How to ensure your employees are a happy lot

Meeta Wasan Gujral

Gaining employee loyalty and satisfaction is a very difficult task. Various companies come up with different strategies to combat employee dissatisfaction and attrition.

However, if you look closely, there is no single practice or methodology that works well by itself -- all of them  need to work in unison. 

In an ideal world, each employee's needs should be addressed at an individual level. However, this is not an easy task as neither is it cost-effective nor realistic. I suggest that employee satisfaction should be addressed at two levels.

The first level needs to be looked after by the company as a whole and the second, at a more personal level by each manager, supervisor and team leader, if you will.

The company needs to understand what to improve in specific terms and what changes to make. This may perhaps be best understood by conducting a survey.

There are some generic methods that may be adopted to maximize employee satisfaction.

Hire The Right candidate

It is important that we assess a candidate's technical skills, knowledge, and cultural fit within the company before we invite him or her to come and work with us. Having done so, we must work on ensuring that the individual feels secure in his job at all times.

A sense of security may be further strengthened by the financial stability of the company. This becomes especially important when economic conditions are challenging, and can arouse a sense of insecurity and constant dissatisfaction in employees. 

Encourage Employee Growth

Secondly, the environment must promote an employee's intellectual, financial and vertical growth. Often, a constant intellectual challenge presents  a sense of achievement and satisfaction in all of us. The importance of self-gratification and achievement translates directly into a sense of satisfaction.

This can be achieved through training, added responsibilities, freedom to choose one's tools to perform a certain task, promotions, etc. 

Compensate Your Employees Well

Having said that, we cannot ignore the value of compensation in a person's life. Companies must ensure that the salary and compensation offered is competitive, if not at par, with other companies in a similar space.

The compensation may comprise of salaries, incentives, bonuses, stock options, loyalty programs, etc., depending on the industry, job function, tenure and seniority. It is important to value and appreciate performance at all stages and functions. 

Make An Effort To Connect With Employees

On a different level, the company must ensure an emotional connect with its employees. For this, companies must constantly train their managers to mentor teams and build strong relationships.

While the company may continue to do things at a more strategic level, it is important that employees have a strong relationship with their immediate supervisor or manager. This should, more often than not, be initiated by the manager himself.  I believe that the more we openly rely on our teams, better would be the sense of belonging and also, performance. I appreciate my top performers, rising stars, hard workers and people who are loyal to me and the company.

I do this verbally at every meeting and occasion possible - at the coffee machine, lunch breaks, and during every walk in the corridor. 

Commend Your Employees' Achievements

As a company, we hold monthly sessions to  publicly announce people's achievements - irrespective of that being big or small. The idea is to include as many team members as possible.

If employees can walk away with a certificate or a medal or something that they can publicly display, it is even better.  This, I find, is one of the biggest ways to ensure a high percentage of satisfied employees especially in a sales environment like ours.

Make Work Fun And Flexible

In today's day and age, when men and women share responsibilities at home and work, it is imperative that companies give flexible time to both parents - importantly, women. Essentially, companies must recognise that if they understand and encourage women to put family and other social obligations above work, they respond by reciprocating and being far more committed than men at the workplace. Before I conclude, I would like to talk about the importance of fun-filled activities and team outings. When an employee goes home after eight–10 hours of work, he or she should want to come back the next day and the days to come.  If companies can create that urge in most of its employees, we will have a satisfied team.

Meeta Wasan Gujral is the Founder and Director of Doon Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

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