Forbes revealed that workers whose input is encouraged and appreciated are more than 4x as likely to be more productive than those who feel underappreciated.
Listening to employees and making them feel valued will help them feel happier in their role. According to Harvard Business Review, employees who feel their superiors treat them with respect are 63% more satisfied with their jobs. On the flip side, employees that feel disrespected or belittled are probably already looking for their next opportunity.
- Clear communication and feedback
Your Internal Communication systems connect all parts of your organization and play a big role in keeping the lines of communication open between teams and management. According to Trade Press Services, effective internal communications motivate 85% of employees to become more engaged in the workplace. This is because clear communication results in faster decisions and less frustration, making it easier for workers to focus on the task at hand. Intranet tools provide one centralized system to streamline workflows and facilitate feedback.
- Provide channels for social connection
In 2019, a survey of US workers found that 60% of employees consider coworkers to be the biggest contributors to job happiness. For many employees, intrapersonal relationships are a must when it comes to ticking all the boxes when it comes to workplace satisfaction. As we move into a new era of hybrid working, make sure that your office culture and water cooler talk still has a dedicated place in your workspace. Strengthen your culture beyond the office environment by integrating the right social intranet solution to keep teams connected outside of their day-to-day tasks.
- Transparency from leadership
Nothing can sour the relationship between employer and employee faster than a breach of trust. In fact, management transparency is one of the top factors in determining employee happiness. Employees like to be kept in the loop and want to know they can rely on managers to tell them the truth. 61% of employees agree that trust between them and the management is a major factor in developing a healthy working atmosphere.
- Provide personal development opportunities
An important part of satisfying employees involves providing a path for personal development. According to a recent survey of 1000 career-driven individuals, 82% of the respondents would consider leaving their jobs when faced with a lack of career progression. Though they function as a part of the organization, individuals want to feel that there is also room for their personal aspirations to be nurtured. One survey found that only 29% of employees are “very satisfied” with their available career advancement opportunities. Take the time to understand individual and team skills and challenge employees to pursue relevant interests, even if it lies outside their job description.
- Embrace remote/hybrid working
The dream of many office workers pre-pandemic is now a reality. Remote work, with all its flexibility and convenience, is here to stay. And while there is no denying that certain aspects are greatly missed, 38% of employees agree that they are happier with their jobs now compared to prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. However, managing remote/hybrid teams presents new challenges when it comes to efficient collaboration. Remote work software can help streamline communication and help teams stay connected from wherever they choose to work.
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Where to start
Boosting employee satisfaction can propel your organization to new heights, but these changes can’t be realized overnight. Building your strategy starts with opening up communication and collecting feedback from your employees. By listening to what they have to say, you can figure out what unique approach will work best for you.
Choosing the right platform to facilitate these changes is essential to the success of your strategy. With intranet solutions, you can centralize information, collect and send employee feedback, and create a productive workspace for teams to flourish. To help decide what platform is right for you, check out our intranet comparison page or schedule a call for a personalized intranet demo.
18 mins read