Factors Affecting Job Satisfaction

In today’s competitive business world, corporations implement strategies which are focused towards generating a competitive advantage in their respective industry. Attracting and retaining talented employees in the organisations has become the object of their human resource department since it provides them an advantage over their competitors. Due to globalisation, it has become easier for organisations to hire qualified employees from all across the globe and prepare a diverse team (Kwenin, Muathe & Nzulwa, 2013). Corporations face both benefits and challenges relating to a diverse workforce. Based on these factors, the company’s goals have been changed, and executives focus on providing a working environment in which each diverse employee has the ability to improve their skills and grow a career. Providing a positive culture attract qualified workforce in the enterprise and the HR department finds it easier to retain them for a longer period of time which provides a competitive advantage to the corporation (Sokro, 2012). The purpose of this report is to understand why corporations’ goal should be to provide a positive working environment to their employees that provide them opportunities to improve their skills and develop their career in the company. Various recommendations will be given in the report for organisations to improve their working environment which supports and promotes collaboration between employees.

Organisations focus on generating a competitive advantage because it provides them an opportunity to tackle their competition and sustain their future growth in the market. In order to achieve this objective, the role of the HR department has increased since they have to hire talented employees and retain them for a longer period in the corporation. The attrition rate of employees is affected by their job satisfaction level, thus, HR department focuses on improving their job satisfaction. Herzberg’s ‘two-factor theory’ of motivation provides that there are two key factors which affect job satisfaction and dissatisfaction level of employees (Alshmemri, Shahwan-Akl & Maude, 2017). Firstly, ‘satisfier’ includes a number of factors which results in increasing job satisfaction among employees. It includes elements such as advancement in career, personal development, recognition, growth opportunities, achievements and others. On the other hand, ‘hygiene’ factors affect job dissatisfaction level of employees. It includes factors such as base salary, bonus, rules, working conditions, co-worker relationships and others. Based on this theory, job satisfaction of employees can be influenced by the management by improving these factors. For example, providing fair salary and positive working conditions at the workplace will result in reducing job dissatisfaction among employees. Similarly, personal and career growth opportunities and recognition at the workplace results in increasing job satisfaction level of employees (Park & Ryoo, 2013). By improving these factors, the HR department can retain talented employees in the organisation. Thus, a corporation goal should be to establish a positive working environment in which employees receive career growth and skill development opportunities which would assist in retaining them in the corporation.

Case Studies: Google and Amazon

Studies relating to organisational behaviour have shown that job satisfaction is the key to retaining highly qualified employees in the enterprise based on which corporations generate a competitive advantage in the industry (Raziq & Maulabakhsh, 2015). Many leading organisation focuses on implementing business strategies which assist in establishing a positive working environment by providing growth opportunities to employees which result in attracting and retaining talented employees in the workplace. For example, Google is one of the world’s biggest technology companies, and it has generated a competitive advantage in the market based on its effective services. One of the key factors based on which the corporation receives a competitive advantage is by attracting and hiring talented employees in the workplace. The corporation focuses on finding talented employees from all across the globe in order to build a team of highly qualified individuals who can achieve the organisational goals of the company (D’Onfro & England, 2015). Since it is one of the biggest software corporations, it is easy for the company to attract talented employees globally. However, a bigger challenge is to retain such employees in the organisation when other competitors are also paying huge salary package to attract such employees. Thus, in order to retain such employees, the corporation provides them a positive working environment which they did not receive anywhere else. For example, it provides facilities such as free training, education facility, skill development, free food, free salon, picks up and drops facility, unlimited sick leaves, long maternity leaves, time to work on personal projects and many other services (Yang, 2017). All these facilities are focused on establishing a positive working environment and providing growth opportunities to employees that assist in benefiting Google as well.

The example of Google proves how a positive organisational environment benefits the company as a whole. However, while focusing on a positive organisational structure, the management has to make hard choices to keep the organisational environment collaborative and supportive for employee. For example, Google takes anti-discrimination policies seriously, and the CEO of the company set a good example. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, fired a senior developer of the company over a controversial discrimination memo (Swisher, 2017). This example shows how serious the organisation is towards establishing a positive working environment for its employees. Similarly, Amazon is a global leader in the e-commerce industry, and it provides skill and career development opportunities to its employees. For example, it offers an intensive month-long training and leadership program to its employees in order to develop the leadership skills of its employees in order to give them career growth opportunities (Thottam, 2018). Governments also focus on providing career growth and development opportunities to citizens in order to provide them career growth opportunities. For example, in the United Kingdom, the government has implemented various programs such as Careers Wales, the National Careers Services, My World of Work and Careers Service Northern Ireland which are focused towards advising and funding trailing opportunities for citizens (GOV.UK, 2018). The skills and career development programs assist in reducing discrimination between employees at the workplace and create a collaborative working environment which supports employees from different caste, culture and religions.

