Can You Tell If Your Employees Are Satisfied? I Can.

Every employer wants satisfied employees.  After all, the opposite doesn’t sound very appealing, does it?  How an employer works to create satisfied employees can take numerous avenues.  Some of the obvious Management 101 principles include having a boss that cares about their employees’ growth and development, providing an appropriate work/life balance, properly recognizing a job well done, and providing a healthy work culture. These are just a few means of valuing employees on which an employer should focus if the goal is to create satisfied employees.

Nevertheless, even when an employer tries to do everything possible to support employees, not all are satisfied.  Some new research from the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute sheds some interesting light on how you can tell if your employees are Satisfied, Settled, Resigned, or Restless (this last one is not good, by the way).

What I found interesting about this research is that it didn’t just simply ask employees how satisfied they are with their employers, but rather looked at specific things employees do and value after they have been identified as Satisfied, Settled, Resigned, or Restless.  Satisfied employees are defined as Enthusiastic, Passionate, Positive, and Proud.  Just the kind of employee we all want! What is particularly useful about this employee classification is that employers are able to look at the behaviors and values of their employees and get a sense of how successfully the employer is creating Satisfied employees.  So, what were some of these behaviors and values that Satisfied employees have that less-enthusiastic employees don’t?
 
Well, 99% of Satisfied employees feel that workplace benefits are critical to their financial security.  And, not surprisingly, Satisfied employees are twice as likely to be participating in the company’s retirement plan.  The first takeaway here – if you have many employees not participating in your retirement plan, they might be Restless.  Restless employees are unengaged in the employer’s mission and have one foot out the door.
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If you find yourself with several employees not involved in your retirement plan, working to improve their satisfaction with your company is a good place to start.  Getting them involved with the retirement plan is also a positive sign.  Restless employees are more financially stressed than Satisfied employees and tend to be less secure about their future.  Helping these Restless employees become more financially secure and involved in the retirement plan is one step an employer can take to move Restless employees toward Satisfied employees.

Want to learn more about how to build a staff of Satisfied employees?  Give me a call! 
Pete Welsh
aka- 401kGuy