Employee job satisfaction falls to all-time low: How to deal with this?

As a recruitment person I think people don't work just for the sake of money alone, though that's the main motivation behind it, but what they really want is to advance in their careers. They want their employers to give them responsibilities and trust that they can perform. They want to feel appreciated. They want to build great working relationships with their employers and colleagues.

So here is what Employers should be thinking like, How could an employee meet the employer's expectations if they do not know their roles, responsibilities and job function? They should be concise and explain clearly what is expected from them. An employer must also inform them the company's vision and mission from the start of employment. It's easy for an employee to decide if whether they really want to become a part of the establishment. With this sort of approach I feel there will be less employees dissatisfied.

It is very important to follow the policy of employee inclusion and empowerment for an organization to achieve job satisfaction. If the organization makes the bigger picture of their business clearly understood to its employees and make them realize how their work is particularly important, I think there would be a lot less dissatisfied employees. 

To support this argument I have a thought that, do we ever wonder why does graduate trainee prog or leadership trainee prog produce more satisfied and longer staying employees, than the other usual recruitments. The reason is the same, these guys get the bigger picture clear and so are able to contribute to the organization more easily. These people also have properly defined career paths with a lot of room for improvisation and making choices at later stages. This aspect is generally absent or is very vague in most other recruitments, and so produces dissatisfied employees.

I think biggest reason for the dissatisfaction among employees is increasing burden and overhead on them.Todat comptition has reached on this level that organizations are trying to get 100% from their employees without even caring for their health or interest.Despite getting high salary and incentives,employees are unsatisfied as they are not really enjoying their profession.Give them enough time to think about their families and for themselves.Definitly it will reduce their dissatisfaction and their work will be more efficient.

Not much focus is given on Employee Satisfaction either at the education level or at employment level.  Whenever trainings or seminars are conducted, its better to add one subject or at least, a simple presentation to show "how you are comfortable in our organisation".  This should happen with a positive perspective, ie., show employee long term goals and advantages rather short term benefits.

It is oft stated that most employees don't leave their jobs, but leave their bosses... In my own experience, and gathering from a lot of peers, this is the only fact that make employees move on. Yeah, there can be many other factors, but the decisive factor is immediate leadership, and what value add is perceived by the employee from that leadership.

The biggest challenge for HR today is that they spend a whole lot time doing both tactical and strategic work, and employee engagement is mostly relegated to the sideline. And the person responsible for EE spends so much time on routine EE activities.

EE professionals in any organisations must also take congisance of the below

• Is the employee perceiving his role to be a professionally challenging one, vis a vis his knowledge, skills and attitude or call it his or her competency bouquet? What is EE in sync with HR doing to have its ear on the ground? Is there a system which evaluates this on a continual basis, in the context of the overall talent pool?
• Is there an institutionalized system of mentoring and reverse mentoring? Does the top leadership of the organisation value mentoring??
• Are feedback from the 360 degree feedback across employees acted upon, other than just the compensation and benefits part? 
• Do the managers respect and value the team, and treat them with professionalism and personal dignity?
• Do the immediate managers address without delay any issues that might be affecting the performance/contribution of the team or every individual in the team? 
• Are 'Stay interviews' a part of the HR ecosystem? Exit interviews are now passe, and it is stay interviews that can give valuable insights on various facets of how things are managed in the organisation?
• Do HR and the top management have the courage to come to surgical decisions in the case of managers who might not be treating people right? This is  very important - it is now common for organisations to allow bad behavior of a few managers to continue, under the guise that they are good performers. This is enemy #1 of good employee engagement.
• Money is just not a motivator. Organisations cannot assume that if their compensation is above par, that is a passport to employee retention. A host of surveys on "great places to work" have proven that compensation come a poor third in retaining employees.
• Is there career planning for employees, and is there a clear differentiation between who performs/contributes and those who dont? An organisation  that is perceived to be soft of non-contributors, is a perfect recipe for a mediocre place to work. Never will it attract great workers.

