Improving Employee Satisfaction With ERP and the PERMA Model

At the core of all businesses, the employees that form the organizational structure are the foundation of a company. When people are tasked with thinking about their company's most valuable assets, they will often list things like capital, brand recognition, patents, intellectual property, etc. when in many cases your employees are responsible for creating these assets in the first place.

A survey in 2020 showed that?54.3% of employees were satisfied with their jobs. While it is positive that more than half of the workforce claims to be satisfied in their positions, employers should always aim to improve this number. At this point you may be asking why is employee satisfaction so significant and how do I address and improve on this metric? This article aims to break down the topic of employee satisfaction and provide an explanation of how ERP software?systems and the PERMA model can be used together to improve employee satisfaction.

Why is employee satisfaction important??

Employee satisfaction is crucial to maintaining a positive, productive workplace. When employees enjoy their workplace, productivity not only goes up but the quality of the work being performed increases as well. If an employee feels that they are just a replaceable part of a larger machine, the employee likely won’t put forward their best effort. For your business to operate at the highest levels of productivity and efficiency, employees need to feel like their contribution matters.

What affects employee satisfaction?

Wages

In every paid job position, your employees are exchanging their time and efforts for a wage. Commonly, employers will throw more money at their employees to make them happier and boost their overall job satisfaction. While this may work in the short term, for many a pay increase will only provide a band-aid solution to job satisfaction as there are far more factors that contribute to an employee’s enjoyment, wages are just a small piece of the pie.

A positive work environment

I’m sure everyone would like to work in a positive work environment where they enjoy their time, and feel safe and comfortable, especially since employees spend so much time at work. In a traditional work setting?employees are spending around half of their waking hours in the office. Spending that much time in a negative work environment will no question take a toll on employees.

In positive work environments, members of an organization are friendly and allow for open discussion about feedback, criticisms, concerns, and jobs well done. It is important to help employees understand the meaning of their contributions. A recent study has shown that?upwards of half of employees do not understand how their contribution affects the organization. Creating a positive workplace for all employees is not difficult, however, it takes a conscious effort.

Work-life balance?

Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is crucial to long-term employee satisfaction. Even if an employee is in their dream job, an excessive workload will eventually wear anyone out. The main issue many employees have with work-life balance in their current position is being overworked and having little to no personal time outside of the workplace. Personal time allows employees to re-charge before the next workday. If employees are not able to fully recharge, it is likely they will eventually burn out. Even the best employees are affected by burnout. A lack of work-life balance not only destroys employee morale but also destroys an employee’s productivity and can tarnish their quality of work. Studies have shown that?long work hours do actually harm overall productivity, making it paramount to address this issue.

Thankfully some tools can be used to assist your employees in their work. Software systems for example are a fantastic tool to assist your employees in their day-to-day responsibilities. ERP systems, for example, have?a long list of features that can be used?to automate business processes, speed up the processes that automation cannot take over, and improve the accuracy of work being completed at the same time. ERP implementation can offload employee workload and allow them to focus on more important tasks such as customer relationship building.

Validation?

Validation of employees may be the most overlooked factor in employee satisfaction. It is important when employees perform a job well done that they are acknowledged for their hard work. Some managers may only thank employees when they perform above and beyond expectations. However, setting up a monthly lunch or giving a shoutout in a weekly or monthly meeting are just some examples of how to thank your employees. Acts of gratitude show you not only acknowledge the work they are doing but appreciate their efforts as well.

Why You Should Care

Well…no one wants to be like that guy. Employee satisfaction levels can have huge effects on employee and overall business performance. If any of your employees are unhappy at work, it may allude to a poor company culture that is focused on a business-first culture instead of a people-first focus. It is important to address your company's culture and pay attention to how employees are doing individually before problems begin to degrade your workforce and affect your business.

