51% of Employees are very, very sad!

unhappy  photo by hacky

There are a bunch of unhappy people out there.  And the really scary part of that equation is that most of them are your employees (well maybe not your employees, but someone’s employees).

Several recent studies have shown that over 50% of employees are unhappy with their job and would consider leaving if they got the chance!  Imagine 50% of your employees leaving you next month…I imagine that would make you unhappy as well.

It sounds far fetched that a bunch of people would leave at once, but there are a lot of people who have held onto jobs they didn’t like for a long time simply because they didn’t think there would be anything else out there.  As the economy starts to warm up (which it’s doing slowly) there will be new opportunities and those unhappy people are going to bolt – even if it’s a lateral move, just to get out!

What can you do?

Now is the time to start seriously thinking about what you can do to get people back into the positive side of the equation (and hopefully keep them on board and productive).

Famous author and coach Marshall Goldsmith wrote an interesting article on what employees can do if they’re unhappy:  Why you aren’t happy and what to do to make things better.  Based on a study he did, the unhappiness doesn’t directly correlate with hours worked or focus on fun versus work.  However he did discover that employees who work in an environment that matches their own Core Values are likely to be happier…in other words, you need to get the Right People on the Bus!

Another good article from Sean Silverthorne – How to Fix an Unhappy Employee, looks at 3 additional components that help drive work satisfaction:

  • Work on what you enjoy
  • Work on what you’re good at
  • Work on something valuable to the larger organization

Great employees are the lifeblood of a successful business.  Without happy, productive employees, you don’t have a business, so it’s definitely worth the time to figure out how to make them happy to be there.

Are you concerned about your employees?  What are you doing in these challenging times to make them productive and happy?  Share your thoughts in the comments below – I’d love to hear them.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach