Dive Brief:
- A new SHRM survey shows that respect is a leading cause of job satisfaction among survey participants. SHRM’s 2017 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Survey also found that 89% of those polled were satisfied on the job. SHRM polled 600 randomly selected employees.
- Respect on the job was more important to women (72%) than men (65%). Millennials (45%) felt more respect on the job than GenXers (31%). Non-managerial employees (31%) felt less satisfied with the level of respect than managers (52%).
- The study showed a 35% gap between those who felt pay contributed to job satisfaction and those who were satisfied with their pay. The study also showed a 28% gap between those who felt trust was important to job satisfaction and those who felt trust on the job.
Dive Insight:
Trust clearly is high on the list of important workplace factors among employees, but low on their list of actual experience. Employees who don’t trust their organizations won’t likely be as committed or even as productive as they otherwise would be. However, employers who invest in employee engagement have a better chance of gaining workers' trust and commitment.
Building trust requires a company fully understand its own culture — warts and all. Culture is usually built from the bottom of the hierarchy in response to actions at the top. An employer should be able to answer: What does it take to be successful at your company? What makes working at your company unique? Employees should know how their work matters and how they can grow.
As always, communication is key, especially for sensitive matters like workplace respect and (increasingly) issues of compensation.
