Managers want to fulfill their employee’s needs so that they are content with their pay, hours, and level of flexibility. Managers strive for employee satisfaction. But does job satisfaction equal employee engagement?
Consider Connie. She is an assembly line employee who is satisfied with her job. Her job means steady employment. She feels satisfied with her pay (at least it’s better than most of the jobs she could find down the street). She starts at 7:00 in the morning and gets off in time to pick up her seven-year-old from school. It meets her needs. However, for Connie, it’s just a job. She can’t say she looks forward to coming to work, and she doesn’t find herself motivated to perform her best.
An employee can be satisfied with a job without being engaged in the job. Engagement is much more than being content on pay day and content with the ability to leave at 3 pm. That contentedness is merely job satisfaction, and though satisfaction is generally enough to retain employees, it’s not enough to ensure productivity. On the other hand, employee engagement does promote increased productivity.
Managers must understand that an engaged employee is an employee who is deeply involved and invested in their work. This occurs when multiple job factors intersect and it is much more than job satisfaction alone. The confusion comes when we begin to use satisfaction and engagement synonymously.
Organizations with genuinely engaged employees have higher retention, productivity, customer satisfaction, innovation rates, and quality. They also require less training time, experience less illness, and have fewer accidents.
Simply put, satisfaction is not engagement– and of the two, you want engagement.
