Business owners worry a lot about worker satisfaction as it relates to compensation. How much they pay their staff is important since wages and benefits are their biggest expense in many cases.
However, study after study reveals from the workers’ perspective, that wage increases don’t contribute much to workplace satisfaction. What really seems to matter are the intrinsic perks associated with working at your company.
In this post, we look at some things you can do to improve how satisfied your staff is to reduce turnover and improve productivity.
Promote Health
Workers don’t want to go to the office, believing that it is bad for their health and wellbeing. They want to feel like it is building them up and good for their lifestyle.
Therefore, employers need to promote health on all levels, both mental and physical. For instance, you could:
- Introduce standing desks
- Provide colleagues with local gym memberships
- Offer classes designed to reduce stress
- Insist that people leave the office before 7 pm
- Hire trainers to give on-site classes at lunchtime
- Provide healthy food at the canteen
Adopting these wellness strategies helps to improve worker satisfaction who care about their health. It stops employees from flaking off and looking for better working conditions elsewhere.
Also, if a worker eats a nutritious lunch they won’t load up on fast food carbs which cause afternoon productivity to flounder.
Keep The Conversation Open
Shutting down the conversation is not a good idea. Employees want to feel like they have a stake in the company, not that they are just mindlessly doing management’s bidding.
Therefore, to improve the levels of worker satisfaction, it’s critical to keep the conversation open. You need to set up internal communication plans and tools to make this easy. Don’t be afraid to have “town hall” meetings at your firm to get a sense of how people feel generally about certain ideas.
Don’t Micromanage People
Employees hate nothing more than overzealous managers breathing down their necks all day long. They want people who step back and just let them get on with the work in whatever way they see fit.
Therefore, tell leadership at your firm to give workers more autonomy. The more they feel responsible for their specific area, the more likely they will have a sense of ownership and want to stick around.
Keep The Environment Pleasant
Working in a dirty, hot, or smelly environment every day isn’t ideal. Colleagues want to feel comfortable while at work. Therefore, prioritize maintaining high standards at your place of work, wherever that happens to be.
If the HVAC stops working, get heating and cooling services. Likewise, make sure that you have site managers who can fix issues before employees start to complain.
Let Employees Shape Their Roles
Lastly, you’ll want to allow employees to shape their roles, rather than attempting to stuff them into particular boxes. This approach delivers more worker satisfaction because it gives people the freedom to do the things that need doing. More gets accomplished, and the firm moves towards its long-range objectives faster.
If your management is traditional, update them on the new policy. Tell them that it’s okay for workers to do things differently than usual if they feel it will lead to better customer service.
