How to Win Best Places to Work (5 Ways to Improve Employee Satisfaction)

Employee satisfaction is a tricky subject. What one employee wants, their colleague next to them might want something completely different.

For example, perhaps an employee is keen on the idea of breaking up the occasional workday with group outings during the day. They become delighted at work when they have opportunities to spend non-work related time with colleagues. Meanwhile, another employee prefers to limit these events, as they are satisfied at work when they have ample time to complete their work and clock-out at a reasonable time to get home to their families.

Therein lies the paradox of employee engagement initiatives. It’s hard to make everyone happy.

However, some businesses have gotten close to perfection when it comes to employee satisfaction, landing themselves a coveted ‘Best Place to Work’ award. Companies that win this award look past the happy hours and pizza parties and instead look to create a culture that genuinely allows their employees to thrive.

Here are just a few of the ways that these award-winning workplaces do just that

5 Ways to Improve Employee Satisfaction and Win the Best Places to Work Award

Allow Your Employees to Grow in the Areas They Want 

Giving your employees the ability to shape their roles is what separates the truly inspiring workplaces from the mundane. Now, obviously there are some limits to this. It wouldn’t be wise to allow an accountant to take on a marketing project, or vice-versa. Instead, employees should be encouraged to look for new ways to grow in their respective fields.

For example, a marketing employee who wants to expand their knowledge in the field for marketing data and analytics should be given the time and resources to do just that. Essentially, employers should be investing in their current employees. By allowing their employees to become more versatile in their given field, said employees will be able to provide more value in the long-run. Also, employees that are allowed to shape their roles will be more likely to stick around as opposed to finding a new job that is more in-line with their newfound interests.

While sure, by helping your employees become more bad-ass, you’re setting some of them up to potentially apply and accept positions elsewhere, that isn’t a bad mentality to have. If your employees are eventually going off and doing amazing work with other companies, you’re doing something right.

Offer Benefits That Truly Improve Quality of Life

Like we mentioned earlier, pizza parties aren’t exactly a benefit that will truly improve your employees’ quality of life. Instead of trying to keep employees satisfied by offering the occasional slice of tomato pie, look into ways of offering benefits that will help make your employees’ lives easier and their time at work less stressful.

Some of the obvious ones include dental and health insurance and matching 401k contributions. And those are great benefits, especially if your company can afford them. But there are plenty of other potential benefits that often go unnoticed.

For example, including more healthy snack options is a great way to accommodate employees who are trying to eat less junk food. Or having a meditation space in the office for when employees need some peace and quiet during a particularly stressful day.

Another sometimes overlooked benefit concerns employees who have diabetes. Trying to manage one’s diabetes while at work can be stressful, and workplaces that prioritize finding ways to ease that stress are ones that stand up above the rest. At Pops Diabetes Care, we work with employers to ensure that their employees with diabetes have what they need to take on diabetes in a stress-free way. That’s why we created Rebel + Mina, a dynamic duo that allows your employees with diabetes to effortlessly manage their diabetes at work.

Rebel is a state-of-the-art yet easy to use diabetes management solution. We combine the traditional test kit into a meter that connects to your employees’ phones so that they can continually carry it around with them every day. Mina works as a personal assistant, offering encouragement and reminders to your employees.

Rebel + Mina is what your employees with diabetes have been waiting for. To get started on working with Pops, reach out today!

Promote a Healthy Work-Life Balance

So it’s one thing to say that your company has created a culture that prioritizes work-life balance. It’s another thing entirely to actually live up to that promise.

Here are some great ways to create a work-life balance for your employees

• Ask Your Employees What They Need
  • Be willing to listen to your employees’ needs and what they require to complete tasks and projects in a timely manner. If employees have all the resources they need to get the job done, they’ll be more efficient and can easily clock out on time—as opposed to staying behind to finish work.

• Watch Out For Burnout
  • For some employees, voicing their concerns about being overworked comes easier. However, more introverted or shy employees may not want to become a bother by speaking up. A good leader should be acutely aware of when an employee is being given too much work and will work with them to alleviate some of the burdens.

• Consider Integrating Flextime For Your Employees
  • Life can be hectic for some of your employees, especially those with family obligations. Letting your team be flexible (in moderation) with how they use the 40 hours they put in every week can help be extremely helpful in helping them find that work-life balance. For example, allowing a father who wants to make it back for their kid’s baseball games during the summer to start their day earlier.

• Encourage Working From Home When Needed 
  • Today, we have more tools and resources at our disposal than ever before. These tools make working from home much easier than it was even ten years ago. Despite that, the progression of working from home has been slow. There are obvious benefits to both coming into the office and working from home from time-to-time. For that reason, your employees, when possible, should be allowed to do both.

• Lead By Example
  • This one is simple. If you tell your employees that you’re not checking emails after work hours or on the weekends, your employees won’t either. If you clock out at five on certain days, your employees will be more likely to do the same. After all, even managers deserve work-life balance too.

Look For Ways to Improve Communication and Transparency

Communication is an often-neglected part of employee engagement and satisfaction. But, it makes sense. Think about a workplace in which communication is terrible. Deadlines will be missed. Project assignments may be misinterpreted. And frustration will mount.

Compare that setting to one where communication is free-flowing, and questions can be answered quickly. A workplace that features these characteristics will likely be more productive, easier to work in, and, most importantly, possess more engaged employees.

Check out this helpful article from Just Works, titled, “20 Easy Ways to Improve Communication in the Workplace” for tips on how to improve communication and transparency throughout your organization.

Reward Superb Work

Not everything is about being recognized. Employees should be expected to do their jobs well. After all, that’s why they were hired in the first place. However, being rewarding for going above and beyond, or for just being a consistent part of a successful organization can help make employees feel valued. That doesn’t mean we have to revert back to the old-school employee of the month structure, but even just the occasional shout out to a team member who is crushing it is a great way to boost morale and satisfaction.

Whether it’s a simple shoutout for a job well done or a raise to an employee that has greatly contributed to the overall success of your company, rewarding superb work is a smart way to boost employee satisfaction.