How important is job Satisfaction in today’s workplace?

In 2015 for the first time in several years, the number of employees who say they are satisfied with their current job took a big jump, rising from 81% in 2013 to 88% in 2016, according to the Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Report by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

It’s widely known that when employees are satisfied with their jobs, they’re much more likely to be happy, more engaged, and more productive. Since successful companies are built on the backs of satisfied and motivated employees, it would seem like a no-brainer that organizations would care deeply about employee satisfaction.

In this environment for employee satisfaction, it is vitally important to know which factors most affect employee satisfaction. You want to spend your time, money, and energy on programs, processes, and factors that will have a positive impact on employee satisfaction.

Employee satisfaction surveys are becoming common practice in companies that want to be at the top of their industry. That’s because it’s no longer enough for employees to simply show up for work, they have to also be satisfied and engaged with the work they’re doing to perform at a high level.

Employee satisfaction is typically measured using an employee satisfaction survey. Factors that influence employee satisfaction addressed in these surveys might include compensation, workload, perceptions of management, flexibility, teamwork, resources, etc. While overall employee satisfaction has declined to 45 percent, the percentage of employees satisfied with their jobs is lowest in the under 25 age group with only 35.7 percent satisfied. Among employees in the age group 25-34, 47.2 percent are satisfied; employees in the age group 35-44 scored 43.4 percent on job satisfaction.

Employee surveys are valuable for learning about several topics, all of them directly related to employee morale, satisfaction, and involvement with the company. Health benefits, wellness programs, compensation, managers’ performance, career development, work environment: These are all areas you can investigate in depth with a well-designed employee satisfaction survey.

Job satisfaction or employee satisfaction is a measure of workers’ contentedness with their job, whether or not they like the job or individual aspects or facets of jobs, such as nature of work or supervision. Job satisfaction can be measured in cognitive (evaluative), affective (or emotional), and behavioral components.

Employee satisfaction is a reliable predictor of employee retention. When employers engage in practices that support good working relationships, employee satisfaction improves because workers tend to believe the company is using their skills and appreciating their service and commitment. In turn they will want to reciprocate and reward the company with more commitment in their job, more voluntary responsibility taking and an attitude of always taking the interests of the company first.

Company’s duty to communicate doesn’t stop after their employee satisfaction survey. Frequent, consistent, and above all, authentic communication is a necessary ingredient for employee satisfaction. Communication doesn’t have to be a big production, but should not be kept at a minimum and shoud be sincere.

Outside of surveys another way to know employees’ satisfaction is to read the reviews they leave at review sites such as indeed.com. Such reviews are expected to be unbiased reviews of the company, and right there any human resources manager can get a good grasp of the overall employee satisfaction within a given company.