Why is job satisfaction so important to employee happiness?

83.6% of employees believe that enjoying what you do is the strongest way to measure career success, even more important than having a high salary, according to research in August 2018 by CV Library (www.CVlibrary.co.uk).

Enjoying what you do, in both a big picture way and in the day-to-day detail makes a huge difference to job satisfaction and as a result, employee happiness.

What is job satisfaction?

Being satisfied and fulfilled in a job can be achieved in a number of ways and is different for each person.  As everybody is unique there is no one size fits all approach and different elements are important to different people.

However, as mentioned, one of the main ways to feel job satisfaction is enjoying what you do in your role – your responsibilities, projects, teams and colleagues.

Being fulfilled by your role also means believing that your job makes a valuable contribution to the business and that you have a pivotal role within your organisation.  It means believing that your company recognises your efforts and contribution, and importantly, rewards you well because of this.  Not only financially, but through a holistic approach of benefits, support and opportunities.

But, why is job satisfaction so important to employee happiness?

Employees are happy in their jobs when they believe they are recognised for their work.  Happy employees leads to loyal employees therefore it’s essential for a business to make sure their staff at all levels feel a sense of solid job satisfaction.

If they are keen to create a loyal employee workforce who are looking to work for their business long-term it’s key to make job satisfaction a central tenet of their approach.

How can an organisation make sure their employees feel a sense of job satisfaction?

Ask questions – An organisation needs to understand what it is their employees are looking to gain from their role and then work towards helping them achieving this.  As each situation is unique, taking the opportunities of appraisals and reviews means employer and employee can create a framework that will support staff to feel satisfied in their roles.

Give recognition and thanks – Recognising employee efforts, in particular for complex projects, and saying thank you goes a long way to contributing to job satisfaction.  It shows appreciation and acknowledges hard work.  Saying thank you for a job well done, whether over a group email, via intranet or at a team meeting can have a huge impact.

Provide career guidance and support – Job satisfaction isn’t only about the here and now in a current role, but also looking to the future and seeing how one job can lead to new opportunities within a company.  An organisation can help employees feel fulfilled in their role by offering career support and new opportunities to develop current and learn new skills.  Training, mentoring and secondment opportunities are all ways to offer additional career support to employees that can strengthen overall job satisfaction and loyalty to the team.

Create a positive work culture – Employee job satisfaction is based on more than simply individual roles and responsibilities.  The wider work culture can make a big different to job satisfaction.  Creating a positive, proactive, inclusive and engaging work culture will permeate across the business and help enhance satisfaction and engagement from employees.

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