An Empowered Workforce

I feel an important factor to employee job satisfaction and to an empowered workforce is that the employee must feel they are working for a good company. Employees must also feel they have room for advancement within the company they are working for and managers have to be there to help them achieve their goals. It is important that employees have a sense of belonging at work and job satisfaction. Managers can assist with this by helping the employees plan steps to achieve their goals, and by pointing them in the right direction with their job performance. Managers need to keep their employees' cross-trained on a variety of different skills and abilities pertaining to their jobs. This will improve the employee's sense of significance and enhance their self-esteem at work. I feel that managers should share knowledge with their employees and provide ongoing training when applicable.

Employees need feedback and managers should provide performance feedback to their employees often. This will enhance job performance and self-esteem. I feel a lack of feedback may cause role ambiguity and job stress which could result in high rates of turnover.

Frederick Herzberg developed two sets of measurement for employee satisfaction which are the hygiene issues and motivators. Managers must take this theory into account when focusing on job satisfaction. Hygiene factors are known to dissatisfy employees and motivators are satisfiers. Motivator factors may be elements such as achievement, recognition, responsibility, and advancement. Hygiene issues may be the working conditions, relationships at work, salary, and supervision. Many of these issues can be controlled by a manager that is concerned with their employees' job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is created by the employee, the company as a whole, and the management team and is an on-going effort.