A recent tweet from #SHRM linked to a report that ranked the top 2 very important contributors to Job Satisfaction as Job Security and Benefits. Which got me thinking about whether aiming for satisfaction is enough and where it comes from?
The survey suggested that job satisfaction came from one of 4 categories: career development, compensation and benefits, relationship with management and work environment. The assumption being that these provide the answer to what organisations need to do to retain people – but is that really satisfaction? And is that really all we want to offer people – just enough to keep them. In fact just enough not to lose them? Is that really best for the organisation and all its stakeholders?
I can’t help but feel very uncomfortable with this answer. Not least because it suggests that job satisfaction only comes from what we are given by others “ I’m satisfied so long as you keep giving me X”? Surely what we give to others plays a part – even if we disagree on how much (and perhaps something for a future blog)?
Before I described what I did in terms of ‘paddles and creeks’ I used the term ‘passion in life’. Basically getting out of a creek is still about finding passion in life. (It’s just perhaps easier to understand specifically what area I’m concentrating on now – rather than other passions.) But you see in every discussion I have with individuals who have found themselves up, or is it down, a career creek they don’t talk about career development, benefits or work environment. They don’t talk about job satisfaction and if they do perhaps would suggest they have it. Even if they know they’re not connected to what they’re doing. What they’re looking for is something more in life and certainly enthusiasm for the day and months ahead.
To get out of the creek once we’ve tackled the fear and confidence issues, that may drive some of the responses to the survey (but rarely do in reality have anything to do with what the organisation is giving them), we look at mission or purpose. I don’t ask what they want to be doing nor the relationship with others. Instead I ask what benefit do they want to provide to others. It’s once people connect with the energy of this purpose that things start to shift.
Surely we should be concentrating on helping others connect to this passion and bringing it into our organisations? To do that we need to start asking different questions.
