As an employee, I have come to realise that I am satisfied when I am valued. When I started working, initially I was scared and felt insecure. But after the training, I felt comfortable working with my colleagues. The structure of the organisation made me feel valued. Even when I made a mistake, my team leader encouraged me and made me understand it’s not something I need to fret over, but I could work on it and be better. My experience made me want to be better and give my all to the organisation. I come to work, looking for another development opportunity, eventually, I was better equipped to provide excellent customer service.
Employees’ satisfaction plays a vital role in the success of any business or organisation regardless of the size of the company. If employees are satisfied and happy with their employer and work environment, they strive to make the business successful. In a customer service role, it is even more profound as the employees are the face of the organisation, and the quality of the service reflects on the organisation as a brand.
In recent years, organisations have come to realise the value of keeping employees happy, not only to reduce the number of employees leaving the company, but studies have proven that happy employees equate to better customer service.
The Past
One of the strategies opted by employers to keep their employees happy was financial incentives. With the rate of increase in inflation, employees would prefer an increase in salary to keep up with their financial responsibilities. However, the danger of enticing employees with financial incentives is, employees, work for the money rather than to provide better customer service. There is an argument that increase in wage comes with more responsibilities and higher expectations from the employees which may not be healthy as it could put pressure on them that they may not handle. Furthermore, bonuses may lead to unhealthy competition. The rationale being that instead of colleagues working together to improve the quality of customer service, they may start trying to oust one another to be the better competition to get a better bonus. Studies have proven that employees are only satisfied if they earn better than their colleagues in the same grade.
For an organisation to have a healthy community of employees, the employees ought to be an intricate part of the organisations. We want them to own and live the values and goals of the organisation. In turn, the employee becomes committed and loyal to the organisation and will want to give their best to be more productive and to improve their performance. Besides financial gestures, other non-monetary rewards prove to be more efficient.
The Present and Future
With employee engagement in mind, senior executives of an organisation should always think of strategies to improve employee satisfaction. Though it is impossible to please all employees because of the difference in personalities and how they handle issues, it will take a superhuman to be able to satisfy all the employees in a company. The bottom line is there are no straight-laced rules to making employees happy. However, some strategies can be put in place to change the ambience of the workplace and make employees satisfied. It can be summed up in one term: “Make your employees your priority”. Yes, that’s right. Organizations get it wrong when they prioritise productivity and the customers more than the employees. According to a study titled “The happy workaholic: A role model for employees”, employees flourish when senior leaders help them focus on what matters most not only at work but in all aspects of their lives; at home, in their communities, and in their pursuit of physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. The happy result: committed people drive hard to achieve superior performance.
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