JOB SATISFACTION

Job satisfaction is a combination of employees' positive or negative emotions, associated with whether they like or dislike their profession and work environment.

Overview Of Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is how workers feel about their jobs and the different aspects of those jobs. In other words, job satisfaction is associated with whether an employee likes or dislikes his or her profession and work environment. Besides, job satisfaction also describes the combination of their positive or negative emotions at work. This means that the organization will provide employees with benefits, work experiences, and personal expectations; job satisfaction is expressed by comparing the expectations and actual experience.

Why Should Businesses Care About Job Satisfaction?

Happy Employees - Developing Enterprises

A person's job satisfaction and life satisfaction are often considered separately by scientists. However, studies have shown that there is a close connection between these two factors - the higher an employee's level of job satisfaction, the more satisfied he or she is in life, and vice versa. At the same time, people who are satisfied at work will tend to support the mission and goals of the business. Keeping employees happy can help businesses achieve higher revenue and lower costs.

Satisfaction Affects Employee Performance

Regardless of whether employees are satisfied with their jobs in any aspect (such as organizational culture, recognition, rewards, etc.), they work hard to improve productivity. In particular, the connection between job satisfaction and performance is higher for difficult jobs than for less difficult ones.

Satisfaction Helps Employees Increase Their Commitment To The Organization

Employee’s loyalty is one of the most important factors that human resource managers need to pay attention to, for it can lead to serious consequences, affecting the organization's operations when the level of commitment of staff is low. Studies have shown that the higher workers' level of job satisfaction, the more committed they are to the organization, which then lessens their absence from work.

Factors Affecting Job Satisfaction

From the perspective of psychology, job satisfaction is closely related to human motivation. One of the most common and prominent theories in this area is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The theory suggests that human needs form a five-level hierarchy, from the most basic needs at the bottom level to more advanced needs at the top level:

  1. Physiological Needs: These are the needs necessary for human life, including food, water, shelter, clothing, etc. In an organization, financial compensation and health care are some benefits that help employees meet their basic physiological needs. 

  2. Safety Needs: These are the needs necessary to protect people from dangers, including physical safety, mental safety, financial security, etc. Security needs can manifest themselves through employees feeling physically safe in their workplace, as well as job security and/ or having appropriate company structures and policies.

  3. Love/Belonging Needs: These are the needs necessary for interaction and communication with people around them, including love, care, companionship, respect,... When the above 2 needs are satisfied, workers can concentrate on feeling as though they belong in the workplace. This may come within the frame of positive relationships with colleagues and supervisors in the work environment, and whether or not they feel they are a part of their team/ organization. 

  4. Esteem Needs: These are the needs necessary for individuals to feel confident, valuable, and capable; including respect from oneself, respect from others and achievements, etc. In any organization, employees always want to be valued and appreciated by their colleagues and their organization.

  5. Self-Actualization Needs: These are the necessary needs for self-development and improvement, including freedom, creativity, success, etc. This means that employees seek to self-actualize; they need to grow and develop to become everything they are capable of becoming. 

Organizations that want to improve employee job satisfaction should strive to meet employees' basic needs before progressing to address higher-level needs. Based on this basis, we can list 10 main factors that bring job satisfaction to employees, as follows:

Communication

Communication can be an extremely important factor that determines employees’ levels of satisfaction, both in their individual lives and at work. It is exhibited in allowing employees to be open, collaborative, reliable, and even confrontational when necessary.

Culture

Defining a company culture is related to job satisfaction because it provides values and guidance about topics ranging from organizational goals to appropriate levels of interaction between employees.

Security

Job satisfaction can be significantly boosted when employees feel a sufficient sense of security in the workplace. This sense of security often emerges when employees are confident they work for a stable company with long-term goals and feel a sense of belonging. Achieving this can be facilitated by fostering honest communication and transparency within the company.

Leadership

Leadership is associated with increased employee motivation, which in turn leads to job satisfaction. When a leader ensures that communication and instruction of tasks are transparent and easily understood, employee motivation and satisfaction will increase.

Opportunities

Employees may be more satisfied with their jobs when they have more challenging opportunities, such as participating in interesting and diverse projects, which in turn allow employees the chance to grow and better themselves professionally as well as financially. This also helps prevent employees from experiencing boredom due to the monotony of their job.

