There’s no denying the link between employee satisfaction and productivity. While a competitive salary and career development opportunities are important, don’t underestimate how crucial a comfortable workspace is to employee satisfaction. When employees are surrounded by a positive working environment, they’re far more likely to engage with company culture, increase productivity, and help employers achieve organisational goals.
 
If you’re finding it hard to motivate disengaged teams and are struggling with high turnover rates, it’s time to reconsider your working environment. With facility management services, it’s easy to create comfortable workplaces that will raise satisfaction levels, inspire productivity, and increase profitability. 

Is employee satisfaction really that important for business?

According to one 2022 survey, 55% of respondents reported being unhappy in their current job, a significant increase compared to findings from the previous year. Many other studies make for similar reading. There’s an undeniable correlation between employee satisfaction and workplace productivity. The more engaged your employees are, the more invested they’ll be in their role. For employers, this brings many benefits. 

Bigger Profit Margins 

Why is facility management important to your bottom line? When you start taking employee satisfaction seriously, you’re giving your workforce the motivation it needs to deliver beyond expectations. A positive work culture will result in consistent performance across every department, ensuring project milestones are met and costs are closely managed. This all leads to increased profitability.  

Reduced Turnover Rates 

If you compromise employee well-being, it’s unlikely that your staff will want to remain with your company. A lack of basic office amenities and poor workplace organisation impact employee morale and will quickly lead to essential workers looking for more rewarding opportunities with other companies.
 
Even if you manage to recruit replacements quickly, the onboarding process is rarely simple. It can take weeks, if not months, for a new hire to be brought up to speed and perform productively. There’s also the cost of recruitment to consider. In 2022, Adare Human Resource Management published a report that found recruitment had skyrocketed in recent years, rising to more than €7,400 per role.

Employee Advocacy 

The more you invest in facility upgrades and workspace management, the more engaged and productive your employees will be. This can also help with employee advocacy in the workplace, with happy staff more likely to promote your business on social media channels and elsewhere online. This can aid future recruitment by making your company seem more desirable to potential candidates.

Does employee satisfaction help productivity?

What is facility management going to do for your business? As well as pushing profit margins in the right direction, satisfied employees and a productive work environment facilitate growth and expansion. Once again, many studies confirm the link between employee satisfaction and workplace productivity.

• A 2023 report by the University of Warwick discovered happy employees were 12% more productive than unhappy colleagues, with researchers carrying out four experiments on 700 participants. 
• A report by Gallup found that businesses in the United States with high employee satisfaction rates enjoyed profitability gains of 21%.
• A MetLife UK survey found that 74% of workers would be more productive for an employer that took benefits and employee satisfaction seriously.

• Research carried out by recruitment specialist Robert Walters revealed that disengaged workers cost employers around 20% of their annual salary. 
• A study from Deloitte revealed that companies with high employee engagement levels enjoyed 2.3 times more revenue growth than the average growth rate. 

How to Improve Employee Satisfaction with FM 

If you’re worried about falling employee satisfaction levels, now’s the time to start taking FM seriously. By implementing just a few facility management best practices, you can boost employee morale, increase retention rates, and achieve consistent revenue growth.  

The Importance of Cleanliness 

Don’t overlook the fundamentals of facility maintenance. If the outside of your premises and areas frequented by site visitors are poorly maintained, you’ll be making a bad first impression on visitors and potential clients. However, you also need to think about workplace comfort and the well-being of your employees.
 
A consistently cleaned workspace lets your employees care about them. In turn, performance and productivity benefit. However, it’s not always easy for internal teams to keep on top of cleaning routines and maintenance tasks. If you’re regularly reassigning maintenance teams to other duties, it might be time to think about outsourcing facility management options instead. 

Improve Workplace Health and Safety 

How employees perceive the safety of a workplace matters. A poor safety record or occupational health hazards can negatively impact retention rates while increasing stress levels in your current workforce.  
 
With FM services, it’s easy to implement robust health and safety measures, bringing your employees the reassurance they need. Employers have a legal obligation to protect workers from health and safety risks, with FM bringing the guarantee of compliance. A safer and healthier workspace also results in less downtime, with fewer accidents and lower rates of sick-related absence.  

Rethink Workspace Layouts and Space Management 

Facility optimisation can ensure you’re using your workspace as effectively as possible. Just a few tweaks to configurations can dramatically increase workspace efficiency and productivity levels. Do departments need to regularly talk with each other to complete their work? Make sure they have a layout that’s conducive to communication. 

Embrace Integration and Automation 

With smart technology and integrated systems, it’s easy to maintain ideal working conditions that cater to the needs of your employees, improve satisfaction and drive productivity. With smart sensors, HVAC systems can be turned on as soon as your employees arrive for a shift, while also bringing you significant cost savings. 
 
There’s also plenty of scope for automation. Audits for regulatory compliance can be completed automatically, without the need for manual input. Asset management can also be streamlined, freeing up your workforce for more important tasks.  

Reap the Benefits of Employee Engagement with FM Services 

Workplace experience counts when it comes to employee satisfaction, with a direct impact on profit margins, turnover rates and recruitment costs. People become advocates for employers who care about their well-being, boosting corporate credibility and helping with future recruitment. Research consistently demonstrates that happy employees are far more productive than unhappy ones, with disengaged workers costing employers a significant amount of money. 

Businesses that take employee engagement seriously also typically enjoy faster growth rates than those that don’t. What’s more, creating a positive working environment by focusing on consistent cleaning, space management and health and safety compliance is surprisingly straightforward.