Last year’s “Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement” report by the Society for Human Resource Management had some very interesting findings.
In its survey of contributors to job satisfaction, 72% felt “respectful treatment of all employees at all levels” was very important, but only 33% felt this was the case in their workplace. And 64% felt “trust between employees and senior management” was very important, but only 28% felt it was the case.
Because these were the two most important aspects leading to job satisfaction, the SHRM drew this conclusion: “Pay is important, but culture may mean more.” They said:
Compensation and benefits are always ranked highly by employees when evaluating satisfaction with their jobs. However, there is increased evidence that corporate culture and relationships with co-workers and managers are held in higher esteem by workers. Nearly three out of four respondents to this survey indicated that respectful treatment of employees at all levels was ‘very important’ when ranking job satisfaction. Knowing this, HR professionals should ensure that their workplace culture and employee engagement strategies are of equal importance to compensation, benefits and other responsibilities.
Unfortunately, so many companies are stuck in traditional business mindsets where people really aren’t valued for who they are and what they do, they’re just functions. Those mindsets are so entrenched in many companies that their leaders have no idea how to turn the ship around. In the process, many people are hurt and go home each day more broken and less fulfilled.
At Barry-Wehmiller, we strive daily to bring meaning and purpose to the work of our team members by fostering a culture based upon the tenets of our Guiding Principles of Leadership: trust, respect, teamwork, recognition, continuous improvement and personal growth.
Our Guiding Principles also say, “We measure success by the way we touch the lives of people.”
It doesn’t say Barry-Wehmiller people, it says people.
Last year we launched the BW Leadership Institute (now Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute, read more here) to share with other organizations what we have learned about building and fostering a people-centric culture. Through the BWLI, like-minded organizations can now partner with us to undertake the critical steps to implement their own culture change: learning better listening and communication skills, developing leaders, establishing a vision, creating an environment of continuous improvement, and much more.
And in the past year we’ve seen companies from all over the country – Texas, Northern California, Las Vegas, Detroit – to all over the world – South Africa and Costa Rica – partner with us or come to St. Louis to attend one of our events.
The link above is a video from the recent Servant Leadership Summit, showing the BW Leadership Institute at work, sharing our message out in the world.