Organizational Job Satisfaction Evaluation
Job satisfaction is one of the fundamental determinants of employee’s attitudes towards work as well as the probability of their turnover. The level of job satisfaction affects employee performance in many ways, including reduced productivity as a result of low morale, and reduced innovativeness. Accordingly, organizations go to great lengths to ensure that the level of job satisfaction among their employees is sufficiently high. To achieve this, the firms use different practices and continuously modify practices to reflect the changing needs of workers across the world. HR policies are one of the ways through which most organizations attempt to spice up their employees’ lives and subsequently improve the probability of job satisfaction. In this study, the objective is to explore various policies that have been used by XYZ organization to enhance job satisfaction, and how effective these policies can be. Additionally, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of these policies will be assessed to establish how effective they are and offer recommendations of how to improve the efficacy of the policies.
Organizational Assessment for Job Satisfaction
The XYZ organization is a non-governmental organization that offers healthcare services to the vulnerable in the community. The corporation deals mostly with children, the homeless, and minority populations. Additionally, because of its status as a non-governmental and non-profit making entity, thus cannot entice its employees with high salaries, XYZ has to be creative when it comes to policies for promoting job satisfaction. The motivation for job satisfaction and the policies aimed at enhancing the experiences of the employees to improve their job satisfaction. One of the policies is on the leadership/supervisory method. The company advocates for a democratic leadership style in which employees are given the opportunity to share their views. The goal of the organization is to improve the quality of care that can be accessed by the underserved, and the management is expected to rely on the general staff to collect information from communities about the organizational services, the client expectations, and the need for change. These objectives can only happen through democratic leadership and employee involvement. In return, the employees feel valued and are therefore committed to their tasks.
Another policy that has contributed to the increase in job satisfaction among the employees is that on job security. The organization recognizes that since its remuneration may not be at par with those of other firms within the same geographical areas, it has to use unique avenues to promote commitment. According to Uzuegbu and Nnadozie (2015), one of Fayol’s principles of management is the security of tenure, which enhances the employee’s willingness to be involved. XYZ organization has a policy that clearly stipulates that the company is committed to protecting employees from the fluctuations of job positions and wages and keep their jobs safe. This policy supports the mental wellbeing of the employees and thus improves their level of job satisfaction. Additionally, the company has a wage/salary policy that caters to the group of employees that can only be motivated by wage increments. However, the organization offers a promise of continuous annual salary improvement regardless of the positions of employees. All employees in the organization are entitled to a pay raise at the end of every year. The promise of continuously earning higher salaries fosters job satisfaction among employees and subsequently their continued participation (Maghsoodi et al., 2019). Moreover, the company has an amenities policy, which describes additional facilities to which the staff members employees are entitled. The entity offers a supportive environment for mothers. The enterprise allows mothers to come to work with their children under 8 months and have them taken care of as their mothers work. Such an environment reduces the mental stress involved in looking for caregivers for young children (Hunter, 2018). The environment, therefore, improves the level of job satisfaction, particularly among female employees.
Besides the aforementioned policies, the organization also has a policy on individual development. Hoole and Hotz (2016), posit that the opportunity for career development is one of the dimensions for the total rewards model that promotes job satisfaction. As such, a corporation that gives employees an opportunity for self-development creates a good environment for career growth, which affects the probability of job satisfaction (Khan & Aleem, 2014). XYZ Organization is one such entity. Employees of the organization choose courses that are aligned to their job responsibilities annually and are given the opportunity and financial support to attend the training for those courses. When opportunities for promotion arise, the workers are given the first consideration before any external candidates. The combination of the opportunity for promotion and for self-development increases the level of job satisfaction among employees thus reduces the potential for employee turnover, as discussed by Heneman and Coyne (2007). Consequently, it is deductible that the company has made strong steps towards achieving the total rewards model of remuneration.
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) Analysis
Considering the range of policies that the corporation has put in place to help foster job satisfaction among its employees, it can be said to have a lot of strengths that can foster its growth. Table 1 shows a summary of the organization’s SWOT analysis.
Strengths
• The HR system is strong enough as it has clearly stipulated policies on various employee-related issues.
• The management/supervisory model is effective for promoting employee autonomy and engagement.
• The policies are clearly outlined and there is HR capacity for implementation.
• Staff are trained on the implementation of these policies and can take advantage of them. Weaknesses
• The most probable weakness is the lower wage relative to that which governmental and profit-making organizations offer.
• Lack of a policy that addresses work-life balance or labor distribution adequately.
Opportunities
• The organization works with the underserved and has the opportunity to gain access to donor funds for improved service delivery.
The entity has an opportunity for expansion into other areas that are equally underserved.
