Employee Satisfaction

What is employee satisfaction?

Employee satisfaction is a generic term used by the HR industry to describe how satisfied or satisfied employees are with their work environment, experience and the companies they work for. Employee satisfaction is an important indicator that can help determine a company’s overall health status. For this reason, many companies conduct regular surveys to measure employee satisfaction and track satisfaction trends over time. A high level of satisfaction shows that employees are satisfied with the way their employer treats them.

Employee satisfaction is often used interchangeably with employee satisfaction, but although commitment is a factor that affects overall satisfaction (and it can be said that it is the opposite), the two are not the same. Satisfaction is important for retention, but not necessarily a performance indicator, while commitment which includes an employee’s passion for his or her job is directly related to performance. Ideally, satisfaction comes from both material factors such as compensation and benefits and less tangible elements such as commitment, recognition, and strong leadership. If a company does not address both sides of the equation, it may find that it has a complacent team of physically content employees who are happy to do what it needs to keep their jobs or a team of highly committed employees who create new opportunities in companies that are willing or able to meet their material needs.

Employee satisfaction or job satisfaction is simply the extent to which employees are satisfied or satisfied with their work. Employee satisfaction is usually measured by an employee satisfaction survey. Factors affecting employee satisfaction in these surveys can be compensation, workload, management perception, flexibility, teamwork, resources, etc.

All these things are important for companies that want to keep their employees happy and reduce staff turnover, but employee satisfaction is only part of the solution. In fact, for some companies, satisfied employees are people the company could do without. Satisfaction is not synonymous with high performance or commitment. HR ideas and strategies that focus on how to improve employee satisfaction often have results that demoralize high-performing employees.

Employee satisfaction and engagement seem to be similar concepts, and many people use them interchangeably. The importance of knowing the difference between satisfaction and commitment is essential for a company to make strategic decisions to create a culture of commitment. Employee satisfaction covers the basic concerns and needs of employees. It is a good starting point, but usually, it ends under what is really important.

Definition of employee satisfaction:

Employee satisfaction is the extent to which employees are satisfied or satisfied with their workplace and work environment.

Definition of Employee Commitment:

Employee engagement is the extent to which employees are passionately enthusiastic about their work, commit themselves to the company and make discretionary efforts for their work.

Turnover vs. unwanted Turnover

A certain level of turnover is healthy for all companies. Employees who do not create added value or do not integrate well into the company leave the company and create space for new perspectives and energies. We could call this a healthy staff turnover. On the other hand, undesirable fluctuations occur when a company loses talented people it wants to retain.

Talented and motivated employees expect more from companies. For these employees, job satisfaction includes a number of criteria. They want to be engaged and empowered. They want to be stimulated and encouraged. They want their work to make sense. They want meaning and purpose. A culture of continuous improvement and the importance of training opportunities for employees to expand and advance their careers and improve their performance are key factors that contribute to the engagement of the best performing employees.

Why is employee satisfaction a potential problem?

The problem with employee satisfaction is that it does not focus on what matters to your most talented employees. A satisfied or satisfied employee can be very satisfied with a job that requires very little effort. This employee could be completely satisfied with doing the bare minimum required to keep his job. These employees are likely to be “very satisfied” with their work. They usually lack leadership and determination. Their performance could be “sufficient”. They are unlikely to leave the company, but they do not necessarily provide added value.

Unlike satisfied employees, dedicated employees create value by crossing borders and stimulating growth and innovation. Companies that also commit to values and commitment must cross borders. Companies with an engagement strategy offer formal and informal learning experiences to create important opportunities for employees to feel valued and recognized for their work. Dedicated employees often take advantage of these opportunities, satisfied employees often do not.

Employee satisfaction surveys can put a company on the wrong track. As a company, if you focus on increasing employee dissatisfaction, you risk anchoring the employees who create the least value while chasing away your most talented employees.

The semantics of satisfaction and commitment

Many people use the terms “satisfaction” and “commitment” to refer not only to the basic needs of job satisfaction but also to the additional meaning, motivation, and commitment of “commitment”. There is nothing wrong with that. As long as your company measures and understands how important it is to achieve the factors we include in our definition of engagement, whatever you call it.

By using a commitment survey, asking the right questions, measuring the right factors with benchmark results, questions and results supported by statistics, your company can develop a strategic plan to improve employee engagement and performance. If that’s what you do, call it what you want.