|
Archive for the ‘Employee Satisfaction’ Category« Previous EntriesBuilding Staff Loyalty In The WorkplaceTuesday, March 6th, 2012  The more forward thinking businesses out there realise that in times such as these that you have to be strong for your staff and carry them with you and they, in turn, will support you. In order to build loyalty and engage your workforce, follow these 5 steps that are most closely correlated with staff satisfaction: 1. Start from the top and give confidence to those that you are leading as well as live the company values (especially senior management) 2. Give peace of mind about the future of the company so staff have belief! 3. Listen – and show your employees that you care 4. Don’t take advantage of your employees – their well-being is of utmost importance so treat everyone fairly 5. Allow managers the autonomy to do just that….manage but also support their team to enable them to fulfil their true potential For more information about how B2B International can increase staff satisfaction and help create loyalty in your company visit: http://www.b2binternational.com/research-and-intelligence/employee-engagement Click here to read our latest white paper on staff satisfaction and employee engagement visit: The Art of Employee Engagement in ChinaWednesday, February 22nd, 2012  This week, Mark Hedley takes a timely look at the issue of employee satisfaction With rising unemployment figures, reduced income levels of the majority of workers and the contentious issue of bankers’ bonuses continuing to provoke strong public feeling in the UK, it seems the issue of how to keep employees satisfied and motivated has never been more relevant. In China too, the issue of worker treatment has started to receive much greater attention in the media. Most recently, Apple’s decision to investigate reports of poor working conditions and low pay at the Foxconn plant in southern China, following a spate of accidents and worker suicides, reflects a growing public mood in China for improved treatment of workers by both multinational and local Chinese companies. While very few companies have employee problems on the scale that Apple currently faces in China, it is nevertheless true that many foreign companies in China often fail to invest sufficient time and resources in measuring and looking to improve satisfaction levels amongst their employees. Although this is particularly due to a failure of will on behalf of Western managers, this is also due to cultural differences in the way that companies are organized and operated in China. Nowadays, many Western firms have a localized management team in place, which means Eastern cultural values often remain entrenched in how these companies operate within China. Chinese companies tend to be structured along more hierarchical lines than Western firms, where flatter management structures allow for greater interaction between senior managers and employees. While managers of Western corporations often look to engage employees from all levels of the business in the decision-making process, frequently gathering feedback from employees, Chinese managers are often less active engaging with employees in this way. It can be argued that Western society is conducive to an environment in which employees are more willing to give voice to their views in an open and often critical manner than is the case in hierarchical societies such as China. Conversely, senior managers in China are normally expected to take decisions without broad consultation from junior stakeholders, while junior staff may be disinclined to voice their opinions in an open and honest fashion. Effective employee research arguably has a more important role to play in hierarchical management cultures such as China than in Western markets. Not only does effective employee research lead directly to improvements in staff, but it also enables senior managers to tap into a rich knowledge resource within the organisation. Employee research can also help to improve organisational performance, generate new ideas to drive business success and as an additional way of ‘sense-checking’ important managerial decisions. It gives workers opportunity to feed views upward, remain well-informed about what is happening within the organization, and to gain reassurance that managers are fully committed to the organisation. As companies in China fight to retain their most talented employees and make the best use out of their existing human resources, there is likely to be a growing future demand for research that accurately captures the attitudes and needs of employees. Assembling a more satisfied workforce is a major competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive environment. Findings from employee research can be used to develop a strategy for building a committed workforce who will contribute to the well-being and future prosperity of the company. Happy New Year To B2B BloggersWednesday, January 5th, 2011  With 2010 now behind us an interesting survey recently carried out by Maris Interiors found that over the 2010 Christmas period, over half the offices in Britain (55 percent) spent absolutely nothing on Christmas decorations. The overall average spend per employee was 23p!!. Only two per cent of the 140 offices surveyed had spent more than £5 per employee on Christmas decorations this year. Of the 45 per cent of offices with any festive cheer at all, tinsel was the most common decoration: most commonly taped to the ceiling or around computer monitors. And only 12 per cent of companies splashed out on a Christmas tree, with the average height of the tree being less than five feet. Let’s hope 2011 is a prosperous one and that the economy allows more companies to be less ‘Scrooge-like’; especially as your workforce are your greatest assets – Employee Satisfaction The Importance of EmployeesMonday, January 25th, 2010 
Your employees are one of your company’s greatest assets. What they say about your company, how they act in the workplace, and how happy they are in their roles all impact on your brand, your image, your levels of service and ultimately your customers’ satisfaction. B2B Marketing recently published an article entitled BRANDING: Motivating employees to be your ‘brand carriers’. The article, which is shown below, makes interesting reading. Many B2B companies have gone through mergers and takeovers, with the associated churn in staff, sense of insecurity, loss of implicit knowledge and know-how… So, more than ever, B2B companies need to re-address the way they interact with their employees. Positive interaction, fostering brand engagement, can have a massively beneficial impact on your company – and your bottom line.
So maybe it’s time to switch the focus from the voice of the shareholder or the customer to the voice of the employee – the employee as brand ambassador.
Misunderstanding The Chinese WorkforceMonday, July 21st, 2008
Employee satisfaction, just like customer satisfaction, is a variable concept: What pleases one customer or employee is likely to be completely different from what drives contentment in another. In other words, employees can just as well be segmented as customers. And just like a customer satisfaction segmentation, identifying what motivates employees can be approached from different directions, whether in terms of demographics or needs. One particular way in which workers can crudely be divided is by nationality. It has commonly been observed that international workforces differ greatly in what they look for in a job. A caution against this type of profiling is the danger of stereotyping. This is especially so in the case of China, where the received wisdom has been that Chinese employees are solely motivated by money. However, as the following study, reported in the Wall Street Journal suggests, this perception may well be an outmoded one:
« Previous Entries |
|
