What Is Job Satisfaction and Why Is It Important?

Job satisfaction, a seemingly elusive concept, holds profound significance in our professional lives. Unraveling its essence, we delve into its importance, its impact on productivity, and how it shapes the overall work environment. Let's explore this intriguing subject further.

Employee personality

Job satisfaction can be determined by how proactive an employee is at work

Proactiveness in the workplace can lead to positive job appraisals, which when fed back to the employee can ultimately lead to satisfaction
For more on constructive feedback, read our article discussing ways to give negative feedback constructively.

A Take-Home Message

Job satisfaction can be a two-way street. Employees need to feel satisfied, and organizations must help employees realize their potential

Motivating employees is just as important as providing adequate salaries and health insurance
Much more can be done by companies to motivate and guide employees

Job Satisfaction Tools

To determine your own job satisfaction, you need to do an assessment of your strengths and skills

This tool guides you to complete a Strengths In Challenging Times worksheet
Job Crafting of Ikigai helps you understand what fuels your passions and, in turn, change aspects of your role to make it more fulfilling

Pay and benefits

Organizational success and job satisfaction are also linked to employees’ perceptions of adequate pay and benefits.

Is Job Satisfaction Important?

It is the primary responsibility of organizations to ascertain that employees are satisfied with their jobs through measurements, but also to find out the causes of dissatisfaction when employees are not feeling satisfied.

Tools such as the following help measure some important factors that go into employees’ job satisfaction: job satisfaction survey, job description index, The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, etc.

Job Sustenance

Over a 40-year span, people who stayed in the same organization over time became less satisfied and people who moved to different organizations over time were happier

Does job satisfaction come from staying in an organization or leaving it?
What would retain their satisfaction?

What Is Job Satisfaction?

Job satisfaction can be defined as any combination of psychological, physiological, and environmental circumstances that cause a person to truthfully say that they are satisfied with their job.

It can also be called a set of favorable or unfavorable feelings and emotions with which employees view their work.

Leadership

Tied into increased motivation for employees, leadership, or influencing a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals, can lead to job satisfaction

The importance of honesty and communication

Honesty and communication about a company’s objectives and goals can be vital and are linked to job satisfaction for employees

But do employees only care about company success? How does honest communication impact their own, individual success?
Agarwal and Mehta (2014) were interested in employee job satisfaction within the IT industry
They discussed how performance appraisal was directly linked to satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) for the employee
Similarly, consistent communication and regular updates of employee progress can not only increase employee satisfaction at work but also help companies by decreasing the rate of attrition

Starbucks

The CEO’s mantra was that if managers look out for employees, employees will look after customers

Loyalty

When employees feel there is a growth path for them, they are more satisfied

In turn, because they feel the organization has their best interests at heart, they tend to support the organization’s mission and objectives
When this happens, employees may tell their friends or relatives about the good nature of the organization, which helps spread organizational goodwill

Rewards and Recognition

Job satisfaction for employees means that promotional policies are unambiguous and in line with their expectations

Satisfaction at a job is not exclusively linked to pay, but to the perceived fairness of how one is recognized at work for achievements
Employees value fairness in promotions, incentives, and rewards

Google

Google puts a lot of work into job satisfaction for its employees

Attracts talent with competitive pay and allows telecommuting
Nearly three-quarters of Google employees find their jobs meaningful
Mission: organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful

A Note on Job Satisfaction and Motivation

Motivation is a cognitive resource allocation process in which a person makes choices as to the time and energy to be allocated to an array of motives or tasks

When an employee is able to make a choice, they feel more motivated to perform a task
Choice, as directed or allowed by organizational policy, can lead to further motivation and, in turn, job satisfaction