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Leaders, what are the top things to prioritise if you want to keep your team happy?
Freya Lucas
Jul 06, 2023
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New analysis from Glassdoor has revealed the top things leaders need to prioritise if they want to keep their team members happy, with culture, values, and senior leadership at the top of the list.
To reach the findings, researchers explored the strongest predictors of employee satisfaction, assigning each a percentage of importance. The top eight predictors were:
- Culture and values: 18.4 per cent
- Senior leadership: 17.6 per cent
- Career opportunities: 15.8 per cent
- Business outlook: 13.8 per cent
- Work-life balance: 12.1 per cent
- Diversity and inclusion: 11.4 per cent
- Compensation and benefits: 10.9 per cent.
Although compensation and benefits appeared last on the list, it does not mean that compensation isn’t important to employees. Rather, that the culture of a workplace plays a larger role in determining day-to-day job satisfaction than differences in salaries.
“While compensation and benefits may attract employees to a job, a company’s culture retains them,” the authors note.
For frontline workers, such as those working in early childhood education and care (ECEC), work/life balance is more important to overall satisfaction than for those who are office based.
“Attempts to address burnout and work-related stress through hybrid work or more flexible working arrangements is much more difficult for frontline workers where hybrid work is less common,” the authors note.
“Additionally, staff shortages in 2023 for frontline workers have likely contributed to increased fatigue and burnout among employees. For employers, addressing work-life balance for frontline workers where hybrid work or flexible working arrangements are not possible is a critical challenge,” they added.
Two major themes emerged from the data:
Senior leaders reinforce company culture: For most sectors, the quality of upper management is just as important as company culture in driving employee satisfaction. Senior management ratings’ similar contribution towards employee satisfaction across sectors signals the important role leaders play in driving company culture.
Compensation attracts, culture retains: Differences in company workplace culture plays a larger role in determining day-to-day job satisfaction than differences in salaries. While compensation and benefits may attract employees to a job, a company’s culture retains them.
Tips for Employers
Authors highlighted a few tips on how to take action from their findings:
- Knowing where you stand. Keeping employees in the loop on how the company is meeting their performance goals can help ensure that – regardless of whether business is booming or not – employees feel more secure in the decisions being made.
- Keeping up with evolving workplace culture. While culture and values continue to be the top workplace driver for overall employee satisfaction, many workplaces look different today than they did three years ago. Trying to establish elements of continuity as the workplace evolves, such as continuing to sponsor social events whether in person or virtually, will help boost employee satisfaction.
- Check-in with your employees. When in doubt, continue to solicit feedback from your employees. This on-the-ground view will allow for a more tailored approach in addressing employee needs that may have been overlooked.
To access the report, please see here.
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