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14 Reasons Why Employees LOVE Their Job – Try This with Your Team

  • By Andrea Schlapia
  • |
  • February 13, 2014
Photo courtesy ©iStock/Getty Images/Thinkstock
Photo courtesy ©iStock/Getty Images/Thinkstock

Have a little fun this week with Valentine’s Day! Can your employees name 14 things they love about their job? If so, great! If not, it may be time to look at areas your firm needs to improve. Businesses as a whole tend to spend time on client satisfaction surveys, but lack a system to ensure employee satisfaction is favorable.

Employees are likely to be actively engaged when upper management, including the boss, pays attention to their work, provides tools and resources for the job, listens, and addresses employee concerns.

Employers tend to assume employees are happy and workplace perks are sufficient. Don’t assume! Ask your employees and act on the results.

Here are 14 reasons employees love their job.

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(1)  Co-workers:  Relationships with colleagues may be more important than you think. Healthy workplace relationships improve productivity while disconnected relationships contribute to an unengaged team.

(2)  Work Enjoyment: Employees who are passionate about their career and the company they represent will perform at their best. Identify what your team members are passionate about and ensure they are placed in the position that best suits them.

(3)  Autonomy, Freedom & Flexibility:  Provide employees with freedom to ad-lib, create, and innovate.

(4)  Culture:  Loving an office culture isn’t just about a plush office and free coffee. Leaders need to provide a commendable culture through example by demonstrating trust and communication. A culture filled with dysfunction, toxicity, and disengaged leaders easily resorts to employee turnover.

(5)  Learning Opportunities:  Provide tools, resources, and educational workshops to allow each team member to grow personally and professionally.

(6)  Challenges:  Team members need to feel challenged in their position and on a constant path to improve and develop new skills. If challenges are not present, they will feel their position is repetitive and humdrum. Assign duties and provide tools to stretch employee limits.

(7)  Compensation:  Employee passion and drive fall short if they feel they are being paid less than they deserve. Consider providing a survey to each team member asking if they feel they are properly compensated. Prepare a survey analysis of each position within your firm and ensure team members fall into the range of acceptable compensation.

(8)  Benefits:  Stay in tune with the benefit package you offer and throw in some perks your employees can boast about. To stay competitive, learn what other companies are offering and try to match a few of their ideas.

(9)  Advancement:  Providing advancement opportunities to your team is vital. If employees feel stuck in a dead end career due to the lack of opportunities to advance, they will leave. Create a career plan for each team member and review frequently, even if your company is small.

(10)  Empowerment:  Employees thrive when they are empowered to accomplish their goals without a bunch of red-tape. If employees aren’t allowed to make their own decisions, they will feel they are walking on eggshells. Establish employee autonomy to cultivate productivity and trust levels.

(11)  Feel Valued:  Everyone needs to feel valued and believe their contributions play a vital role in company success. Hand out a pat on the back with verbal recognition to acknowledge employee efforts. Monetary rewards or an occasional gift should be tied to exemplary performance.

(12)  Values:  Consider asking team members regularly about their values and how they align with the values of your firm. Incorporate this question into your hiring process.

(13)  Career Syncs with Life:  Employees are satisfied if their career syncs well with their personal life. Offer flexible schedules and telecommuting to allow team members to take time for personal and family events.

(14)  My Boss:  Make certain you practice what you preach. Establish clear goals, support your team, provide direction, and inspire team members to succeed. Brush up on your management and leadership skills to avoid micromanagement, redundant criticism, and poor communication. Check out this article to put your leadership skills in check. 10 Tips to Spot a Bad Manager.

In conclusion, provide anonymous surveys to team members to identify what they love about their job and if they would recommend your firm to others as a good place to work. Put their answers into actionable steps to clean up areas that warrant improvement.

Still need some help? Our focus is on practice management strategies to enhance and improve both business and personal life.  We support professionals who desire to make major and comprehensive improvements that examine all aspects, not just an isolated area for change.

Let us know what questions you have about strategic planning, business development, operational effectiveness, the human element, or whatever is on your mind! Leave us a comment or email the Ironstone team.

 

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Author Bio

Andrea Schlapia, RCC™, HCS, sHRBP, is the Founder and CEO of Ironstone, which represents the culmination of her 20+ year career within the financial services industry. Her experience began as a financial advisor evolving into a consultant coach for advisors entering the field. This ignited her passion to support others through learning and development of best practices in order to achieve substantial results. To this end, she followed her desire into positions of senior-level practice management specialists for Dreyfus, Prudential, and DWS Investments prior to the realization of Ironstone.  Andrea’s focus is on practice management strategies to enhance and improve both business and personal life. Andrea identifies 4 key performance areas known as the Fundamental 4™, which are required to design, develop, and sustain a successful business. Through coaching sessions and speaking engagements, she captivates her audience with interactive, high-energy presentations which are built with “how-to” strategies resulting in real-world implementation for significant impact. Andrea has been featured in multiple publications and audio broadcasts as a specialist and distinguished spokeswoman in the financial industry.

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