Employee job satisfaction is a significant indicator of the health of a business. The higher the level of job satisfaction, the better the health of the company tends to be. To improve these metrics, human resource professionals have employed some interesting initiatives.

But which initiatives tend to work and which don’t?

Ten professionals have shared their insights on the topic and given their ideas on methods, tools and techniques to help improve your satisfaction levels within an organization.

Show Them You Care About Their Career

Employees have a job to do and most companies are focused on ensuring that they do their jobs.  However, people don’t stick around in companies simply to do their jobs, they are looking to develop a long-term career and want to ensure that they are in a place where the company cares about them being successful long-term.  Too many companies talk about career development but very few deliver.  Lack of career progression is the biggest cause of turnover among employees.  Show them you’re serious about their careers and you’ll have employees who stick around for a long time.

Jamie Schneiderman, Career Spark

Health Initiatives

Healthy employees do good work. Creating a health-focused, team-oriented competition is a great way to engage employees, and encouraging a healthy level of fitness can be both fun and positive. Think of fun ways to encourage employees to take their health seriously.  

Dan Reck, MATClinics

Reward Systems

Recognizing employees and rewarding them is a powerful way to improve employee engagement. Create a reward system tied to incentives that employees can be working toward! This will enhance productivity and improve morale all while shedding light on the employees that work hard and deserve recognition.

Candi Luciano, Y Scouts

Embrace a Work-Life Balance

When companies understand and embrace the balance of work and personal life, it always seems to lead to employee satisfaction. Seeking the work-life balance is not a new concept, but the desire to actually meet it is much higher now. Since 2020 has brought a wave of working from home, flexible work times, and adjusted schedules, employers that are eager to keep the work-life balance going beyond COVID-19 guidelines will see their employees thrive.

Rex Murphey, Montauk Services

Listening to What Employees Want

It’s vital to listen to your employees and learn what motivates them. Just because the director of Human Resources would like a company picnic or an all-adult trip to Orlando does not mean that’s actually what will ring bells for employees. It’s also important to remember that introverts make highly capable, productive employees in many roles. Don’t overlook them by making every company social event a massive cocktail party.

Joni Holderman, Thrive! Resumes

Organizing Group Volunteer Events

Time off for community volunteerism is a top engagement because group volunteer events can improve communication and team building. Giving back to the community feels good, does good and shows that businesses are concerned with building goodwill. Service to others pays dividends.

Keith Piscitello, Simply Sophisticated Wealth Planning, LLC

Bonuses and Spiffs

It is no lie that in today’s workforce, one of the best and most effective employee engagement tools is the sought-after incentive reward trend dealing with bonuses and spiffs. People are generally motivated by incentives and bonuses. They also love to have a goal to work toward. Companies should not only take a look at one specific trend but work on implementing multiple trends and tools for employee engagement to reach their maximum potential.

Andrew Aziz, HR Professional

Work-Life Flexibility

Work flexibility concerning working at home, whether it is a hybrid schedule or completely work from home. This is a perk that will give employees an instant quality of life boost–especially for those with a long commute. Also, the reduced cost of working from home (less gas used, less eating out) can feel like a pay raise in itself!

Steven Brown, DP Electric Inc

Fostering a Sense of Community and Culture

With the rise of remote work due to COVID-19, I think it is important for companies to foster a sense of community and culture. I think the best way to do this is to start employee engagement channels on your messaging platform (Microsoft Teams, Slack, Skype, etc.). This allows employees to interact with each other and feel like they are a part of a larger community.

Dana Felix, HR Analyst

Connecting Work to Something Greater

I think the strongest employee engagement tool for newer generations is a connection to making things better, be that locally, state-wide, nationally, environmentally or whatever. Younger generations no longer have the buy-in to a single company that a guaranteed retirement used to engender – now, employees job-hop far more often than ever in the past, and the motivations are less tied to a gold watch and “check-for-life” scenarios and more tied to doing something meaningful. Leaders need to help employees feel connected to something greater than P&L statements, or they will lose their talent to those who can.

Matt Lee, Learning and Development Leader

Don’t Forget the Human Element

Considering that many teams are now working remotely, employees are really missing the human element. I’ve seen many companies setting up virtual happy hours and webinars to ensure that employees stay connected and are not getting burnt out while working from home. I think it is important that other companies take note of this and invest in their employees’ wellbeing – including their social interactions.

Nikitha Lokareddy, Digital Marketing Company