Employee motivation and satisfaction as the key to business optimization

The first guest of the column is Roman Šakirovski, an Expert Professional Placement Consultant and our favorite HR blogger (myhrsimplified). As he states, his journey in the field of human resources began with work in smaller agencies abroad, which were then replaced by a larger corporation and finally (with luck), Manpower Croatia.

He is an expert in recruiting various positions through 180/360 cycles and effective management of business communication, which he proves every day in his relationship with clients, candidates, and colleagues.

You can watch Roman's view on HR topics, satisfaction, motivation, and remote work in the video in English or read it in Croatian in the text below.

In your experience, what are the universal factors that influence employee happiness and satisfaction?

The quick answer to that question is the following - company culture, leaving a lasting impression when working, relationships with the manager and co-workers, as well as learning and developing existing and new skills.

These are all factors that strongly influence the state of mind and motivation of each employee, regardless of salary, which, surprisingly according to the number of studies conducted, is at the bottom of the list when it comes to complete employee satisfaction.

This is one of the reasons why companies on a global level have started to invest much more in each of the HR sub-spheres. Simplicity of complexity is key here and if HR strategy is built according to employees in general, chances are that their satisfaction will be more pronounced.

How to motivate employees to take responsibility in addition to competence?

There are a dozen ways to motivate employees that management willing to take the time and money can offer, but I would boil it down to 3 unique areas. Regular evaluations of work performance, professional development, and recognition of achievements or the always popular performance feedback.

These areas generally include most of the activities that summarize the employee's motivation, and if any of them is not in the focus of the company and management, there will be a missing link in the employee's work, either due to a lack of competence or just general motivation.

How do analytics / employee data shape business?

My counter question would be "How not?". By conducting regular statistical analysis, HR departments can predict and reduce hidden labor costs, calculate the ROI of various HR practices that align the overall business.

By aligning HR practices with business goals, the company gets the perfect business model for success. Indeed, one of the key roles of any human resources department is to shape the business towards profit with the appropriate expenditure of resources.

We might even say that a business would rarely be successful without careful strategic planning by the HR department.

Is telecommuting the future or the present?

The short answer would be both. Most of the global workforce already works from home at least once a week, and some more. The pandemic has encouraged companies to adapt their strategy with remote work, as well as thinking and evaluating how employee performance should be measured in such an environment.

If anything, the job market will look down on companies that won't have the flexibility to work remotely. It is still considered a tool for branding employers, but it will soon become the norm without which companies will not be able to successfully advertise on the market.

Remote work is the present and will remain so for the foreseeable future due to its simplicity and pure favoring of the balance between work and private life.