How to Increase Employee Job Satisfaction: Tips and Tricks

A company is a business for its owner or its CEO, but for you, it is a job, a company you work for to get all the ends met in your life.

Would you love to work for that company if you didn’t feel satisfied with what you do and how much you earn? Would you still suffer there just because you need money? No, you would look for a job where there is job satisfaction.

Ways to be happy at work:

The Advantages of Increasing Employee Job Satisfaction

Ways to Improve Employee Satisfaction

Being more flexible

This point mainly caters to the managers and the CEOs out there. Making your employees responsible for their time in the office and allowing them to arrive late or leave early is necessary to address the stress of regular commute nowadays when there is a lot of focus on work-life balance. 

The popularity of work-life balance is only rising, and this should become a huge matter of concern to the managers.

Employing methods that would allow the employees to make their own decisions, giving them greater control, and providing them flexible working schedules is so important.

Allow employees to take up the responsibilities they want to take

Allowing your employees to understand what role they want to play at your workplace and acting in that way also shows that you, as a manager, care about your employees and don’t let them succumb to something with which they are uncomfortable.

Everyone has their own set of strengths and weaknesses. When employees are allowed to work according to their strengths and given roles that suit their working ability, that depicts another form of job satisfaction; although this is a good showcase of humanity from the company, the employees should also ensure that their work is not futile in terms of the business the company wants to make.

Be more open and transparent. 

When there is supposedly an important announcement to make, make sure every employee that announcement concerns is informed.

There is often this game of Chinese whispers that get played within the workplace, and the so-called junior employees, or the ones who are not in the position yet, are not informed.

Mostly dissatisfied employees are the ones who haven’t been kept informed, and this leads to breakage within the system.

Make sure there are enough communication platforms that maintain transparency like intranet software, newsletters, company e-mails, announcements via the intercoms. All of these will ensure your staff knows of things going around.

Address the issues of your employees

Different people might have different reasons as to why there are not satisfied with the system of work in your company. Being the manager, or the CEO, you have the supreme authority and the responsibility to talk it out with them.

Have frequent sessions like these where you and the other board members of your company sit and discuss with the employees. Ask them what is making them feel dissatisfied and ask them for ideas on how their issues can be resolved.

When you go the extra mile for your employees, you will notice that their needs from the company are also lessening, and so is the burden on your shoulders. 

Communication and being understanding is the key.

Just like the managers and the CEOs, you too, being an employee of a company, should communicate well with the higher authorities. You must let them know your needs and the problems you face while working for them.

The poisonous practice of Chinese whispers should no longer be prevalent amongst the employees as well.

When you let them know about your needs and demands, you must also understand that there are many other employees and staff just like you, so it is not possible for them to agree to everything or even do what you need there and then.

Keep an eye out for the health of your employees.

Taking care of both the mental and the physical health of the employees is no longer the sole responsibility of the individual himself/herself; it is the responsibility of the entire organization, at least this is how it should be if you care about work satisfaction being a manager or a CEO.

The companies should work and function as individuals to promote and drive good health. The higher authorities must talk it out with their employees and understand if there are any issues or discomfort faced by them, either physically or mentally.

Managers should address several health concerns and even make their employees aware of beforehand.

Be patient with your employees and staff.

Although it is important to maintain a professional relationship with everyone that works for you or your company, at times, you must also think of all of your employees as a part of your family.

You must reach out to them and understand their concerns and problems if they have any.

This will not only grant them job satisfaction but will also give them the urge, the zeal to work harder.

If someone approaches you and you are not in a mood to talk, or you are busy, ask them to come later, but don’t become impatient and rude with them, which will only make your employees dissatisfied and arrogant.

Invest and train your employees and staffs

You can be the biggest source of support and inspiration for your employees and staff in your company. Support them in every way you can while making sure that the aim of the company is also being fulfilled.

Drive the development of their career promotes healthy knowledge in the workplace.

You must also invest in your employees by bringing in mentors and other coaching staff who will help them get more used to the working patterns and the business, or anything else in general.

When you do just that little bit more for your employees, it boosts their job satisfaction and makes them more engaged with the business.

Get them their salaries on time.

The main thing people would work for in your company will the package you provide them. Job satisfaction, even though it is very important, is also linked with the salary every individual gets.

If they feel they have to work extremely hard and, in the end, they are not getting paid what they are supposed to, it will again result in job dissatisfaction.

You must figure out the amount of work they are handling, the burden of projects on them, the target assigned to them, and then you must figure out the salary each employee must receive.

If it is less in general, you might have to face problems with them leaving for better jobs.

Don’t hide bad news from them.

There may be times when you might be facing problems while paying your employees their salaries, maybe your business has not been running that smoothly, or maybe some other issue, or you might have invested a lot thinking about the company’s welfare. Whatever the reason may be, you must communicate.

You should never hide issues from them like late payment of salaries, or if someone has not been that beneficial to your company or hasn’t achieved their targets, you might have to sack them.

Let them know of such things because this money, or this job, might mean a lot to them. Transparency is the key!

Respect all your employees

No matter what their age is, no matter what their qualification is, no matter where they come from, every one of your employees deserves respect and reverence.

