by Emily Mason, Manager, Office Support at Abrivia Recruitment
What makes a great work place? Is it people, pay, benefits?
Traditional beliefs held that we should manage the workplace from the standpoint that people will always dislike work and when they are at work they will always want to be somewhere else.
For years, researchers and companies have tried to measure and understand employee opinions to understand what makes a successful workplace.
In the 1990’s, the Gallup organisation initiated a multi-year research project to try and define a great workplace. The first task was to define what is great, they found that a great workplace is where employees are satisfied in their jobs but companies would not be considered great workplaces if they were poor performers in terms of business outcomes, employee retention, customer satisfaction, productivity, and profitability.
The Gallup Institute did research into a great place to work and covered 10 million sets of responses in 41 languages across 114 countries and came up with the following key statistics: Engaged & Motivated Teams are 27% less absent, 12% higher in terms of customer satisfaction and three times more likely to succeed. They experience 18% higher productivity and 12% higher profitability. The opposite of this is a disengaged and demotivated workforce which displayed 31% higher turnover, 51% loss in inventory and 62% more accidents.
In essence, there are no great companies, just great working teams!
What to you need to do for employees in order to ensure that they are satisfied in their job?
· Give Employees a meaning
· Help them see their future
· Have fun
Employees need to know what is expected from them, have the tools to do their work, the opportunity to do their job well, receive recognition, a caring working environment, an encouraging work environment where their opinion counts and their role is considered important.
Finally, the company/team are committed to doing a good job, they work in a fun environment and get on well with their colleagues and can learn, grow and progress.
This is no small feat but is very important when one considers that Ireland is very close to full employment. It is now even more important to retain and motivate your workforce and ensure they are happy. Ultimately happiness leads to success!
