Job Satisfaction should be the employers’ number one priority, but unfortunately, not all attain this objective. One might think that the COVID-19 pandemic only made employee satisfaction worse, but recent job satisfaction figures reveal that employees are happier now than even before the pandemic.
According to a recent study, American workers are moderately happier with their job this year, based on the improved Workplace Happiness Index (73 out of 100) that is up from 71 last year. Survey participants also ranked “growth potential” as the most important factor. This means that employers need to re-evaluate their career advancement programs to ensure that they are aligned with what their employees want. In the rest of the world, Indians were the most satisfied workers in 2019, and the Japanese were the least satisfied.
Keeping your employees happy nowadays requires more than a good salary and benefits. There are several reasons why employees are dissatisfied at work, and the key reasons for employee dissatisfaction along with low salary and lack of benefits are lack of career development, poor relations with co-workers and managers, poor management, lack of rewards and recognition, and poor work-life balance. VXI is an award-winning Business Process Outsourcing services company whose adage “Passion for People” is applied by everyone within the company. In keeping with VXI’s engagement and retention best practices, here are some of the sure-fire basic techniques that can help you take amazing care of your employees, who in turn, are responsible for keeping customers more than satisfied.
CARING CULTURE: Engagement
Employee engagement is significant in improving the culture and work environment of your call center outsourcing employees and ensuring that everyone in your company is devoted to your goals and objectives. Employee engagement creates happy and excited workers, allows them to understand goals and objectives, and allows them to know how important their role is in everyone’s success. Some engagement activities include: team-building activities, recognition events, fund-raisers for charity, games, and competitions, potluck workplace parties, and even time-tested team lunches may be considered a team engagement if done right. Ensure that activities that promote teamwork and camaraderie are regularly included in your undertakings—this tells your team how much you care for them.
Work-life balance
According to Forbes , Work-life balance is an important aspect of a healthy work environment. Maintaining a work-life balance helps reduce stress and helps prevent burnout in the workplace. Work-life balance may have been a bit difficult to attain a few years ago, but during the pandemic, employees have been obliged to work at home to avoid the virus. Over-worked customer support employees are in danger of jeopardizing more than their work—their social lives, as well as physical and mental health, are in danger too. Maintaining a healthy work-life balance makes healthy personal relationships and improves productivity and performance. Encourage your team to take time off and urge them to take their breaks appropriately. Allow them to breathe and ask them to perform light exercises from their stations. Joining them in their coffee break can make a huge difference.
MEANINGFUL CAREERS: Clearly defined goals
Failing to clearly define your company’s mission and objectives leads to confusion and employee dissatisfaction. Your employees do not only work for income, they also need to have job satisfaction that only a meaningful sense of direction can provide. Having a skillful team working for you may mean nothing if your company does not have a clear and defined objective in place. Clear direction and guidance not only create motivated customer service representatives but also establish standards to evaluate your team’s performance, develop a structure of project plans, and form a basis for budget plans.
Coaching, Feedback & Evaluation
Coaching and constructive feedback is vital to the ongoing development of your employees. This allows them to learn about their strengths and weaknesses and lets them come up with ways on how to better themselves. Positive feedback can be as easy as giving them a meaningful pat on the back, congratulating them on a job well done, and thanking them for everything that they do for the company. On the other hand, negative feedback may be more difficult to provide, especially to those who need it. Write a verbal plan starting with bullet points of the important things your employee needs to know, practice what you need to say, and practice again. Anticipate what the other would say and plan out your responses.
Upskilling
To ensure the growth and development of your business, it is important to ensure the same of your team. Training involves programs that enable employees to learn precise skills or gain knowledge to improve job performance. Creating a skills development plan for employees helps identify areas for improvement and establishes new ways on how to resolve new and old issues. Regular upskill training encourages your teammates to take up higher positions such as in leadership, empowers them with your goals and objectives, encourages positive employee retention, and increases employee engagement.
REWARDING GREAT PERFORMANCE
A lot of employees have existentialist moments within the company and ask themselves what their true purpose is, and those who engage in this thinking are the ones who usually think of leaving to find work that they think may be better for them. Remember that an unrecognized employee is a dissatisfied employee. Employee recognition aims to create job satisfaction by strengthening certain activities and practices to ensure better performance. A good reward and recognition program allows your teammates to be happier by boosting morale, improving retention, and promoting self-improvement. Employee appreciation activities may include your usual rewards and recognition events, giveaways of company-branded merchandise, monetary bonuses, and recognition walls.
ENGAGING COMMUNICATION
Employee communication is essential in keeping your team updated about the goals, objectives, projects, and other activities that your company is undertaking. Often do we hear observers saying “the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.” When a company’s actions are uncoordinated, especially when different departments are acting contrarily, this is a reflection of bad management. Keep your employees up-to-date with the latest happenings within your company and ensure that transparency is practiced always.
Engaging communication is a two-way street. It’s one way to get your message across, but it’s another to know what your employees think and what the company needs to do to improve. There are many ways on how to get feedback, but however you do it, employee feedback needs to steer your business more towards its goals. Regular satisfaction surveys are a way to tell your team that their opinions matter and that they have a say in the decision-making that happens in the company. Remember to keep their responses to heart, keep them confidential, and give feedback to respondents within a reasonable time frame. Remember not to ask questions that you are not prepared to address!
VXI is ready to wield the power of job satisfaction to make your business more effective, efficient, and financially viable. Contact us.
