The first thing you need to understand is the fact that keeping your employees satisfied tends to be more than just your moral duty. There are so many actual benefits from investing in employee satisfaction in a small business, ranging from talent attraction and retention, reputation boost (for both you and the enterprise) to the inevitable productivity boost. With that in mind and without further ado, here’s how and why employee satisfaction is important in a small business.

A boost to employee retention

Every employee is an asset. Think about it, you make an investment to screen them, hire them, train them and then spend countless hours and effort in order to make them gain the proficiency level they need in order to work in that particular spot. Once this is all over, they need to work for you for a certain period of time just in order for you to reach your break-even point, let alone profit from them. Having them leave too soon results in a direct loss in ROI. Employee satisfaction is, therefore, crucial in boosting employee retention.

Greater productivity

There’s a statistic that claims that a happy employee works 12 percent harder than their less satisfied colleagues. This means that by increasing employee satisfaction, you would put yourself in a position where you drastically increase the productivity within your enterprise with minimal investment. This is particularly handy for small businesses, seeing as how it would allow their small staff to outperform their much larger counterparts. Keep in mind, nonetheless, that sometimes you need to balance between the investment you make in the productivity and the return that you get.

A boost to your own reputation

The next thing you need to take into consideration is your own reputation. You see, as the head of a small enterprise, all of its successes and failures will be attributed directly to you. This is why you need to worry about your personal brand, your own reputation. First of all, you need to treat everyone with respect. This means both addressing every single one of your employees as an equal and honoring your end of the bargain. Provide them with all the necessary benefits but, most importantly, always pay them on time. With the help of personalized payroll cards, this will become so much easier, which is why this is an option that you might want to choose.          

Brand image

Another thing worth bearing in mind is the fact that every one of your employees is a brand ambassador and, as such, they are directly responsible for the image of your company. When hiring new people, they’ll be the ones recommending new hires amongst their friends and former colleagues. If they’re dissatisfied with how they’re treated in the workplace, chances are that they will not do such a thing or, at least, not recommend your business the way in which you would like them to. Also, the word of how you treat your employees has a particular way of spreading.

Lower absenteeism

One of the biggest productivity killers in the modern workplace is high absenteeism. Sure, people don’t show up to work when they’re sick or have some personal issues, however, people who are dissatisfied with the way things are in the office might just keep looking for excuses not to show up. Sure, it hurts their paycheck but it hurts them so much more to just come to work. By lowering discontent in the office, you will also lower the absenteeism.

Conclusion

The very last thing you need to take into consideration is the importance of employee satisfaction in a small business on a personal level, which might inspire some and encourage others. By feeling great in their workplace, they might feel a sense of pride that comes from being in your employ, even develop a feeling of partial ownership. This alone can help them outperform your expectations and be ready to take that extra mile even when no one expects them to do so.