Beware of your employees' fixed grins, companies told

The job market may be bleak, but those of us still in work are reporting an increase in job satisfaction.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) employee outlook survey of 3,000 workers found the proportion satisfied with their job almost doubled since 2006.
 
But despite the positive mood among staff, around half said there had been an increase in office politics, stress and uncertainty as a result of the recession and just under a fifth said their employer had cut back on training.
 
According to the research, companies need to invest in developing line managers’ people management skills to include coaching and performance management, if they are to retain workers’ confidence.
 
“Job satisfaction may have edged up – but this could be the employee opinion survey equivalent of a fixed grin,” said Ben Willmott, CIPD senior public policy adviser and co-author of the survey.
 
“Without action to tackle some of the stresses and strains that are clear in our survey, employers could find employee health and wellbeing deteriorating, and employee engagement tailing off at precisely the time they need all hands to the pump to survive the recession and thrive in the recovery.”
 
And the worried workers’ response to grin and bear it, highlights growing fault lines in confidence; over a third now worry about being made redundant and most believe finding a new job would be difficult, according to the survey.
 
Employees were particularly critical of senior management; with less than a fifth agreeing they trust them and only a quarter agreeing they consult employees about important decisions.
 
Wilmott says employers must ensure arrangements for consulting employees over major change, such as redundancy, are effective if they want to improve trust in senior management among the workforce.
 
And he warns it is imperative government investment includes a greater emphasis on the development of people management skills - otherwise efforts to maintain and improve productivity, meet skills shortages and support employee wellbeing will fail.