4 Proven Strategies for Keeping
Employees Satisfied and Happy
Maintaining a high level of employee satisfaction is good for business. It is expensive training new employees, and high employee turnover damages your business’s bottom line. Therefore, happy and satisfied employees want to stick around, and employees that stick around means a healthy bottom line.
The ensure your employees don’t dread coming to work every day and remain engaged and satisfied in their work, employ one of these four proven strategies in your management style.
Give Them a Voice
Employees that feel ignored and are unable to make recommendations for ways the workplace could be improved will soon develop the feeling being taken for granted and unvalued in the workplace.
Reduce stress at workplace by offering employees an anonymous way of providing feedback on the company’s working culture and practices. Then ensure the management is acting on this feedback. After all, if employees can’t see their feedback being taken on board, what is the point in giving it in the first place?
Increase Transparency
Research consistently demonstrates that employees who are kept in the loop are more likely to have higher levels of job satisfaction than those that are not kept up to speed on the direction of the company and the latest developments.
Improving communication and keeping your team informed on the conversations happening among the company’s leadership is one way to give employees a sense of purpose and make them feel involved. This will increase their satisfaction and engagement, making them more productive.
Make Praise Specific
Employees respond better to praise when they know precisely why they are receiving it. A simple “you’re doing a good job”, feels nice, but it doesn’t offer many indications in the way of ‘how?’ or ‘why?’.
Instead, be specific and offer praise for specific employee actions or tasks that they performed well in. Not only will this give them a better idea of what you expect from them, but it will also make the praise feel more genuine and accentuate their happiness in the workplace.
Invest in Employee Training
Millennials particularly, are less incentivized by money and are more motivated by a sense of purpose, progress, and fulfillment. If they see their job as a dead end, with limited prospects for growth, and no defined career path, they will start to become disenfranchised, leading to reduced productivity.
Stop this from happening by offering a clearly-defined career path for your employees. Ensure there are ample opportunities to develop new skills, attend training sessions, take on increased responsibilities, and rewards for strong performances.
This shows an interest in their careers, not just their productivity. It will contribute to feelings of progression and motivate them to work harder and take pride in their work.
By employing these four proven strategies, you can rapidly increase your employees’ job fulfillment, and foster a workplace environment of productivity, support, transparency and communication. This will create a workplace that employees want to work in, leading to reduced staff turnover, reduced hiring and training costs, and ultimately, larger profits, keeping everyone happy and ensuring growth.
