It’s easy to see the signs: a couple of people in your office seem to be disconnected. They have no excitement when it comes to new projects and their performance is below average. You can see dissatisfaction on their faces and it seems they’re pretty bored, thinking only about the moment when they will finally get to go home. They are on the edge, and you are starting to wonder whether you are a good boss.
This is a major problem for lots of companies in modern businesses. If you think about your previous job positions, it’s likely that most people were unhappy there, too. People find it hard to stay stimulated, motivated and happy in their workplace because of bad working conditions. And, what happens with people who aren’t happy at their jobs?
Eventually, they leave that job in search of something better. Nobody wants to be unhappy at work. One of the biggest problems small businesses face is not being able to keep their employees. Therefore, you should make them feel comfortable working for you.
So, why are people unsatisfied with their jobs? Here are the 4 most common reasons.
Unimportant meetings
The infamous status update meetings are the nightmares of modern workdays. Status update meetings force workers to spend their valuable time out of their schedules, so that they could talk about projects or initiatives at conference calls, besides the fact that this information could easily get passed around via group email.
If the meetings alone took the time away from employees, that wouldn’t be that big of a problem, but everyone needs to come prepared, and this is what takes the most of their time. What’s even worse is the fact that people are not engaged in these meetings and they think about their other, more important tasks they have to finish during the day. Status update meetings have become an obsolete formality and no one is even really paying attention when attending.
For many companies, it’s hard to make changes and stop holding status update meetings, simply because they don’t know any other way of updating all of their staff regularly. What really bothers people is the fact that they stop doing their work so that they could report on their work so far. The best solution for this issue is to create a work method in which people collaborate and update each other while doing their job.
Shared collaboration that offers all the relevant data 24/7 is the best solution. In the end, you can create visually engaging videos for meetings so that people will make more sense of it all. To create videos for a low price consider using Powtoon coupons.
Overwhelmed with emails
One of the most annoying and common nuisances employees have to deal with is a ridiculously large number of emails they have to go through during their day. Of course there are emails that are relevant and necessary for any business but, in many cases, there are more emails which are administrative in nature and they endlessly pile in our inbox. Most people will agree that the majority of their emails are irrelevant to their job.
Modern workers are very busy and the hardest part is the fact that this “grunt work” is almost always an essential part of business affairs, particularly if the nature of the business requires constant communication and coordination between teams, outside parties or clients. This can create a good portion of additional work that can take a lot of hours to complete, all the while feeling like you are doing unimportant things.
If the nature of the work requires your employees to check their email constantly, you can reduce the use of emails where you can. For example, you can employ chat-based business apps that can let employees have real-time communication without having to search through their crowded emails.
No breaks
Do you let your employees take breaks and get away from their desk to grab a bite, relax or clear their head? If you don’t, then you are one of the companies that make their workers despise their work hours. The current competitive landscape and technological achievements have led companies to becoming, well, dictators.
Since employees are working longer and longer shifts, with the addition of doing some weekend work, their biggest need has become a bit of freedom and flexibility. This is why it’s essential to have a business culture where you encourage people to take breaks when they feel like it, relieving the pressure and giving the power back to your employees.
I know you have fears about productivity, but the concept of having no breaks is only counterproductive. An overwhelmed and frustrated employee will be far less productive, no matter how much time they spend working during the day. Sometimes, taking a quick break that lasts 15 minutes can let a person refresh and get a better perspective on their work.
Employees don’t have a voice of their own
This brings us to the last, and biggest demoralizing factor – not being heard. For a person to be satisfied at a workplace, he or she must feel empowered. If a person has this feeling, they may even forget about the three things we’ve said above. You must make sure that your employees feel heard and appreciated.
Create an “open door” policy at your business organization and let people share their opinions, give suggestions and contribute to your business organization in a more meaningful way. Not only will your employees be generally satisfied, but they will also improve your business by contributing valuable ideas.
Entrepreneurs have distanced themselves from their workforce and forgot about how it’s like to work for somebody. This is something that needs to be changed in modern business, especially if you are a small company that has a few people working in it. If the majority of your workforce is unsatisfied, the results of your work will also be far worse.