Recommendations for Implementing a Positive Working Environment

Based on these examples, it can be concluded that it is important for organisations to provide a working environment for their employees in which they have skill development and career growth opportunities which are crucial for retaining them and motivating them to perform better which contributes to the effectiveness of the enterprise. In order to implement a corporate culture which promotes career and skill development of employees, the management can rely on following recommendations. Firstly, the management should implement a business strategy which analyses the qualifications and skills of employees and promote them growth opportunities (Jehanzeb & Bashir, 2013). A training and skill development program enables the management in identifying the employees who require training to improve their skills and knowledge. The program should be properly funded to provide appropriate opportunities to all employees. Furthermore, it is necessary that all employees should have appropriate knowledge about these programs so that they can take advantage of them. The management should also proactively involve in this process to make sure that high potential employees are engaged in these programs. Furthermore, these programs should not discriminate between employees and all workers must receive equal opportunities in these programs (Laguador, 2013). Any discrimination between diverse employees results in creating a hostile working environment which leads to job dissatisfaction. Employees should have the ability to customise their own career, and the company should not force them to take training which improves their current job application. By compliance with these resources, skills and knowledge of employees can be developed which result in improving their job performance and benefits the company as a whole.

In conclusion, the importance of employee retention has increased between corporations and the executives implement different business strategies to keep talented employees in the organisation for a longer period of time. The importance of establishing a working environment which promotes and supports skills and career development of employees has increased, and it has become a crucial goal of companies. Employees who did not receive these facilities are more likely to be dissatisfied with their job which results in decreasing their efficiency in the workplace. Many leading organisations such as Google and Amazon focus on providing skill development and career growth opportunities to their employees in order to retain talented employees in the organisations which provide them success in their respective industry. The efficiency of the team relies on the effectiveness of the organisational culture which promotes position relationships between employees and motivates them to improve their performance. Thus, implementing skill and career development programs has become a key goal for enterprises. Various recommendations are given in the report which should be evaluated by companies to implement effective career development programs for employees. The programs should be properly funded and available for all employees. Discrimination should not be allowed between employees during these programs, and equal opportunities should be given. Involvement of the management is also necessary to improve the effectiveness of these programs. By complying with these policies, the company can improve the efficiency of its employees and retain them which sustain their future growth.

References

Alshmemri, M., Shahwan-Akl, L., & Maude, P. (2017). Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Life Science Journal, 14(5), 12-16.

D’Onfro, J. and England, L. (2015). An Inside Look at Google’s Best Employee Perks. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/business-insider/best-google-benefits.html

GOV.UK. (2018). Career skills and training. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/career-skills-and-training

Jehanzeb, K., & Bashir, N. A. (2013). Training and development program and its benefits to employee and organization: A conceptual study. European Journal of business and management, 5(2).

Kwenin, D. O., Muathe, S., & Nzulwa, R. (2013). The influence of employee rewards, human resource policies and job satisfaction on the retention of employees in Vodafone Ghana Limited. European Journal of Business and Management, 5(12), 13-20.

Laguador, J. M. (2013). Developing students’ attitude leading towards a life-changing career. Educational Research International, 1(3), 28-33.

Park, S. C., & Ryoo, S. Y. (2013). An empirical investigation of end-users’ switching toward cloud computing: A two factor theory perspective. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(1), 160-170.

Raziq, A., & Maulabakhsh, R. (2015). Impact of working environment on job satisfaction. Procedia Economics and Finance, 23, 717-725.

Sokro, E. (2012). Impact of employer branding on employee attraction and retention. European Journal of Business and Management, 4(18), 164-173.

Swisher, K. (2017). Google has fired the employee who penned a controversial memo on women and tech. Retrieved from https://www.recode.net/2017/8/7/16110696/firing-google-ceo-employee-penned-controversial-memo-on-women-has-violated-its-code-of-conduct

Thottam, I. (2018). 10 companies with awesome training and development programs. Retrieved from https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/companies-with-awesome-training-development-programs

Yang, L. (2017). 13 incredible perks of working at Google, according to employees. Retrieved from https://www.thisisinsider.com/coolest-perks-of-working-at-google-in-2017-2017-7