What 94% of Satisfied Employees Have in Common

There’s a lot that contributes to employee satisfaction, but according to a survey conducted by BambooHR of more than 1,000 business professionals, we know one thing for certain. Employees who receive frequent positive recognition are more likely to be satisfied with their job.

It sounds pretty obvious once you read it, but the staggering truth is many employees never get that recognition. 40 percent only get positive recognition a few times a year (or less). One out of four of those employees is unsatisfied with their job. And another one out of four is simply content, expressing no satisfaction one way or the other—leaving only 50 percent satisfied with their job.

Sound gloomy? Don’t worry; there’s good news.

In contrast, 94 percent of employees who receive positive recognition on a daily basis say they are satisfied or very satisfied with their company. 94 percent! Positive recognition may not be the only factor that plays into employee satisfaction but it’s clearly a strong common denominator.

For more information on how to successfully reward and recognize your employees now, watch the on-demand webinar, “How to Build Productivity through Reward and Recognition.”

So what does this mean for you? If you’re struggling with unhappy employees, it means you should be figuring out better ways to recognize them. Our past research study on workplace deal breakers showed that several of the top reasons employees quit their jobs have to do with negative relationships in the workplace–bosses who blame them for mistakes, bosses who don’t trust them, and difficult co-workers. Recognizing employees might go a long way towards improving relationships with them.

If you’re a manager or executive, you might start with some verbal recognition when an employee does something well, no matter how small. Employees said their most preferred method of receiving recognition on work performance is in-person verbal recognition from their bosses. A simple compliment can go a long way. After that, you might find ways to encourage your team to recognize each other’s successes. Our research also showed that peer recognition can sometimes be more impactful than that of a superior.

For the full summary of our Reward and Recognition research, go here. For help improving employee performance, check out our performance management tool.