Job satisfaction

Job satisfaction - two words which can mean the difference between loving your job and hating your job. And seeing that your job could take up half or even more of your waking hours, isn't it rather important to make sure that you are enjoying your job.

The five elements of job satisfaction

So what makes up job satisfaction? An article a few years ago in the UK press said that workers implicitly rated five elements within their workplace.

1) Job salary/wages/pay

It sounds obvious - and when many people think of why they chose a particular job or career, pay will come out as a very important factor. However, what I find interesting is that it is only one factor out of the five which make people feel happy in their work.

2) Status of your job

The second element of job satisfaction is related to status - how proud are you of your friends and acquintances knowing you do a particular job for a particular company?

3) Daily structure provided by your job

I found this element of job satisfaction interesting - in fact it appears that what many refer to as "the daily grind" is actually one of the key reasons we choose to work. Of course there is a difference between tedious routine and simply providing structure. For instance, in my work, I know roughly what I'll be doing for the next few days, and the overall shape of what I'll be doing for the next year or so (but with almost no specifics). This is enough structure to allow me to make sure that my day is productive.

4) Development and achievement

Being productive brings us on to our fourth element of job satisfaction. People like to feel that they are going somewhere and getting stuff done. I find it interesting to look back on my experiences to think where I have felt the highest levels of achievement or the greatese levels of development - and it's not necessarily in the most obvious environments.

For instance, my best development experiences certainly have not occurred while on training courses. They have occurred when someone has taken time out of their day to tell me what I've been doing well recently and what I should consider changing to be more effective. It is worth noting that this coaching can come from more senior people but equally (and sometimes more importantly, particularly in the area of people leadership) from people less senior than you. If you work in an environment which doesn't yet have an open and constructive feedback and coaching culture (and this is NOT the same as evaulation) then you may need to carefully coach these people on how to give useful feedback (see feedback article on the Careerfriend website)

5) Social interaction

Finally, the research from Aston suggests people like going to work so that they can meet, work with and chat to. After all, given you willl be spending so much of your waking life there, why surround yourself with people you don't like?

How you can use the five elements of job satisfaction

So, now that we know the five elements of job satisfaction, how can we use this?

Well I can think of three ways in particular:

Assessing your current job satisfaction

Perhaps you are currently feeling unhappy in your work but can't put your finger on why you feel unhappy? Or you think your salary is too low? Well assessing your current job against these five factors will allow you to see the benefits as well as the negatives from your current job. Perhaps you're implicitly trading off a lower salary for working with a great bunch of people? If you're scoring your job lowly on all aspects, however, perhaps it's time to do something about it...

Seeking ways to improve your satisfaction

So if your job really sucks, what can you do to change it (without moving). Look through the five criteria and assess which ones you will be able to address with a bit of proactive action. For instance, if your salary is too low, ask for a raise (and have your facts ready to back up that your salary should be higher). If you're not feeling sufficiently stretched, seek out more responsibility.

Assessing new opportunities

You might come to the view, however, that there is little or nothing you can do to substantially improve your job satisfaction at your current place of work and that the time has come to move on. Before you jump for the first company to offer you a job, however, or only consider whether you will receive a higher salary, run through these five criteria for job satisfaction to really find out if you're likely to be happier in your new job.

Improving job satisfaction for employees

Managers have one additional way they can use these criteria - they can ask themselves if they are doing everything they can to maximise the job satisfaction of their employees. I constantly keep these factors in the back of my head to make sure my teams are having the best time possible. There are some things I can't change such as salary - that is decided by someone else - but I can, and do, do my best to maximise all of the others. And if you're a manager - you should too! Not only will you get more out of your team, but you'll also reduce staff turnover, retain skills on your team and, potentially, be able to attract talent for below market rates by focussing on the non-salary aspects of job satisfaction!