Improve Employee Satisfaction
We are often led to believe that a company’s success comes as a result of their marketing efforts or of their CEO’s brilliant ideas; the truth is that healthy, profitable organisations owe a great part of their success to their employees. Recent surveys have shown that high levels of employee satisfaction lead to increased productivity and overall business growth. So how can you keep your staff's passion for work alive, especially during hard times like the ones we are going through?
Steps
- Be transparent. Make Sure the Organisation's Structure is Clear to Every Employee. It is important that every employee understands how hierarchy works in your business and that he always knows which door he can knock on when he needs to be heard. Make sure that you provide a business structure chart and a managers’/supervisors’ list to each employee as soon as he starts working for the company.
- Adopt Transparent Management Methods. Your staff should never be left in the dark regarding the company’s status; use transparent human and financial resources management procedures. Make sure that the recruiting or promotion criteria are fair and apply to everyone and publish the company’s financial reports on an annual basis, so that every employee can be updated.
- Monitor Their Performance. Promotions or salary raises should be based on regular and objective staff assessments, not personal preferences. To make sure that you measure your staffs’ productivity and overall performance impartially and efficiently, use certified evaluation procedures and the right software. If your employees know that their efforts are appreciated and rewarded, then it’s easier to keep them motivated.
- Provide Good Salaries. Make sure that you provide the highest (or one of the highest) salary rates in the market and that you pay your staff for overtime. A high salary isn’t the only thing that keeps an employee engaged, it is however a significant factor!
- Encourage Innovation. Your business’s success relies on new ideas that will help you stay ahead of the competition; promote innovation and encourage your employees to experiment with new ideas. Reward a nice effort as well as a good result and don’t penalize mistakes.
- Build Personal Relationships. Make your staff feel that they are more than just employees to you; get to know them personally, organise team activities and company events that everyone can attend and make room for fun in the corporate agenda (one easy way to do it is by organising outdoors events, such as a football match or a day at the races for your employees)!
Tips
- Delegate tasks according to each individual’s experience and special skills. By overloading your employees with tasks or homework you risk them suffering from the “burnout syndrome” - and definitely not being happy with their job.
- Nurture your staffs' skills and talents by providing regular training opportunities.
- It’s not only your employees that should strive for excellence but the company as well! Ask for feedback on a regular basis (usually once a year) and after any major organisational changes. Leverage the feedback from the junior members of staff too, not only from senior managers.
- Make sure that senior managers set a good example for the rest of the staff, by being the first ones to abide by the company rules (e.g. working hours) and by showing impeccable leadership and personal skills (e.g. they should be friendly or not be afraid to take on responsibility).
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