10+2 and then 4 years of Engineering, total 16 years of regular non-stoping study and then wrting and passing exam. What i feel from some of my friend at TCS, IBM, Infosysis, Goldman Sach and many top brand giving huge bucks of money but at last no job satisfaction.

One need to understand the job culture and need to adapt to live in that. But due to so long study period, they need a lot of time for adaption.

They need a lot of motivation like they need to think for whom they are earning and working. Once they get the feeling, they are working for the Organization, they will surly be satisfied.

I feel that company should allow their employees to give feedback. They can express their feelings by this. By analysing these feedbacks with the help of experts company can adjust or can take some sensible action.It will be better for companies if they already know that their employees are leaving and not satisfied,atleast they can try to avoid this by analysing what their employees want and they should also accept some suggestions from their employees.

Inappropriate behavior of superior may be the reason.because mostly persons use their power on subordinate.Man is emotional ,naturally.  he can do a lot of work but he wants some appreciation by his superior.not monetary every time  but some words of praise.mostly superior behave like a boss every time with subordinate.if they behave in a good manner there can be more satisfied employees in the org. because of so much stress of work place & of  home ,they need some emotional support of their superior to perform better.even they will try to do extra work to praise their superior.   

If a person feels cared about, if he/she is included and made to feel an owner of the piece he/she holds, if they get to use their talents in the best possible manner [which will happen only if you take the time to get to know about them - their strengths and areas of improvement], if they can see how the work they do impacts the organizational goal...why would any person be disengaged?

A main reason for employee dissatisfaction is that as the responsibilities and accountabilities increase, the recognition and rewards may not be as forthcoming. It is important to communicate with the employee how their role is important and what all they have to gain with the coming stress..

Employees are constantly looking for encouragement and motivation which should be provided in ample. Once they are positioned as an integral part of organisation, and nurtured, they will never be dissatisfied. Rather they will contribute more towards achieving their organisation's objective.

It is the "reason" that requires investigation, analysis and attention.

It can not be without reason that employees are feeling low on job satisfaction: Disassociated employees can never perform therefore why this occurred is important to look for and course correct, at earliest. The reasons could be anywhere from lack of leadership, direction, knowledge of competition initiatives or communication gaps or even lack of assessment and training etcc...

Yet, the indications of such occurrence warrant  immediate attention. 

I think most of the companies have currently a system to measure Employee Job Satisfaction, but if the rsults are not positive it is because those systems are not followed properly. I would suggest to assign Employ Job satisfaction as a key performance indicator. In that way, top management will review it periodically and there will be a cnampion responsible of implementing the improvement actions required.

My past 4 years of experience in IT has been or for that matter in any field has been that an employee loses interest in an Organization once he sees his skills are not being nurtured. A company has to keep looking whats new technology is there in competition and how it can impact the career of an employee.

Not only that, employee should be awarded for all new technologies or methodologies he introduces. Organizations concentrate only on the projects they hold, for if they are build on leagacy technologies is not a concern for them. Actually all organizations want that their employees remain intact and not leave but they fail to understand the growing career needs of an employee which is a bad business sense. It is basically a give and take policy, provided you are really willing to give!!!!

I would say companies should even go for some sort of sychometric tests of employees and understand where is the loophole!!!

I agree with the comments given by the professionals but also the management should trust the employee’s strength and give the liberty to execute their powers and Ideas for the betterment of the company as well as Individuals growth. This gives the confidence for the employees and it is a tool of motivation where there will be commitment. This will engage the employees to fulfill their responsibilities.

Addition to this the great job done by the employees should be identified and rewarded where they feel the sense of ownership of their roles and responsibilities.

The leaders handling the  team should give the prominence to all the team members equally. If the politics is involved inside the team the team will no longer remain as team and it will ends with the disinterest, Then what ever the job done by the team or individual contribution towards the goal that will not be from the bottom of the heart or it will not give the satisfaction even after completion of the task.

So to avoide the above situation the negativity and politics inside the team should be kept away and every team members should say "WE" instead of I which gives the great feeling to the whole team.

Regards

Deepak S