What would your business look like without its employees? Go on, have a think. Would it just be empty desks, a warehouse full of tools and equipment and a collection of unsatisfied clients?
In service and production-heavy businesses, your employees ARE the business. They act as your representatives, going out and completing tasks for your clients and stakeholders. But the volume of work that gets completed, the standard of the work and the quality of customer experience are all linked to one thing. Employee satisfaction.
When employees show high levels of satisfaction with their workplace, they are more likely to care about their job. They will perform at higher levels. They will go above and beyond to deliver an exceptional experience. And they are less likely to resign because they are getting value from the great work that they are doing.
But how can organisations create a higher level of employee satisfaction within their workforce?
At this point, you’re probably wondering why I’m talking to you about employee satisfaction when Lucidity’s focus is to simplify your HSEQ through powerful software solutions.
Well, surprisingly, one of the key ways to increase employee satisfaction doesn’t sit with the HR team or the office social club. It sits with the HSEQ team.
Researchers have been looking into what drives employees to perform at higher levels in their jobs and one of the main factors is how safe the employee feels at work [1].
Once you read this finding, it’s quite clear it’s not rocket science. If an employee feels that there are sufficient HSEQ processes in place to keep them safe and ensure that they return home at the end of the day, it’s easy to see the employee will feel valued by the company. The fact that the company has gone out of its way to both protect and grow their employee is a strong sign that they value the employee’s contribution.
I’m sure you’ve experienced this in your own behaviour. When you feel valued in a relationship, you’re more likely to put in the extra effort.
As a Lucidity customer, you clearly value the important role that HSEQ plays in your business. So, chances are, you are already reaping some of these rewards from your workplace.
But I have even better news.
For a long time, research in this space was purely focused on how safety influenced satisfaction. Well, recently there has been research into the influence of satisfaction on safety. And they found that the more satisfied employees are with their jobs, the more likely they are to adhere and support health and safety processes.
Like a cartoon snowball gaining momentum down a hill, the dividends you are generating for your organization through strong health and safety strategies continue to grow.
[1] Huang, Y-H. et al. (2016) Beyond safety outcomes: An investigation of the impact of safety climate on job satisfaction, employee engagement and turnover using social exchange theory as the theoretical framework, Applied Ergonomics, Vol. 55.
[2] Gyekye, S. A. (2005) Workers' perceptions of workplace safety and job satisfaction, International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, Vol. 11(3).