Recently, a light has been shed on the construction industry and some of the stereotypes or behaviors that are prevalent within it. In particular, there has been a focus on how toxic masculinity can affect working in a traditional construction environment.
For business owners, the issue of a dissatisfied, uncomfortable or unhappy workforce is a very important one.
Engaged and happy employees are both more productive and more loyal, allowing a business to grow on a foundation of experienced staff who love coming to work and want to put the business’ needs first.
Achieving this passion for work is challenging for all organisations but should be an aspiration as the perfect employee is one who will go above and beyond for the business.
To help construction business owners who are looking to improve staff satisfaction, here is a list of ideas to get you started.
Leveraging these strategies, it should be easy for any construction-based organisation to improve day-to-day working for their staff, assisting business growth and success.
3 Ways To Improve Staff Satisfaction in Construction Business
1. Salary Surveys
The first port of call that all organisations should make when addressing an employee satisfaction problem is to look at the salaries being offered.
At a fundamental level, people work to get paid, regardless of how much pleasure the job brings them. With this in mind, staff who feel they are not being paid fairly are unlikely to be satisfied with their role, even if they enjoy day-to-day activities.
Beyond this, even if employees are relatively satisfied, if they are being paid less than the market average then they are more susceptible to being tempted away by a competitor offering a larger pay packet.
This can be a recurring problem for businesses which doesn’t just inhibit growth but causes further problems as competitors consistently obtain and keep the best talent in the job market.
The answer to this is to utilize building and construction salary surveys. Salary surveys are usually run by independent financial organisations who collate data on market salaries to develop detailed averages for each of the most common job roles within an industry.
This means that construction businesses can go to a single source for salary averages for everyone in their organisation, from Site Managers to Planning Engineers.
Using this data, it’s easier to inform payment and salary decision, allowing a business to remain competitive on the job market as well as on the commercial one.
2. Pay Structure and Development Opportunities
Beyond the salary itself and what people are being paid, the payment and job structure of your organisation can also have a major impact on employee satisfaction.
In particular, how your structure allows for progression is key to keeping staff focused and in-sight of their next step up the ladder.
This applies to both developmental opportunities and salary. For example, the job families pay structure uses ‘levels’ to allow staff to improve both their skills and what they are being paid.
You might have a Junior Bricklayer, Bricklayer and Senior Bricklayer within a job family, each with a different pay level and requiring new levels of training or experience to be reached.
This is essential as it gives staff a visible path to the next step – without something of this nature, employees can feel that they are stagnating and have no opportunity to progress their career.
Additionally, consider sponsoring training courses for staff interested in developing themselves in certain areas.
Not only does this show that you value the staff member enough to spend money on training them (therefore increasing loyalty to the business) but it also benefits the organisation by extending the services you can offer.
3. Recognition and Appreciation
Finally, one of the most overlooked details of employee satisfaction, particularly in construction, is the importance of recognition.
Even with an amazing salary and clear progression path, staff will continue to find themselves unhappy if they don’t feel valued at the business.
Showing an employee how much they matter the company develops trust between workforce and employer, which is one of the most important aspects of making staff care about the business they work for.
Showing appreciation can be as simple as saying thank you when people go above and beyond for the business.
Alternatively, other great ideas are employee of the month schemes and company-wide newsletters which recognise different people’s achievements. This Is made even more effective if staff vote on who is given these awards because employees tend to value the recognition of their colleagues extremely highly.
Using these techniques, you should find it significantly easier to create a positive working environment at your construction company.
Regardless of what aspect of construction you work in, paying attention to employee satisfaction is sure to help you gain the success and expansion that every business owner aspires to.
Read Also:
- 5 Office Organization Ideas For Maximum Productivity
- 5 Things Your Office Needs to Boost Productivity
- How to Reward Your Employees
Author: Matt
