Just kidding. I just wrote that so you’d click. In fact, we learned today during a briefing from SHRM that we’re actually pretty doggone satisfied. According to Evren Esen, director of SHRM’s survey programs, the annual Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Survey shows today’s employees have the highest level of satisfaction since 2005. Culture and connection are huge for employees. So all this work we’ve been talking about and blogging about for the last decade haven’t been for naught. If this survey can be believed, and it can, because they do it every year, there are like 600 people in it, and it spans multiple generations, respectful treatment is a top contributor to job satisfaction.
While this is great news for managers and leaders, after all, respect is free…it’s sort of sad that it took ten years of surveys, countless management tomes, and a partridge in a pear tree for us to get it. If you work with people at all, or if you manage them, or if you are in HR, please grab the survey results. You’ll find all the usual findings and percentages there.
I’m going to tell you what the survey results mean to me. Plainspeak like.
More money, Less problems
Look, people want to be compensated. Now that employers are actually paying what people want to make (or close to it) because the economy is up, people are happier. I get that employers were crunched by the recession but if you can keep compensation growing with the market, you’re doing something right.
We’re all the same, satisfactorily speaking
Priorities and levels of satisfaction were virtually identical across Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials. I wonder if we’ll see any difference in four years when Gen Z enters the workforce. But for all the hullabaloo around Millennials (managing them, working with them, engaging them), they are maybe just not all that different?
Teamwork makes the dream work
People like working with people. In fact, 77% of respondents were satisfied with their relationships with co-workers and opportunities to use skills and abilities. And a whopping 89% were confident they could meet their goals. As the manager of a team, I feel like this is incredible! Are you happy about this? Because it’s great news.
Bottom line, respect your employees, pay them as well as you can, help them work to their strengths. Loads of respondents (it’s a technical term) want career advancement opportunities.
HEY! Except for the payment thing, all of these options are super free or very low cost. You can do them and what’s more, you should do them.
Get after it.
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