A Little Investment in Employee Satisfaction Pays Off Big : Management: Growing discontentment on job hurts productivity. Addressing worker concerns can help.
Karen Wilson has seen it all.
From brow-beating managers in large corporations to the by-the-book officers of the Navy, the 40-year-old registered nurse said she could teach a course on how not to treat your employees.
“I’ve worked in hospitals where (administrators) chew you up into little pieces,” Wilson said.
Then three years ago she was hired by Critical Care America of Costa Mesa. Wilson said she was surprised to discover that management-employee relations do not always have to be adversarial.
“They ask me how I feel, give me encouragement, tell me what I am doing wrong, and they allow me to vocalize my fears and my frustrations,” said Wilson, one of 600 Orange County adults who participated in a recent Times Orange County Poll. “They are very progressive.”
Unfortunately, workplace experts say, the positive relationship that Wilson enjoys with her superiors is about as rare these days as black ink on the ledger.
The Times Orange County Poll reveals a growing discontentment in the workplace and consultants suggest local businesses consider improving morale as one of the most important tools in increasing productivity.
Countywide layoffs, shrinking paychecks and increasing debt have cast a long shadow over the spirits of many Orange County employees.
“We call them the ‘just-barely survivors,’ the ‘walking wounded,’ ” said Denise Greenstein, co-partner of Noetics Group, a personnel consulting firm in Newport Beach.
So how can a manager help bandage the stressed-out egos that come with hard economic times?
Most experts say that the simpler the technique, the more effective it is.
“If they can’t pay them money, they have to find other ways to keep them satisfied,” said consultant Bob Pugliano, president of the Santa Ana-based California Assn. of Personnel Consultants. “Money isn’t always the issue” in creating job satisfaction.
One technique, Pugliano suggested, is to establish employee meetings where supervisors meet with their workers and hear their gripes without threat of reprisal.
“If bosses want to make their employees happier, they have to start listening,” Pugliano said. “That is a critical issue now, considering all the cutbacks.”
Paul Sanchez, a consultant with the Wyatt Co. of Irvine, said such sessions are best held in informal settings, such as in the lunch room or employee lounge.
During these meetings, the employer can answer questions and address concerns that otherwise become grist for the office rumor mill. For instance, if layoffs have occurred, the worst thing a manager can do is not explain honestly and in detail why the dismissals were considered necessary.
A lack of communication about such important issues only breeds discontent and raises employees’ fears that more personnel cuts are imminent, Sanchez said. A company that has just survived a staff reduction is fragile, and must rebuild trust and respect among employees.
“Ten years ago, there was a paternalistic view that management had to bear all the burdens and keep (financial concerns) to themselves,” Sanchez said. “That’s changing now. But there needs to be more communication.”
Other communication tools include internal newsletters or making better use of electronic mail systems within the company, Sanchez said.
Smaller companies can post memos on employee bulletin boards and follow these announcements with meetings to explain their impact on the firm.
“It is so important to share with your people what’s going on in the organization, what the challenges are,” Sanchez said. “That kind of communication breeds a mutuality of interest, and a much higher degree of satisfaction.”
By contrast, most organizational behavior studies in the past concentrated on complex ways to increase productivity, such as institutionalizing employee recognition, changing work environment or shifting work hours. But those methods often failed to exhibit long-term results.
In fact, one of the cheapest and most effective--but unfortunately most underutilized--techniques available to management is a simple, personal recognition of an employee’s job performance.
That can as effective as giving a raise or offering more formal recognition, such as an “employee-of-the-month” program, said Fred E. Whittlesey, a partner with Compensation and Performance Management Inc. in Laguna Niguel.
“Most of the key things (supervisors) can do tend to be the most inexpensive,” Whittlesey said. “Telling someone they did a good job costs nothing, but it has a good return (on the investment). Unfortunately, telling employees they did a bad job is used much more often.”
The toughest part of the personnel consulting field is persuading chief executive officers or office managers that it is in their best interest to make employees feel happy about their work, especially when finances are tight.
“We are finding a lot of resistance,” consultant Greenstein acknowledged. “They either don’t have the money (to hire a consultant) or they think it looks bad to hire one after they just laid off a bunch of people.”
“It really comes down to simple communication,” Greenstein said. “What motivates people is not money or benefits, but the respect they receive from day to day and an appreciation for their work. Those are the real motivators.”
