Hiring employees is a big undertaking and investment of your time and money. Once you have the right team in place, you should do all that’s in your power to ensure they are happy and motivated to perform well. Having to continuously replace employees is frustrating and costly. Therefore, it’s in your best interest to take the following steps to improve employee satisfaction and keep everyone happy and working hard.
1. Make Training & Development A Priority
Invest in your employees by offering training and development opportunities in the workplace. You can’t expect them to do well if you don’t teach and show them the best way of completing the job duties. Make professional development and improving job performance and skills a priority if you want to keep your workforce content and driven to do a good job. One idea is to find and use a learning management platform to roll out courses throughout the year and ensure each person is trained and knows how to perform their jobs correctly.
2. Gather Feedback & Listen
Another step to improving employee satisfaction at your company is to gather feedback and listen to what your staff has to say. Although you’re in charge, you should act as more of a facilitator and moderator versus making demands. Your employees want their voices to be heard and to know you care about what they have to share. Give them plenty of opportunities to provide opinions and comments and then show them you’re listening by making changes based on these responses. Your employees will be a lot more satisfied at work when they know management is listening and trying to make improvements.
3. Promote & Encourage Work-Life Balance
Your employees are busy people with a lot on their minds. While they care about their jobs and your company, they also have a personal life to manage. Improve employee satisfaction by promoting and encouraging work-life balance at your company. For instance, it may be that you give half-day Fridays in the summertime or allow some flexibility when it comes to working from home. Put policies in place that are suitable for you and your employees to ensure that they’re not being overextended on the job. The better they feel the better job they’ll do at work and happier they’ll be to want to put forth an extra effort when you need it.
4. Be Transparent & Have Open Communication
You can also improve employee satisfaction by practising open and honest communication. Always be transparent with your words and information and make sure everyone is on the same page. It may help to have weekly meetings or company gatherings where you can go over the updates in greater detail. You don’t want your staff to be caught off guard or in the dark about certain matters that pertain to them. Communicate your expectations clearly so that your employees know what you want from them.
5. Avoid Micromanaging
Your employees want to know that you trust them to do a good job and want to prove to you they have the skills and talent to help your company succeed. Micromanaging them may make them feel frustrated and like you have no confidence in them. Avoid looking over their shoulder each time you ask them to complete a task and allow them to make mistakes. Mistakes are a chance for you to teach them how to do better the next time around and improve over time. Boost employee satisfaction and make sure your staff looks forward to completing projects you assign to them by giving them space to work. Let your employees know that you’re available to answer questions they have but that you want them to try doing the work themselves first.
6. Keep A Clean & Safe Working Environment
You want your staff to look forward to coming to work each day. Therefore, give them a clean and safe working environment where they can be productive and feel happy. It may help to hire a cleaning crew to come in and ensure your workspace is kept tidy and free from dirt and germs. Make sure you pay attention to safety and have handbooks and policies and procedures in place and move boxes out of walkways and clean up spills right away. Provide enough space for each employee to sit and work at a desk and install the right lighting so you can adjust it as necessary. A clean and safe working environment will make your employees feel more satisfied and you’ll be less likely to have to deal with an accident or liability.
