Job Satisfaction - How satisfied are your employees?

How satisfied are your employees with their jobs and the company? You should be asking this question to yourself, quite often. For the reason, that a worker who is not satisfied with his job would not only be looking for a new job, he/she will also be uninterested in performing at their full potential. What’s more? They’ll transfer this negativity into their fellow workers and you will be left with a workforce where majority of the workers is discontent with their jobs. You can well imagine the consequences.

On the other hand, an employee who is satisfied with his/her job will continuously strive to work hard so that he/she can retain the job. Job satisfaction is a product of many elements, some of the important ones are remuneration package, workforce environment, management style and the nature of the duties assigned.

Management Style:
The relationship between the manager and subordinates is a very critical one, if the managers or supervisors are disrespectful or unconcerned about their subordinate’s emotions; the job satisfaction level is always going to be low, no matter what the other instrumental factors are. Nobody likes discriminatory treatment, insulting remarks or overly authoritative behavior. Employees should feel at ease in the workplace, therefore the supervision should not unnecessarily violate the comfort level.

Workforce Environment and health issues:
Bad working conditions includes (but of course are not limited to) bad lighting, insufficient ventilation, hot temperatures or any other kind of health hazards. If the workers’ health is at risk, they can be anything but satisfied. These concerns should be solved on first priority basis without waiting for someone coming up with complains. In addition to the physical safety, working environment should also be able to provide mental peace. Issues like overly aggressive supervisors, bullish co-workers or impractical work targets can ruin the peace of mind.

A good salary package can nullify various minor issues:
Probably the most influential factor in job satisfaction is the remuneration one gets for his job, a reasonable pay will compensate for many hitches, for example work overload, overtime or even a stressful job. Job satisfaction is directly related to remuneration packages and dissatisfaction mostly come up when a worker feels that he is not being appropriately compensated for the work he is doing for the company.

Apart from these factors, there are some other weighty elements as well, for example job security, overall economic conditions, growth opportunities or work/life balance. If you are experiencing high turnover rate, workers taking excessive leaves or low productivity, then you must look into these factors.

Source:
Wholesale
Wholesale Products

Alternative trading systems and organization

Fair trade is a relatively old phenomenon that presents an alternate trading system, which facilitates small scale producers and workers (mainly from undeveloped countries), so that they can sell their products in the developed markets without being duped by the middleman or the capitalist who pay these workers the smallest amount but sells the product to consumers at a hefty price. At the end of the day, it is the middlemen or industrialist, who takes home the larger profits while the real worker is left with little or no opportunities to grow, which is quite unfair. For that reason a fair trading system has been introduced that tends to be directed more by socialist viewpoint than the capitalist.

Alternative Trade Organizations:

Fair trade (also known as alternative trade) calls for market access for low level producers, so that they’ll be able to sell their products at reasonable price. This is what these alternative trade organizations (or fair trade organizations) works for. Fair trade movement, which was started back in 1940’s, was initially based on religious or ethical commandments. With the passage of time, as more and more people including NGO’s and students joined in the cause, it is now becoming more and more popular especially in Europe and North America. For the reason that it’s not only the worker who benefits, but the whole society, especially the consumers who will be paying fair price.

To achieve their ultimate goal (which is to empower destitute workers towards economic prosperity), fair trade organizations works toward promoting this trade system, and spreading awareness among consumers. Such products are not easily available in all markets, so these organizations have to endorse the locations and stores where such merchandise is available. There is a type of certification known as Fair trade Certification, granted to businesses who meet the standards (works pretty much the same like ISO certification). Some of these standards are no gender discrimination, decent wages for workers, no child labor and safe working conditions. Though there’s no restraint but till now the fair-trade is normally limited to simple household stuff like tea and coffee, fruits, chocolate or handicrafts. 

Alternate trading systems:

Some people confuse alternative trade with alternate trading system, because of the similarity in the names. Alternate trading systems are actually unconventional trading system set up for the convenience of stocks buyers and sellers. These are not necessarily stock exchange, though a set of regulations made by SEC applies on them. Online trading system is an example of alternate trading.