What Is Employee Satisfaction & How to Increase It for the Benefit of Your Business?

It is essential that your ecommerce business prioritizes the provision of a consistently good experience to its employees. Employees are the foundation of the company and are unequivocally linked to the growth and overall success of the business.

Today, employee motivation and job satisfaction is a crucial objective of every enterprise since it facilitates employee retention as well improving employee productivity. There are various factors that contribute to an increase in employee satisfaction.

In this article, we will provide a detailed understanding of the concept of employee satisfaction in addition to specific tips on how to increase it for your business's benefit. Furthermore, we elaborate on how Core Teams can assist in increasing employee satisfaction through personalization and gamification.

Table of Contents

• What Is Employee Satisfaction?
• Why Is Employee Satisfaction Important?: 4 Benefits
• How to Measure Employee Satisfaction: Metrics and Tools
• How to Improve Employee Satisfaction: 10 Tips and Practices
• Increasing Employee Satisfaction in Your Business

What Is Employee Satisfaction?

The employee satisfaction definition relates to a term that describes the level of fulfillment that team members feel for their respective roles at work and the organization as a whole.

It is a great measure of the work culture of a company, and improving employee satisfaction leads to a reduction in employee turnover, improves productivity, increases revenue, and enables the long-term growth of your company.

Why Is Employee Satisfaction Important?: 4 Benefits

Knowing how to improve employee satisfaction is helpful in creating a workplace where team members enjoy doing their jobs, making them more likely to get more work done. However, before we get to this, it’s important to understand why this is such a crucial metric in HR.

Generally speaking, when you constantly and effectively foster team engagement, your enterprise thrives with high employee retention and other advantages.

Let’s take a look at the 4 most important benefits:

• Employee Retention: Organizations that prioritize employee satisfaction have higher employee retention rates than all the other organizations. Employees that feel fulfilled and enjoy their work are more often dedicated to the enterprise and have no need to seek greener pastures. A Gallup employee satisfaction survey shows that 52% of exiting employees state that their decision to leave could have been prevented by their managers and organizations focusing on employee development and satisfaction.
• Increased Revenue: Satisfied employees are loyal to the company which makes them dedicated to achieving both short-term and long-term business goals. Employee satisfaction also improves overall productivity in addition to customer satisfaction, which results in more revenue for your company.
• Improved Employee Productivity: A team of satisfied employees tends to be more productive and driven to achieve the business’s goals and objectives. Furthermore, happy employees are often self-driven and enjoy their work, which translates into reduced absenteeism. An economic study at the University of Warwick discovered that employee satisfaction has a direct link to employee productivity.
• Customer Satisfaction: Employee satisfaction brings about a positive attitude which is vital for enthusiastic customer interactions resulting in great customer experiences. According to a survey quoted in Forbes, leaders in business agree that improving employee satisfaction and employee engagement translates into a better customer experience and higher customer satisfaction.

How to Measure Employee Satisfaction: Metrics and Tools

Improved employee satisfaction and retention are great indicators of a good workplace environment and successful business. The most important step in working towards improving job satisfaction is measuring employee satisfaction.

Employee Satisfaction Metrics

Keeping in mind that it is essential to regularly measure your organization’s employee satisfaction index, it is relevant to note that there are several qualitative and quantitative data points that can be used to assess employee satisfaction.

Here are four commonly used employee satisfaction metrics.

Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)

The Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) is a metric which is measured by the question of how likely an employee is to recommend your organization as a place to work. Having received feedback, you can break it down to promoters who are the more likely to recommend the business, detractors who are dissatisfied and unlikely to recommend your business, plus passives that are neutral and would neither recommend the company nor bad mouth the same.

To calculate your eNPS, the formula is:

eNPS = % of Promoters - % of Detractors

Employee Turnover Rate

Employee satisfaction directly influences their intention to turn over. Having employees resign is very costly for any organization and a lower turnover leads to fewer disruptions, greater productivity and more cohesion.

To calculate employee turnover use the formula below:

Turnover Rate = Number of Terminations During a Given Period / Number of Employees at the Beginning of the Period

Employee Satisfaction Index (ESI)

This employee satisfaction metric (ESI) uses three questions to measure the extent to which employees are satisfied with their job. These questions are all measured on a scale from 1 to 10, and they include:

• How satisfied are you with your workplace?
• How well does your workplace meet your expectations?
• How close is your workplace to your ideal job?

The formula to calculate ESI is:

ESI = ((Question Mean Value / 3) - 1) / 9 x 100

Absenteeism Rate

Absenteeism in the workplace is a sign of many things including poor governance, poor working conditions, and lack of a work-life balance. It is also an indicator of employee dissatisfaction, where a high absenteeism rate correlates with low employee satisfaction.

Below is a formula used to calculate the employee absenteeism rate:

Absenteeism Rate = Number of Absent Days / Number of Available Work Days in a Given Period

Employee Satisfaction Measurement Tools

In your efforts to improve the working environment within your organization, it is important to use effective tools for collecting feedback and measuring employee satisfaction, so you should consider various approaches for accurate findings.

Below are some employee satisfaction measurement tools:

Employee Satisfaction Surveys

Employee satisfaction surveys are a top method for measuring employee satisfaction using employee satisfaction questionnaires distributed to the team members with the intention of collecting feedback. An effective employee satisfaction survey should be concise and easily comprehended by the employees.

