How Can You Help Your Unhappy Employees – and Should You?

This article talks about how according to a recent Accenture survey more than half of employees who responded were dissatisfied with their jobs. The article continues on discussing why they are unhappy:
Why are employees dissatisfied? Top reasons were:

* Low pay (47 percent of women, 44 percent of men);
* Lack of opportunity (36 percent of women, 32 percent of men);
* No chance for career advancement (33 percent of women, 34 percent of men).

This section of the article ties in closely with Chapter 6 of our textbook entitled Designing a Motivating Work Environment. While many corporations will have measures in place to combat such problems stated above, a small business may not have the resources or know-how to defeat these problems.

First, to fight back against the problem involving employees feeling like they are under paid a company needs to look their performance incentive system. They have many options including piece rate systems, individual bonuses, merit pay, sales commissions, awards, team bonuses, gainsharing, profit sharing, and stock options. Many employees only seem to look their hourly wages, but in reality they may be receiving benefits other than actual paycheck. I think the most important thing a company needs to do is use a merit pay system, rewarding the high performing employees is an important factor companies need to take into account. While a company might not be able to afford using a merit pay system they can opt to use a one-time reward such as a bonus in the form a lump sum.

The second reason employees were dissatisfied is due to the lack of opportunity. I think there are three key things a company can do to fight this, such as using job rotation, rob enlargement, and job enrichment. Too often employees will become discouraged if they are stuck doing the same monotonous task day in and day out. Using job rotation, enlargement, and enrichment will benefit both the company and the employee at the same time. The employee will be less likely to get bored on the job and it will lead to a sense of empowerment. The company will benefit because if any employee can't make work on a given day, there will be others who will have the skills to cover for an absent coworker.

Lastly, lack of career advancement was the third factor in job dissatisfaction. Employees can be motivated through performance appraisals and this can lead to their understanding about their lack of promotion. It can help them understand they are adequately placed within the company based on their performance. Personally I worked at a retail store before, and they did not provide any formal feedback, but would often be quick to punish for things policy violations, but never as quick to praise or let you know how you are doing on the job. If a company does not let an employee know how they are performing they will assume they are doing well, but not receiving feedback and will believe they are not eligible for advancement. Another important factor companies need to recognize is setting goals for their employees. Setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Aggressive, Realistic, and Time-bound) goals will help motivate employees and help them advance within the company. Both the employee and company will be able to see how an employee progresses over time and is able to achieve important goal milestones according to whatever the goal is set towards.

It's always important to help keep your employees from becoming unhappy and failing to do so will result in high turnover and unproductive employees. Having unhappy employees will also result in unhappy customers because they are more likely to provide poor service.


Article: http://smallbiztrends.com/2011/03/how-can-you-help-your-unhappy-employees-%E2%80%93-and-should-you.html

Zachary Long