You may be the manager, or the CEO, or someone from a higher authority, but this doesn’t give you the right to disrespect or show hatred towards anyone in general.

You must remember that every staff working in your company plays a huge part in getting you closer to your aim when it comes to your business.

In some way or the other, you are dependent even on the janitor as well. So, give them an adequate amount of respect and affection, which is a huge part of employee satisfaction. 

Provide them all forms of necessary support as you can

You may have a certain number of employees who come from a not-so-good-to-do background; there may be employees who have a family of their own he/she needs to take care of, maybe he/she is the only earning member of the family. 

In situations like these, you need to be more generous and lend a helping hand to your employees. A little extra help from your side does a great deal regarding job satisfaction from any employee’s point of view.

If anyone requires a loan, if anyone needs an allowance, if someone needs their salary a little bit early, if it is possible, do help them out, or at least talk it out with them.

Go on tours and vacations with your employees.

It can be a great initiative to take your staff members out on tour for a few days or even a small picnic. This will show everyone that you are an employee’s manager, not someone who only cares about work and the company.

Taking them out will also help them relax for a bit get some necessary time out from every day’s hectic schedule. Moreover, when it’s the company taking them out on holiday, they will not have any guilt whatsoever that they would have to return to work again.

This is certainly an employee pleaser, and people would love to work for a long time if you take little initiatives like this.

Establishing a sociable culture

This is for both the managers and the employees. Studies have shown that close friendships in the workplace can enhance work satisfaction from an employee’s point of view by about 50%.

Yes, you being a manager, cannot make everyone be friends with each other overnight, but you can surely achieve this feat with time.

Managers can facilitate the establishment of this sociable culture by developing means of socializing and communication.

Usage of intranet software that uses social tools and encourages others to collaborate via online platforms can be a great way to bring employees from different places together, which enhances globalization, which is also beneficial for the company.

Allow creativity to flourish within the system.

When you, as a manager or a CEO, encourage your employees to get creative at work and showcase their creative skills, that is more than just a path towards better business and profitability, and it allows different employees to get together and communicate and know each other well. What is a work culture where employees don’t know each other?

Allowing their creativity to flourish and you whilst being the manager, driving their skills to the limits without any explicit pressure of being more productive, or making them work for hours without rest shows them that they are valued the way they should be.

Even though they are employees, they are humans. First, they are not machines.

Encourage and reward your employees.

Don’t be that CEO or manager that says why should he/she reward his/her employees? What is the importance of their paycheck then.

This is a matter of concern, and its implications can get fatal when you notice there is very little productivity within your company and more exhausted and dissatisfied employees.

Be that manager who encourages their employees to go for the bigger goals. Boost their morale and confidence and help them out to win.

Every time someone achieves their projected target sales, or your team hits the jackpot number of sales, or your team decreases churn, reward them. Celebrate grandly, as it will show you care both for the company and your employees. 

Pay attention to the health and well-being of your employees

Have you ever taken into account how much you sit throughout the day? Whether it’s while you are driving to the office in your car or using a means of public transport, or you are sitting at your desk and working on your laptop, the number of hours you have to sit in a day just gets aggravated owing to your job.

Be the manager who takes care of the health of his/her employees. The deleterious effect the sedentary nature of the office has on the health of the employees is massive, and that contributes to depression, employee burnout, and also dissatisfaction among the employees.

Take care of these matters, and make sure to have a workout session within your office.

Don’t set unexpected goals for your employees.

When you as a manager have your motive and mission defined to your employees, set expected goals for them, which you want them to achieve in a certain tenure, and motivate them frequently.

Use those goals to stretch their motivation and reward them when they can match their targets. 

Don’t assign them a random huge goal that would be impossible for anyone to achieve, or just because you have a lesser number of employees doesn’t mean you don’t care about the workload on an employee.

Set expected goals that will ensure that employees’ efforts are aligned with the mission and the motive of the company.

Challenge your employees and your teams

Being a manager, or a CEO, you will be familiar with the idea of teams, wherein you have a different group of employees managing different sectors of your company or handling different projects.

There can be a sales team; for example, you can challenge that team to achieve a certain sales target within a specific time frame.

Just as you take care of the growth of employees and your company as a whole, you must also challenge them, or else they won’t feel satisfied.

Imagine your employees as your muscles; will they grow without the stress and discomfort? No, right? But make sure you don’t pressurize them to where they can’t take anymore.

Conclusion

From the above points, it can be concluded that there are many ways to manage your employees and ensure that they are satisfied with what they are doing and with what they are getting as an outcome in return.

One of the main things you must keep in mind is that there must be a balance between what you want your employees to do for you and what you are giving them for their services. Parity must be maintained. 

Explore More Articles:

Frequently asked questions on ways to boost work satisfaction

More To Explore:

• 35+ Highly Effective Employee Retention Strategies
• Why Is Employee Reward And Recognition Important For Your Team?
• 25+ Proven methods for boosting employee morale in Your Workplace
• How To Manage Poor Performance In The Workplace?
• How To Motivate Underperforming Employees: 30 Proven Tips