Happy employees tend to be productive employees and as a result, they tend to stay within the company structure, boosting your retention levels while allowing you to avoid the costs and time required to recruit and train new employees. Whether you’re an entrepreneur with a small staff or a larger organization with managers and an H.R. department, reviewing these signs of an unhappy workplace can help you to develop effective recognition programs to combat these issues and turn the tide for your employees individually, as well as your company overall:
• Having Consistently High Stress Levels: The negative effects of having a highly stressful work-life impacts employees’ desire and ability to perform at peak levels. Continuously stressful environments also wreak havoc on employees’ mental and physical capabilities which results in illness and time off from work, sometimes in the form of high absenteeism.
• Minimum Output: If your employees are striving to reach only the ‘minimum requirements’ of their expectations, it’s a sure sign that they are no longer happy in their work, or perhaps have outgrown their particular position. At times, it could indicate that they’re simply ‘over it’ and no longer feel that their contributions are making a difference.
• Lack of New Ideas or Feedback: When presented with opportunities to share ideas on how to benefit customers, improve on processes or to offer general feedback, if employees are receiving no response (or a lackluster one), this could be a clear sign that employees are well on their way to feeling disengaged and unhappy. If employees feel as though they’ve ‘heard this one before’ but that changes were never implemented or even addressed, this can lead to a lack of interest in the company, and thus, a lack of future contributions.
• Feeling Undervalued and Under-Appreciated: Everyone wants to feel as though they bring some value to their workplace, and that their value is being both acknowledged and appreciated. When accomplishments go unnoticed, this can lead to feelings of anger and resentment which ultimately manifests in lower productivity and feelings of apathy towards their work. Having the type of employee recognition programs in place that encourage employees to strive to reach specific, defined goals is a great way to address this concern and to help keep a level of ‘healthy competition’ within the ranks of the organization.
Although it is unlikely in any scenario for 100% of employees to remain happy 100% of the time, having an overall culture of interdependence, teamwork, and continual growth (both individual and company-wide) can do wonders for maximizing the success of your business.
By learning how to recognize the basic signs of unrest and dissatisfaction, you are enabling yourself to be ahead of the game in developing and maintaining intelligent efforts to combat such issues to the incredible benefit of both your company, and the remarkable individuals at the heart of its success.
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