Causes of job dissatisfaction

Job dissatisfaction happens when an employee isn’t happy with their job, often when the job doesn’t meet their expectations. Several things can lead to employee dissatisfaction, including:

• Little to no recognition for their work and accomplishments
• Poor pay or benefits
• Negativity in the work environment
• Ineffective management
• No opportunities for growth
• Difficult relationships with colleagues
• Poor work-life balance
• Lack of support or training
• No real responsibility

Employees can feel dissatisfied due to one major issue or a combination of multiple situations. Knowing why job dissatisfaction is an issue among your employees is an important step in fixing the problem.

Effects of employee dissatisfaction

Whether you have one employee who’s unhappy or the majority of your employees are dissatisfied, it can have an impact on your business. One of the biggest impacts is often losing employees to other companies. If they’re not happy with their situation with your organization, they’ll likely find one that offers something better, such as higher pay or more benefits.

Even if an employee stays, their performance will likely decline. You might notice the following effects if job dissatisfaction is a major issue:

• Decreased productivity
• Lack of effort or no concern about the results
• Increased absences or tardiness
• Employees who are irritable or snap easily at colleagues and clients
• Low morale

How to handle it

Working on improving employee satisfaction can help you do damage control before you face a large staff turnover. One effective option is to talk directly to your employees and let them know you’re aware of the issue. Transparency often helps you gain the trust of your employees. Here are some options for handling dissatisfied employees.

Let them talk

Invite employees to share openly about what’s frustrating them and causing job dissatisfaction. Offering various ways to share opinions can make employees more likely to give you feedback.

Some people might prefer one-on-one meetings in person, while others prefer an open forum with a group where they feel safety in numbers. Some employees feel more comfortable writing down their feedback, so you might offer the option to email or submit an online form.

When your employees talk about their concerns, let them talk without interrupting them. Avoid the urge to defend yourself, your company or your managers. Simply listening without butting in shows your employees that you’re hearing them. Recording what they say is a good way to go back to check specifics when you try to improve the situation.

Ask questions

Employees might not be quick to open up about the issues if they’re not sure whether they can trust you. Many people worry about employers retaliating against them if they complain about anything. Others might not think you actually care, so they don’t see any point in talking. If you’re not getting much information from employees, ask them specific questions.

For example, if someone seems to put in less effort or speaks up less than normal, you might let them know you noticed and ask them if there’s a reason. You could also ask about different circumstances, such as asking what employees think about the management methods or how they feel about their relationships with their colleagues.

Evaluate the situation

The direct feedback you get from employees combined with what you observe in the workplace can help you get to the root of the problem. Search for facts and concrete issues you can correct. Employees might often vent or include lots of emotions in their feedback. Look for root issues, such as a lack of communication or managers who are micromanaging their employees.

Make a plan for improvement

Once specific issues are identified, you can find fixes. You might discover that your employees don’t feel like they’re trusted to do their job or they don’t have enough responsibilities. To resolve the issue, you might train your management team to help grow trust.

If employees don’t feel like they have the resources they need, you might develop a training program and buy more tools, software and other resources your employees need.

Monitor the improvement

Correcting low job satisfaction isn’t a one-time fix. You might need to try different ways to improve employee satisfaction. Monitoring the situation helps you determine whether the things you’re doing are helping. Even after your employees start to enjoy their jobs more, it’s important to continue monitoring the job satisfaction situation to make sure a new issue doesn’t happen.

Ways to prevent job dissatisfaction

If your employees are still relatively content with their positions, don’t assume you’re worry-free. Circumstances can change at any time, or you might not realize you have an issue with low job satisfaction yet. Here are some ways to prevent job dissatisfaction among your employees:

• Conduct employee surveys: Using employee satisfaction surveys can help you assess the current situation and monitor changes. The feedback can help you keep things on track or change your workplace to improve employee satisfaction.
• Appreciate your employees: Show recognition for your employees. This can range from informal verbal recognition to a formal company-wide recognition program that helps employees feel valued and appreciated.
• Provide support: Develop more learning opportunities and resources that help employees do their job better.
• Improve pay and benefits: If you can increase your base pay or offer bonuses, you might notice greater employee satisfaction. Performance-based pay or bonuses can motivate employees to work harder and give them a challenge that makes work more satisfying. Offering additional low-cost benefits, such as casual dress days and flexible scheduling, can also make your workplace more appealing.
• Create advancement paths: Look at your organizational structure and explore advancement paths for your employees. Work with them to create development plans that position them to advance. Give them new training opportunities that prepare them for more responsibilities and promotions.
• Focus on team building: Incorporating team-building activities can help develop stronger relationships between colleagues.
• Encourage work-life balance: Encourage your employees to take their vacation time and take a break from the office to avoid burning out. Set boundaries, such as no working on the weekends except in cases of emergencies, to encourage better work-life balance.
• Encourage more autonomy: Work on decreasing micromanagement while giving employees more responsibilities. This level of trust can help your employees feel more effective, and it can make their accomplishments more meaningful.

Constantly working to make your company a positive place to work can help keep job satisfaction high. Make your employees your focus to keep them happier and more likely to work hard for you.