Key Factors for Greater Job Satisfaction

1. Engagement

One of the things that can keep you satisfied is engagement. When you have a good level of engagement in your work, you’re bound to be more productive and more satisfied. Everyone is generally much more productive when they are fully engaged with what they’re doing. Thus, by increasing your level of engagement, you will find yourself excelling and bringing a sense of pride and purpose to your role. One of the best ways to find this type of meaning in any work you are doing is by coming up with a clear understanding of how your work impacts your company and its respective goals. By looking to see how your part is making a difference, you can maximize your level of engagement and keep yourself continually motivated to keep going.

2. Respect, praise, and appreciation

Everyone seeks both respect and praise for the job they are doing. Everyone wants to feel like their work is appreciated in the workplace. Every employee is going to be much more satisfied with their roles when they are constantly feeling respect and getting praise from upper management. A simple “thank you” goes a long way for the average employee. A lot of supervisors might be overly critical or vocal whenever they notice an employee doing something substandard or wrong. Whether it’s a mistake or them not living up to expectations. Regardless, they need to make the same effort to make it known when their employees do something right and when they are doing a great job.

In fact, according to the Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Survey conducted in 2016, nearly 50% of all surveyed employees noted that respect from their supervisor was deemed “very important” to their level of satisfaction within their job. The Society for Human Resource Management noted that constructive criticism and having open communication within the workplace was one of the best ways to encourage shared respect between both upper management and employees.

To put it simply, one of the most important things for any employee is feeling you are working a job where you’re valued and respected. If this isn’t how you feel about your current workplace, you’ll want to try to seek out a human resources employee that you can discuss things with. Or, you can ask for appreciation directly from your supervisor when you do a good job. Staff should be able to receive the support they need in order to help them do a great job. Any stress and anxiety can lead to issues down the line so employees should alway feel like they can get the support they need, visit claritychi.com for advice.

3. Fair Compensation

A lot of employees are looking for fair compensation more than ever. According to some 2016 surveys, employees ranked being paid fairly as the 2nd most important factor when it comes to job satisfaction. The benefits they receive were ranked as the 3rd most important with as many as 60% rating it as something critical to their level of satisfaction with their jobs. Thus, you can see that employees want to feel as though they are valued through fair compensation. Otherwise, they will look elsewhere when it comes to finding work.

However, what’s just as important as getting fairly compensated is being recognized and praised by the higher-ups. A lot of employees will take recognition and respect over pay increases. In a survey that was conducted by BambooHR, as many as 1/3 of employees said they would rather receive a mass email from an executive at their company praising their accomplishments for a job well done over getting $500 quietly.

4. Motivation

You need to know what is motivating you within your current role or the role that you are seeking. This is something that can boost your level of satisfaction. What is motivating you in your current role? What is your inspiration for wanting to do it? What is inspiring you to advance in your career? Figuring out the answers to these critical questions will allow you to identify what’s keeping you from being satisfied. That way, you can identify it and take the requisite steps to correct it. This could mean you need to change jobs, change careers, or even alter your approach to your current job or even a change to your commute. Many people find that including exercise on a bike or walking to work each day helps them greatly on their commute.

5. Life Satisfaction

While it may seem obvious, the majority of people that aren’t satisfied in life aren’t likely to find work that satisfies them. A meta-analysis that was published in 2010 reviewed over 220 studies that examined the correlation between life and job satisfaction. Those reviewing it found that anyone that was predisposed to being satisfied and happy in life was much more likely to be satisfied in their work. They found that the majority of people that weren’t satisfied or content in their own lives were unlikely to find it in their work. Thus, improving your life outside of what you do for work is one of the first steps you should take if you want to enhance your chances of being adequately satisfied in your job or work.