What is more important: job satisfaction or salary?

While it may seem like many people are pursuing financial success in their careers, the age-old adage “Money can’t buy you happiness” appears to ring true in regard to employee satisfaction. According to a report published by the Harvard Business Review in 2018, 9 out of 10 workers would exchange a percentage of their lifetime wages to achieve better satisfaction in their work. T

hese numbers indicate that the overwhelming majority of adults in the workforce would rather enjoy going to work daily and have meaningful goals and relationships in the workplace than have a high salary and low job satisfaction. North American adults spend roughly one-third of their lives at work, so feeling content while you’re there is critical to your mental and physical well-being.

As an employer, understanding the importance of employee satisfaction can help you create a pleasant work environment that is positive, is supportive and promotes a healthy work-life balance. Doing so can prevent employee turnover rates from rising due to staff members quitting because they’re unhappy at work.

It’s essential to realize that if you don’t prioritize creating a healthy work environment for employees, no amount of money can fix the issues that will arise in your business. If your company is struggling to retain workers despite offering a competitive salary, it’s time to think about how to improve employee satisfaction.

What are types of job satisfaction?

Job satisfaction is complex but can essentially be broken down into three basic categories:

• Evaluative satisfaction covers how an employee feels about the job in general—whether they like or dislike the work experience.
• Cognitive satisfaction indicates whether an employee feels mentally challenged or stimulated by their work. Do they find it interesting and engaging?
• Behavioral satisfaction refers to employee behavior and the behavior of others in the workplace. Does the employee feel good about their work and believe they’re a reliable, hard worker? Are they treated well and with respect by others?

All these factors play into how satisfied employees are with their jobs. To effectively determine employee satisfaction, an employer must measure job satisfaction in the workplace.

How do you measure job satisfaction?

There are several methods for measuring employee satisfaction within your business. While using this data can improve the lives of your employees, it will also benefit your business in the long term. Paying attention to and improving employee satisfaction leads to:

• Better employee retention
• More positive company culture
• Increase in productivity

To measure employee satisfaction as an employer, you can:

• Conduct an employee satisfaction survey
• Use the Employee Satisfaction Index (ESI)
• Have one-on-one meetings with employees
• Use software like 15five to collect employee feedback anonymously
• Implement a suggestion box

Which measure of job satisfaction is best?

While all these measures are effective in assessing your employees’ satisfaction, if you want to establish an accurate sense of how satisfied all employees in your company are on an equal playing field, using the ESI method is the most effective.

What is the Employee Satisfaction Index?

The Employee Satisfaction Index is a trusted formula used as an industry standard for measuring employee contentment across a number of countries. It works is by asking employees to answer three questions with a score of 1 to 10, with 10 indicating immense satisfaction and 1 indicating low satisfaction. These questions are:

• How satisfied are you at work?
• How well does your job meet your expectations?
• How close is your workplace to what you’d consider your ideal job?

After employees answer these questions with a number on the scale, you’ll establish the mean value of those three numbers. Mean is calculated by adding the three numbers together and dividing that sum by three. Next, plug the mean number into the ESI equation:

ESI = (question mean value/3) x 100

You’ll end up with a number between 0 and 100, with a higher number indicating a more satisfied employee. If you have all your staff members complete these questions and use the scores to calculate ESI, you’ll have an accurate sense of how each employee feels about working in your business. Doing this for all employees will also help you see if there’s an overall sense of employee satisfaction or a number across the board that’s overwhelmingly low, indicating you need to take action to improve satisfaction.

If a single employee scores low while others score high, you may want to implement another measure mentioned above to gain more detailed insight into why that particular staff member is unhappy at work. In this case, a one-on-one meeting is likely the most personal and effective way to get that information.

How to improve employee satisfaction

If you don’t want to lose your top performers, it’s important to take initiative and improve employee satisfaction as soon as you realize there’s a problem. Here are several steps you can take to improve the satisfaction of employees in your business.

1. Recognize and reward workplace achievements

Nothing sends a valuable employee scurrying out the door like a lack of recognition for their hard work. When people put in the effort at work, they deserve to be recognized and rewarded. If you fail to provide positive feedback to employees who are doing their best work, you have a limited time before they decide to seek alternative employment opportunities where they’ll feel more appreciated. An employee who feels their dedication to the tasks they’re assigned and the company as a whole is appreciated will always work harder and go above and beyond.

Whether it’s an employee of the month program or something more personal, like simply taking the time to praise employees verbally for a job well done, you’ll be surprised how quickly your employee satisfaction improves with this simple change.

2. Prioritize employee health

To work hard, employees need to be healthy both mentally and physically. If you expect staff to perform well and be happy to come to work, you need to help them take care of their minds and bodies. This could mean ensuring everyone takes their hour lunch break to stretch their legs each day, providing free healthy snacks at the office, offering employees a gym membership or ensuring your employee benefits package includes access to mental health services like therapy.

3. Invest in training and development

Presumably, your employees are working for you because they have an interest in this field and want to develop their careers beyond the current role they hold at your company. Don’t be afraid of investing in employee development only to have the staff member leave. Eventually, your employees may grow to a point where they need to seek something outside your company, but if you’re the one who helps them get there, it creates a positive, meaningful work experience for staff and a good reputation for your business of building industry leaders.

Ensure you allow your employees time each month to develop their skills beyond their current role through training programs, seminars or other resources. If your workplace doesn’t have the means to offer these events or teachings, reimburse employees who pursue additional training on their own time.

4. Offer competitive wages

While a high salary clearly isn’t everything, it may still factor into your retention rates to a certain degree. The fact is that no matter how fulfilling a job is, if your employee isn’t making a living wage in the city you’re located in, they’ll be forced to find employment somewhere that offers more money. Ensure your salary rates are competitive for your industry and that staff members can maintain a good quality of life based on their monthly wages. Happiness outside the office can translate to more satisfied employees at work.

5. Treat your employees with respect

Finally, remember to treat your employees with respect and humanity. No matter how driven you are and how much you want your business to succeed, if you treat your staff like cogs in a machine, they simply won’t perform their best for you. Being personable and reasonable and engaging in casual conversation to get to know your employees can make them feel cared for and valued in the workplace.