This morning driving into work, the morning show I listen to was discussing a recent story about a woman who quit her job to go to the Royal Wedding. She'd requested the time off, booked her tickets, and at the last minute was told they couldn't get coverage so she couldn't go. Instead of staying home and going to work, she quit. In an interview with KMBC, she said she wanted to experience the modern version of a fairy tale.
The story spurred the question, is there an event you would quit your job for: a ride in a space ship, go to the Olympics, see your significant other who is home on leave?
Job satisfaction was the dividing line between those who said they would and those who said they would not. The radio personalities all gushed about how much they love their jobs and couldn't imagine quitting for anything other than an extreme family emergency where the station wouldn't work with them. I don't think it's any secret that employees who are satisfied in their jobs are more motivated, loyal, dedicated and productive. However, in the last few years, companies have gotten lazy. They've begun to feel secure that the perception of job security alone would keep their workers from leaving. This isn't the first story we've shared to the contrary. In fact, CM Arnold recently wrote about how workers quit just because they're dissatisfied. Callers shared stories about how they quit just because they wanted to watch the Superbowl. One caller shared a story about how her husband was coming home from Afghanistan on emergency leave for bi-pass surgery, and her office wouldn't let her take off because her boss was going on a cruise. I was mortified! How can an organization expect employees to go to bat for them, to put in the extra hours, to really go the extra mile when the organization isn't behind the employees?
At the end of the day, no organization is perfect and not every employee is going to be happy and love their job. However, it's management and HR's responsibility to try to maximize job satisfaction and reduce churn, which ultimately will impact revenue growth. It's tough to meet aggressive growth goals with unmotivated employees or high turn over. An entire Voice of the Employee program starts and ends with taking a good hard look at the workforce and what they need to be successful. Feedback is the linchpin of any good Voice of the Employee program. Without employee feedback, it's tough to make the right changes and measure employee satisfaction and engagement. Very similar to the framework of a Voice of the Customer program, a Voice of the Employee program should look something like this:
If your Voice of the Employee program is just in its infancy, make sure you have management buy in and set clear goals. Start small and prove the value, if you try to boil the ocean you'll likely fail and the program will stall. Most importantly, for any employee feedback management program, make sure you listen to your workforce and don't get to a place where they're unhappy and the Royal Wedding leads to resignations.
The story spurred the question, is there an event you would quit your job for: a ride in a space ship, go to the Olympics, see your significant other who is home on leave?
Job satisfaction was the dividing line between those who said they would and those who said they would not. The radio personalities all gushed about how much they love their jobs and couldn't imagine quitting for anything other than an extreme family emergency where the station wouldn't work with them. I don't think it's any secret that employees who are satisfied in their jobs are more motivated, loyal, dedicated and productive. However, in the last few years, companies have gotten lazy. They've begun to feel secure that the perception of job security alone would keep their workers from leaving. This isn't the first story we've shared to the contrary. In fact, CM Arnold recently wrote about how workers quit just because they're dissatisfied. Callers shared stories about how they quit just because they wanted to watch the Superbowl. One caller shared a story about how her husband was coming home from Afghanistan on emergency leave for bi-pass surgery, and her office wouldn't let her take off because her boss was going on a cruise. I was mortified! How can an organization expect employees to go to bat for them, to put in the extra hours, to really go the extra mile when the organization isn't behind the employees?
At the end of the day, no organization is perfect and not every employee is going to be happy and love their job. However, it's management and HR's responsibility to try to maximize job satisfaction and reduce churn, which ultimately will impact revenue growth. It's tough to meet aggressive growth goals with unmotivated employees or high turn over. An entire Voice of the Employee program starts and ends with taking a good hard look at the workforce and what they need to be successful. Feedback is the linchpin of any good Voice of the Employee program. Without employee feedback, it's tough to make the right changes and measure employee satisfaction and engagement. Very similar to the framework of a Voice of the Customer program, a Voice of the Employee program should look something like this:
If your Voice of the Employee program is just in its infancy, make sure you have management buy in and set clear goals. Start small and prove the value, if you try to boil the ocean you'll likely fail and the program will stall. Most importantly, for any employee feedback management program, make sure you listen to your workforce and don't get to a place where they're unhappy and the Royal Wedding leads to resignations.