Threats
• The threat of employee turnover is ever-existing because of the lower wage relative to other organizations.
• There is also the threat of funding inadequacy due to the targeted client populations.
Table 1. SWOT analysis
Indeed, Table 1 indicates that the enterprise has many strengths. First, the organization has a strong HR function, and the availability of sound policies for various employee-related issues is an indication of the organizational commitment to addressing employee issues. In any given organization, employees desire to feel valued and part of the organization (SHRM, 2020). Through the outlined policies, the organization ensures that there are clear guidelines for employees who may question their worth in the organization. The policy on management/supervisory functioning is one such policy. The proposed democratic leadership style has been effective for this organization since most of the staff are competent at their roles and do not require consistent follow-up, characteristics of organizations that work with democratic leadership (Amanchukwu, Stanley, & Ololube, 2015). As such, the type of leadership gives the employees the perception that the organization considers them competent and cares about their opinions regarding patient care improvement practices. In this way, employees not only build confidence in their belonging but also own an organization such that they remain productive its good and are unlikely to leave the entity for another(Vorina, Simonic, &Vlasova, 2017). Other strengths include employee training, which also exposes the employees to understand the extent to which the organization has gone to ensure that they are comfortable in their jobs.
There are quite a few weaknesses that can be associated with the XYZ organization with reference to how it sustains job satisfaction. These weaknesses are lower wages than other types of organizations and lack of a clear policy on work-life balance. According to Adikaram (2016), work-life balance is a significant factor in determining job satisfaction. Healthcare service delivery can be a daunting task that can result in high levels of burnout especially for professionals such as nurses who have to be constantly working directly with patients (Van Bogaert et al., 2017). As such, adequate staffing and effective rotation plans can help healthcare practitioners to develop a good work-life balance and also to consistently deliver high-quality healthcare service(Mudallal, Othman, & Hassan, 2017). These weaknesses can impair the effectiveness of service delivery, and can also result in various threats to the organization. For instance, the low wage subjects a corporation to the threat of employee turnover, especially since the organization’s current facility is within an area where other facilities of different categories exist and may compete for good staff. Additionally, the population served by the organization is potentially low-income, and funding may be inadequate due to challenges in paying for healthcare services. However, this target population also comes with an opportunity for the organization as it is possible to get many donors supporting the underserved.
Recommendations for Improvement
From the organization’s SWOT analysis, it is evident that XYZ is performing pretty well in terms of its capability to engage employees, its management, and its HR system. However, it needs to do more to expand the scope of its total rewards model. The principle behind the total rewards model is that an organization can create a balance between the financial and the non-financial methods of remuneration so that slight deficiencies in either area do not drive employee turnover (Chunping, Ying, & Shimin, 2019). At XYZ the first recommendation would be to expand the scope of the non-financial rewards that the employees can get from the organization. These types of rewards promote mental health, improve the employee recognition of the organization’s efforts towards their well-being, and foster employee commitment to the organization (Tausif, 2012). For instance, the organization could introduce paid vacations or extended annual leaves as part of the efforts to improve the work-life balance for the employees.
Secondly, in spite of being a non-profit organization, XYZ could improve its financial remuneration to the employees by ensuring that what is offered is competitive enough in the market. For example, XYZ could take advantage of the opportunity to gain more revenue through donations by reaching out to foundations that support various healthcare courses. Additionally, it could seek support from the government as part of the government’s general welfare system, through which it intends to promote health. According to Nemeckova (2017), the primary motivation behind most employees’ productivity is financial need. As such, employees are most likely to shift to other better-paying organizations as long as the non-financial rewards are equal across the two organizations. It would thus be necessary for XYZ to ensure that the wages paid to the employees are competitive without being beyond the market rates.
the current rewards system of the organization does not include the benefits package as part of the overall rewards. Benefits, such as a pension plan, medical insurance, and life insurance, may help boost the employee perception of the organization. One of the impacts of benefits on employees is the feeling of care. As employees gain from such benefits, they recognize the value that an organization places on their well-being and are thus more apt to be committed to the organization (Chunping et al., 2019). The level of job satisfaction is thus bound to rise, particularly among younger employees who have no financial discipline to pay independently for such benefits.
Conclusion
Job satisfaction is one of the crucial determinants of employee performance in any organization. At the same time, employee turnover is one of the major setbacks in organizational operations, and can negatively impact organizational reputation. For XYZ, the HR department has made deliberate efforts to improve job satisfaction through various policies. The policies demonstrate organizational strengths in HR systems, policies, and management. These strengths also create opportunities for the organization to expand in its coverage of the target population and also for the organization to obtain funds from donors. XYZ can take advantage of these opportunities to improve its revenue and subsequently expand the scope of its total rewards model.
References
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