Team members of Dr. Sorrenson’s practice, Lakeline Vision Source , during Kids Day in the office. Dr. Sorrenson says creating an enjoyable culture is essential to retaining employees and maintaining a great patient experience.
Why it’s critical that your employees feel a sense of satisfaction with their jobs.
By Laurie Sorrenson, OD, FAAO
Feb. 28, 2024
Here are some interesting facts about job satisfaction!
When job satisfaction is higher, it predicts employee retention, customer loyalty and financial outcomes for companies. – Perspectives on Psychological Science
When people have greater levels of job satisfaction, they have better loyalty, ownership, commitment, effectiveness, efficiency and productivity. – Procedia Economics and Finance
Journal of Applied Psychology published a study that said when people have greater job satisfaction, they have more positive moods, which affects their home life as well.
The same study showed that when employees were satisfied with organizational culture, 77 percent of them were likely to stay with their employer, versus 24 percent with lower satisfaction.
It also showed that another big driver of job satisfaction is leadership, and 80 percent of those satisfied with leadership were likely to stay, compared with 27 percent who weren’t.
The Vital Role of Culture & Leadership in Boosting Job Satisfaction
These findings underscore the vital role that culture and leadership play in creating job satisfaction within a workplace.
In my opinion, fostering a positive culture should be very intentional.
Regularly revisiting and reinforcing your mission statement and core values is crucial. In our office, we make it a point to incorporate one of our core values into almost every weekly meeting and even at our morning “WOW” huddle, where we wrap up with a bit of a corny? phrase… “Let’s go WOW some patients and have some fun!”
If one of your core values is “having fun,” like it is in our office, it’s essential to ensure that fun is integrated into meetings and communications routinely. My son, and practice partner, Eric Hammond, OD, runs our weekly meetings with the whole staff and he does such a good job incorporating fun into our meetings!
Other Articles to Explore
Why Your Leadership as Practice Owner is Essential
Another major factor in job satisfaction is having effective leadership. What defines a good leader? There are various ways to be a good leader, but studies consistently highlight the importance of being decisive. Additionally, having the trust of employees is crucial, which, to me, means “walking the walk and not just talking the talk.”
Transparency, decisiveness, honesty and a “service-hearted” approach to leading your employees can really go a long way to becoming an effective leader, which can build and maintain job satisfaction…
So, considering that job satisfaction not only makes our employees’ lives better, but also boosts the success of our businesses, perhaps we should put in more effort into deliberately shaping a positive culture and upping our leadership game.
Don’t you just love it when it is a “win-win” situation!! 🙂
Laurie Sorrenson, OD, FAAO, is president of Lakeline Vision Source in Cedar Park, Texas, and the Professional Editor of Review of Optometric Business (ROB). To contact her: lsorrenson@gmail.com.
