Employee Satisfaction: It Starts With You

When man­agers hear they need to improve employee sat­is­fac­tion to achieve cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion, they often don’t know where to start.

Employ­ees are at the front line, assist­ing cus­tomers first hand. If employ­ees are unhappy, there’s no telling what kind of ser­vice they will pro­vide. Unhappy employ­ees neg­a­tively impact your company’s earn­ing power. Accord­ing to Gallup Con­sult­ing, unhappy employ­ees can cost the U.S. work­force $300 bil­lion in loss of pro­duc­tiv­ity. My guess is you don’t want to be a part of that loss.

Mer­cer con­sult­ing con­ducted a sur­vey to find out where employ­ees stand. Research shows “…one in three US work­ers is seri­ously con­sid­er­ing leav­ing his or her orga­ni­za­tion at the present time.” This means employ­ers need to fig­ure out what will improve their employ­ees’ sat­is­fac­tion or risk the alternative.

The fol­low­ing are three meth­ods of achiev­ing employee satisfaction:

Rec­og­nize and Reward Employees

Employ­ees like to know their man­agers or super­vi­sors are aware of their good work. Don’t let a job well done go unno­ticed. When excep­tional work is rewarded, expect to see those actions repeated. If you fail to react, employ­ees will feel dis­cour­aged and unap­pre­ci­ated. Chances are you can find some­thing about an employee’s efforts or per­for­mance to com­ple­ment. Take the time to observe good work.

1. Encour­age Employ­ees to Find Their Voice

Employ­ees need to feel like they are part of the team, not just another cog in the wheel. Reg­u­larly meet with employ­ees to keep them informed about what’s going on in the com­pany. Ask for input, feed­back, and any con­cerns they may have. Employ­ees need to be com­fort­able express­ing their thoughts and feel­ings. If you encour­age open dia­logue, employ­ees will nat­u­rally con­nect to their work and the company.

2. Cre­ate a Flex­i­ble Work Environment

More com­pa­nies are adopt­ing a flex­i­ble work­place to allow employ­ees to find a bal­ance between their home and work life. If pos­si­ble, let employ­ees cre­ate their own sched­ules that incor­po­rate both work and per­sonal respon­si­bil­i­ties. Accord­ing to an arti­cle in the Huff­in­g­ton Post, com­pa­nies that offer a flex­i­ble work envi­ron­ment had 25% lower turnover in 2010. A flex­i­ble work sched­ule may take some adjust­ments, but the pay­offs are well worth the investment.

Intro­duce these three meth­ods and you will start to see an improve­ment in employee sat­is­fac­tion. Remem­ber, if the end goal is to achieve cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion, start with your employ­ees. If you want to learn more about this topic, read this blog post that explains the link between cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion and employee satisfaction.

“…as we improve employee sat­is­fac­tion and a life­time of loy­alty, we are improv­ing every­thing about our cus­tomer ser­vice.” – Cheryl Hanna