Attention employers: want to increase employee job satisfaction? Free cafeteria food and flex time aren’t it. An employee’s job satisfaction may depend as much on the positive mental, spiritual, physical, and emotional resources the employee brings to the workplace, according to data gathered from nearly 100,000 working adults in a five-year study of personal energy management and work-life balance.
“The people who score in the top 10 percent of job satisfaction report they are also taking care of themselves in the mental, emotional, spiritual and physical realms,” says Dr. Jim Loehr, CEO of the Human Performance Institute in Orlando, FL. The source of Dr. Loehr’s data, the Full Engagement Self Profile, is based on the 2003 bestselling book titled The Power of Full Engagement. Loehr is also author of the 2007 book, The Power of Story.
“Furthermore, people who report the highest job satisfaction are highly self-confident individuals,” adds Loehr, who notes an 85 percent correlation between high job satisfaction and self-confidence. “They are not only satisfied with their jobs; they also feel competent in work and life. These two are mutually reinforcing.”
Loehr's organization identified these highly satisfied individuals by their response to the statement: “I am happy and satisfied in my job.” Then they learned that people in the top 10 percent of job satisfaction also exhibit positive motivational and energy management habits to a far greater degree than people in the bottom 10 percent.
Most dramatic are the differences in the management of “spiritual” energy, as illustrated by practices related to beliefs about the meaning of life. Those with the highest job satisfaction score about 250 percent higher on commitment, passion, self-confidence, vision, and purpose than those in the lowest 10 percent of job satisfaction.
The top 10 percent's average exercise and fitness score is 170 percent of those in the bottom 10 percent of job satisfaction. Their nighttime sleep score is 154 percent of those in the bottom 10 percent. Their overall rest and recovery, which includes daytime rest breaks and constructive diversions from work, is 149 percent of those with the lowest job satisfaction. Their nutrition is 126 percent of those in the lowest group.
“These are individuals who have somehow found a way to harness their own sources of physical energy and motivation, in spite of the distracting environment in which most of us live today,” Loehr says. “It is tempting, based on these numbers, to think that job satisfaction can be addressed through good candidate selection,” Loehr adds. “And to some extent, it can. But employers get only one chance at good selection with each opening they fill, while they have a daily opportunity to encourage people towards practices that renew physical energy, and as well as the opportunity to encourage employees’ self-confidence through training and recognition. If the tensions of the job take away energy, enthusiasm and time for self-renewal, the individual with high job satisfaction is at risk for becoming less engaged.”