Poor employee satisfaction causes the quality of work, efficiency of work, and effectiveness of work, to?all decrease, in turn?affecting profit.?If employees are unhappy at work, they are far less motivated to put in a full effort or even complete tasks at all. Employee turnover is another important metric to consider when talking about employee satisfaction. If employee turnover is high, it will require many resources to be tied up in training new individuals. Losing an employee means losing all the knowledge they possessed.?It takes 2 years?for an employee to be fully trained and fully productive in their roles so think about investing valuable time into education.??

How do we address these factors?

Employers looking to improve employee satisfaction may feel overwhelmed and unsure where to begin. It is important to remember that management can make cultural changes such as validating employees that can shift your business focus to a people-first culture, however, your employees may also need additional tools to solve issues like work-life balance. Combining a people-first management style with an ERP system provides you and your employees with a wealth of tools that can be used to improve various business processes and in turn?improve employee satisfaction in the workplace.

To create a people-first environment management should consider the PERMA model. This model lays out a framework for achieving happiness in 5 simple ways: Positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishments. Fulfilling all five of these areas has proven to?increase job satisfaction and overall happiness?but how do you fulfill all five? Here is a breakdown of the PERMA model and how you can get the most out of PERMA when it is combined with an ERP system:

P: Positive Emotions?

Creating and embracing positive emotions is incredibly important in the workplace. Often workplaces can be stressful and tense and that just isn’t the kind of environment that supports employee satisfaction. Building a positive environment for your team will allow them to become more comfortable in the workplace and your employees will begin to associate their work with those positive emotions especially if they are consistent and genuine. Bringing out emotions like joy, humor, and gratitude are great ways to bring a team closer together.

To promote positive emotions in the workplace try reframing the way you approach workplace discussions. For example, in the morning meeting outline the things that you are happy about before providing criticism. Showing interest in your employees' lives and wellbeing outside of the workplace will also reinforce positivity. Ultimately if management outwardly projects positive emotions, the rest of the team is far more likely to mirror this behavior.

E: Engagement?

No matter what level of the organization someone fits into, their work will always be more enjoyable if it is engaging. In addition to a higher level of employee satisfaction, higher levels of engagement also increase metrics like individual quality of work, commitment to the company, and value to company goals.

Involving your employees in the areas of the business they interact with is a great way to keep them engaged. Implementing any software is a big step and involving your employees in the implementation and training processes makes them a part of important business decisions. To assist with change management there are three main aspects to building a successful training plan: tailoring training to your staff, choosing the right employees to be involved in the training, and providing training flexibly. Properly training your team on a new ERP system will also help them better understand how the system benefits their daily responsibilities, further reinforcing their engagement with a new system.

Download our Change Management Guide for more tips and tricks.

R: Relationship

Developing?positive relationships within the workplace?is crucial to employee satisfaction. Employees working in a traditional, in-office, 8-hour workday, spend more of their waking hours with co-workers than they do with their immediate families. Studies show that?employees with friends in the workplace report feeling happier more often when at work.

M: Meaning

Providing meaning to your employees’ work allows them to make connections between their efforts and their contribution to the company. Doing so also shows employees their time is valuable, and they are not wasting their time and efforts.

The nature of ERP systems combines all aspects of a business into one area. Implementing an ERP system will allow your employees to see how their daily tasks affect the overall business. As employees interact with the ERP to perform their daily tasks, they will begin to visualize the links between departments, data, and resources. In your ERP training, it is important to highlight these connections to reinforce the meaning behind their responsibilities and the importance of an ERP to the company.

A: Accomplishments

Acknowledging the accomplishments employees make within an organization can have great effects on employee morale and will help you shift your culture to a people-first focus. Acknowledging hard work will show your employees you notice the effort they put in day in and day out and you may find that productivity increases as well.

Acknowledging accomplishments is easy. accomplishments can be small, like finishing a task earlier than expected or something bigger like saving the company money. It is important to celebrate your employees’ small victories to validate their hard work and to remind them the work they are doing is appreciated and valued.

Keeping your employees happy is crucial to building an excellent foundation that your business can stand on. Using the PERMA model and utilizing the tools an ERP provides, you can ensure your employees are satisfied within their positions and your business is operating at peak performance.