Career Development

Employees may be more satisfied with their jobs when they know the organization has a growth path for them. Besides performance appraisals, a path in place for growth can encourage employees to stay happier for longer.

Working Conditions

A collaborative and healthy work environment can increase job satisfaction. In other words, this is a place where diverse ideas and opinions are respected, with honest and constructive feedback, mentoring opportunities, and prevention of harassment.

Pay And Benefits

Organizational success and job satisfaction are also related to employee's perceptions of adequate pay and benefits. While these are not the only reasons employees find satisfaction in the workplace, studies show that pay and benefits have ranked highly on lists of job satisfaction factors.

Rewards And Recognition

Beyond monetary gain and being paid fairly for work, job satisfaction is influenced by promotional policies that are unambiguous and in line with employee expectations. Research shows that job satisfaction is related to the perceived fairness of how one is recognized at work for achievements.

Employee Personality

The factors related to job satisfaction mentioned above are all beyond the control of employees (such as the leadership ability of managers and the communication of company leaders), but what about the employees themselves? Can they change their level of satisfaction?

Researchers have discussed how to determine job satisfaction based on an employee's level of initiative at work. Do employees proactively seek out a manager for feedback? Do employees try their best to complete tasks within the company? Do employees try to stick to company goals, lead meetings, and ask questions when unsure about how to complete a task?

If yes, these employees are the ones who can show more satisfaction in the workplace. Proactiveness in the workplace can lead to positive job appraisals, which when fed back to the employee, can lead to satisfaction.

Some Activities Help Increase Employee Satisfaction With Work

Comprehensive Workplace Health Assessment

Evaluating employee health (including physical health and mental health) helps businesses determine an overview of the current health situation, thereby providing improvement measures to increase productivity, reduce absenteeism, and control healthcare costs for both employees and the organization. This is also one of the important benefits that contributes to increasing job satisfaction. Types of data sources used to collect information in workplace health assessments may include statistics on the number of occupational accidents, absenteeism rates, field surveys, and so on.

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Employee Assistance Program (EAP) acts as an intervention program, to help employees identify and solve problems they face in different areas of life such as career, finance, law, emotions, marital/family issues, etc. With EAP, businesses can help their employees reduce pressure, while not only reducing personal risks but also reducing organizational risks.

Mental Health Training In The Workplace

Nowadays, anxiety, depression, and even bipolar disorder among workers are increasing. Mental health training gives employees the knowledge, resources, and confidence to act appropriately on their mental health issues and those around them. While it is impossible to train employees to understand everything about mental health disorders, training programs give employees the ability to take control of their mental health and overall well-being.

Depending on the needs of each business, the Vietnam - France Psychology Institute designs business psychological care service packages with appropriate scales, subjects, implementation stages, and implementation topics. Contact us to discuss your business's need for psychological support services right at HERE.

References:

[1] Job Satisfaction-An Overview. https://euroasiapub.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/21ESSJan-4388-1.pdf

[2] Tổng Quan Lý Thuyết Về Sự Hài Lòng Trong Công Việc: Ý Nghĩa Lý Luận Cho Các Nghiên Cứu Quản Trị Liên Quan. https://media.neliti.com/media/publications/448292-literature-review-of-job-satisfaction-th-295b22b4.pdf

[3] What Is Job Satisfaction and Why Is It Important?. https://positivepsychology.com/job-satisfaction/#benefits

[4] Job satisfaction: theories and definitions. https://oshwiki.osha.europa.eu/en/themes/job-satisfaction-theories-and-definitions

[5] Đánh Giá Sức Khỏe Toàn Diện Tại Nơi Làm Việc. https://tamlyvietphap.vn/tam-ly-doanh-nghiep/danh-gia-suc-khoe-toan-dien-tai-noi-lam-viec-2665-55094-article.html

[6] Giới Thiệu Về Chương Trình Hỗ Trợ Nhân Viên - EAP. https://tamlyvietphap.vn/tam-ly-doanh-nghiep/gioi-thieu-ve-chuong-trinh-ho-tro-nhan-vien-eap-2665-55105-article.html

[7] Tầm Quan Trọng Của Đào Tạo Kỹ Năng Tâm Lý Cho Nhân Viên. https://tamlyvietphap.vn/tam-ly-doanh-nghiep/tam-quan-trong-cua-dao-tao-ky-nang-tam-ly-cho-nhan-vien-2665-55107-article.html

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