Some years ago, an organisational psychologist said that we don’t need to enjoy being at work; doing the job that gets us paid is enough. This utterance sounds just as bad out of context as it is in reality. It is, of course, necessary for people to feel safe and be treated equally at work, but feeling good also doesn’t hurt.
Job satisfaction as a building block of motivation
In fairness, the above-mentioned psychologist was actually just referring to the basic elements of any job and the fact that today some organisations have moved towards the other extreme a little too hastily. In many workplaces, spaces have the likeness of youth centres more than anything else: there might be a pool table, a PlayStation, a smoothie bar, etc. At the same time, the fact that motivation and job satisfaction are actually just built on very basic elements is often forgotten.
If the basic elements of an organisation’s culture are falling apart, swings and games won’t help much. As a result, motivated and enthusiastic employees will become just a distant memory. In these situations, the managers frantically wonder how they could motivate their employees to reach better results. At the same time, no one bothers to check if the basics of employee experience and satisfaction are in place. Employees must feel safe and equal with others and know how their role contributes to their company’s success, i.e., understand the importance of their work. Without these basic elements, no amount of outside entertainment will be able to save the day.
Our employees are officially satisfied
At Grapevine, we laid the foundations, i.e., the values of the company, together a few years ago. Our values include the following: we keep our employees and customers satisfied. We have also extended this value to our OKR-related work. We constantly assess and develop the comfort aspect in our company. We conduct surveys on a regular basis and ask and listen to each individual. We also take action based on the feedback we receive.
Our continuous efforts to improve comfort-related aspects has been a cornerstone of our operations for a long time. Perhaps that is why we received the Great Place to Work certificate with no trouble already in the first audit round. Organisations employing more than 10 people are eligible for the certificate if the results of an anonymous personnel survey show that employees feel comfortable in their workplace and trust their employer. Fortunately, we have also succeeded in customer satisfaction, as evidenced by our company winning the title of Office of the Year.
Developing employee experience is an ongoing task
So, while this is nothing new to us, receiving a certificate has still been highly important and we are genuinely proud of it. However, our work does not end here. We will continue to develop employee experience just like before. Working days take up a large part of our everyday lives: we spend about half of our waking hours with our colleagues. Therefore, not only must our jobs be meaningful, but we must also enjoy being at work!
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Marika Siniaalto
perustaja & hallituksen puheenjohtaja, digitaalisen markkinoinnin asiantuntija
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