Well-curated employee satisfaction survey questions can be used to measure satisfaction in specific areas including co-worker relationships, career progression, stress levels, and management expectations. Surveys help you understand the needs of employees and what can be done to improve employee satisfaction.

Some of the employee satisfaction questions you can consider asking include:

• Do you think your team respects your personal time?
• Does your team provide you with the support you need at work?
• Are you happy with the opportunities for growth available at your company?
• If you encounter an issue at work, do you know who to reach out to for solutions?

Employee Satisfaction Software

Employee satisfaction software is another one of the tools to measure employee satisfaction. Employee satisfaction software assists organizations to uncover opportunities to engage employees and drive the growth of the business, through the help of technology. It aims at creating great work environments and cultures that not only drive productivity and performance but also make employees more dedicated and aligned with the objectives of the organization.

Some of the key features you need to look out for in employment satisfaction software include goals, performance management, survey and feedback, system integrations, analytics, and chat support plus dashboards and reports, among others.

Examples of employee satisfaction software include Culture Amp, Motivosity, Nectar, and Kazoo.

How to Improve Employee Satisfaction: 10 Tips and Practices

Ecommerce businesses with a highly satisfied workforce prioritize understanding their employees' goals and aspirations, on top of making day-to-day tasks more enjoyable.

Here are some tips and practices on how to increase employee satisfaction:

Involve Employees in Decision-Making

According to research done by the Harvard Business School, involving your employees in the decision-making process shows your team members that you value their opinions. Giving employees a say in decision-making, especially when implementing policies that impact their daily operations, greatly improves employee satisfaction. Leaders of the different departments can also host monthly and quarterly meetings with their team members to set goals and discuss strategies to achieve these objectives.

Setup Flexible Schedules

COVID-19 created more hybrid and remote working situations in companies worldwide. Allowing employees to set their own schedules or having a flexible schedule in place for your team members is great for employee satisfaction. It is important, however, to set goals that can be tracked to ensure employee performance. Furthermore, ensure that productivity and communication standards are set and prioritized.

Create Career Development Roadmaps

It is vital for employee satisfaction that your company has a clear roadmap of progression and promotion. When your employees understand what they need to do to progress to more senior roles, they are filled with a sense of purpose and driven to achieve the set goals to meet the criteria for promotion. Studies by Robert Walters show that 69% of millennial employees say that career progression keeps them engaged at work.

Provide Learning Opportunities

In order to move up the roadmap of progression and improve employee satisfaction, it is vital for the team members to have the training and skills needed to qualify for promotions within the company. Supporting continuous learning opportunities leads to employee development, which helps your staff members achieve their individual career goals.

Recognize Employee Milestones

Recognizing and celebrating your employees for hitting a milestone is the simplest and cheapest way of boosting employee satisfaction. As you celebrate top performers within the enterprise, it is essential to figure out ways to show appreciation for your entire team. One of the ways to make sure everyone is celebrated is by commemorating birthdays with a cake or team lunch courtesy of the company.

Encourage Work-Life Balance

Team members without a work-life balance tend to be stressed out very often, which lowers employee satisfaction and productivity. 51% of employees consider work-life balance a very crucial organizational attribute, and this was emphasized in a study by the IBM Institute for business value. Having time for their personal and social lives helps employees take their minds off work to refresh and rejuvenate.

Provide Regular Feedback

It is best to schedule weekly or monthly brief meetings with your employees to provide feedback rather than waiting for the annual performance review. Such meetings provide team leaders with opportunities to speak to their team members about identified strengths and weaknesses, which gives employees a chance to create an improvement plan. According to Gallup data, employees strongly agreed that when they received meaningful feedback in the past week, they were more likely to feel engaged than their colleagues who received no feedback.

Make Use of Core Teams

Using an employee engagement software like Core Teams is another efficient and effective way of boosting employee satisfaction in your organization. Core Teams provides all the necessary tools that you may need to improve the satisfaction of your team members. These include but are not limited to employee onboarding, personalized training, reward programs, challenges, and much more.

Encourage Social Interactions

Providing your team members with opportunities to get to know each other is another great way to boost employee satisfaction. Coming together as a team encourages connectedness and improves collaboration among the employees. It is advisable to organize regular team-building activities and annual team-building retreats where all employees are present, hence creating friendships among team members which makes the workplace more enjoyable.

Define Workplace Culture

Having the company’s visions, goals, culture, and expectations of their employees set out in writing and shared with the team members gives meaning to employees’ daily activities. According to Gallup, four in ten US employees strongly agree that knowing the mission and vision of their company makes their role in the grand scheme of things feel more important. This leads to employee satisfaction since the employees know and understand why their work matters.

Increasing Employee Satisfaction in Your Business

To sum up, having a satisfied workforce is a key element in running a successful ecommerce business. Employee satisfaction improves overall productivity which in turn facilitates increased profits and revenue, ensures employee retention, reduces absenteeism, and improves both employee and customer experiences.

Regularly measuring your company’s employee satisfaction index puts you in a better position to know when you need to make improvements to your employee satisfaction strategy to ensure that your staff are happy and enjoying their work. Running employee satisfaction surveys and using employee satisfaction software provides you with much-needed insights to boost job satisfaction. The Core Teams platform is also useful in the process of increasing employee satisfaction.

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