Exploring Job Satisfaction
Exploring Job Satisfaction | Human Resource Executive Online
According to a job-satisfaction survey, money and prestige add to satisfaction and happiness, but service and 'caring' professions hold greater gratification. Concentrating on accountability, opportunity, trust and rewards can help organizations create such an environment.
By Paul Gallagher
Think money can't buy happiness? You may be right.
Service to others and working at a company that offers alignment with rewards and recognition programs, experts say, heighten job satisfaction and foster an engaged workforce -- that Holy Grail for employers.
While prestige and a pocketful of cash doesn't hurt, the jobs that ranked highest in the Job Satisfaction in the United States survey by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago included special-education teachers, firefighters, physical therapists and some in the creative fields. No. 1 was the clergy, which scored 87 percent in job satisfaction and 67 percent in job happiness -- tops in both categories.
On average, the trends in job satisfaction haven't changed much throughout the years, says Tom Smith, director of NORC's General Social Survey, which includes the Job Satisfaction survey.
Data from the most recently published Job Satisfaction survey from the center was pulled from more than 4,500 in-person interviews.
Some of the lowest-rated positions for job satisfaction were roofers, waiters, laborers and bartenders while low-rated occupations for general happiness included service-station attendants, roofers, casting-machine operators and construction laborers.
See the complete list of top and bottom occupations for
job satisfaction and general happiness
.
Smith says the results for the latest general survey have not been published, but include more than 3,500 new and re-interviewed participants. All told, the General Social Survey reflects the interviews of more than 50,000 workers since its inception in 1972.
Among the constants, Smith says, are that professions that generally pay higher wages and higher prestige, such as attorneys, score well in both satisfaction and happiness.
"Money doesn't hurt," he says. "If you're in a well-paying job, it takes away a lot of stresses in life."
But the professions that rank highest in both job satisfaction and job happiness are not known for bringing home the fattest paychecks. It appears that a sense of purpose and service trumps pay and prestige, Smith says.
Regardless of the career, Smith says work environment can mean the difference between satisfaction and drudgery.
"The intrinsic versus the extrinsic rewards of a particular occupation, or a particular environment ... can make a world of difference," he says.
Scott Cohen, a principal in Hewitt Associates' high-performance workforce practice in Boston, says rewards are often clear in many caring professions, where professionals see the results of their work.
But rewards can be harder to distinguish in large organizations, he says, unless management focuses on communicating goals and showing employees how their work adds value, both to the company and to others' lives.
To create that environment, management should concentrate on accountability, opportunity, trust and rewards, he says.
Accountability and opportunity show an employee challenges and a path toward growth, Cohen says. Trust may be a bit more difficult for some managers, because it often concerns matters, such as financial and business decisions, that are discussed behind closed doors.
"We say, 'Break down those closed doors,' " says Cohen. "Make sure everybody understands, especially in the challenging times we're in right now, the direction that [the company is] taking."
One company that believes it has mastered the art of open communication with employees is Marriott International Inc. Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Marriott consistently drives home the message of service to the customer and service to the employees, says David Rodriguez, executive vice president of global human resources.
"Despite the fact that we are now over 150,000 employees around the world, it still has the feel of a small company," he says.
Much of that environment, Rodriguez says, is due to the efforts of J.W. Marriott, the company's chairman and CEO, and son of the hotel chain's founders.
Rodriguez says Marriott shows the company's "spirit of service" through his frequently updated blog.
"He writes a lot about the message to the workforce, primarily to help perpetuate a company that is very high performing and service oriented," Rodriguez says.
In Marriott hotel rooms, customers may find Spirit to Serve: Our Stories, a booklet of brief stories that outline the chain's history and some of its employees' philosophies and job descriptions. On the one hand, it's a clever way to build good rapport with customers; on the other hand, it's a way to recognize high-performing employees and to align everyone with the corporate message.
Cohen says he's unfamiliar with the booklet from Marriott, but he thinks it's a good example of an organization that thinks outside the box to engage employees.
"There's a difference between the value statement from the plaque on the wall versus translating that to the employee level and what that means to you," he says.
November 25, 2008 Copyright 2008© LRP Publications
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