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10 Warning Signs of Unhappy Employees [Infographic]

Posted by Guthrie-Jensen Consultants

Employees are the oars that keep your boat moving. Your company’s success is highly dependent on their daily productivity, creativity, and commitment to the vision.

When employees are unhappy and disengaged, various issues may arise. Negligence, decreased productivity, damaged brand reputation, and loss of revenue are just a few of the effects of employee dissatisfaction.

As the work culture is changing, employees no longer feel the need to stay with a company if they are unhappy with its culture and environment. Hence, the additional problem of employee retention.

Low morale is not something you can take for granted. Companies need to take better care of employees and address morale issues. Any management consultant will tell you the same thing. In fact, studies suggest that happy employees are 12% more productive, while unhappy employees are 10% less productive. This is why you need to look out for the 10 warning signs of unhappy employees.

When employees start feeling unhappy in their workplace, they generally hide this from other colleagues and their bosses. They also take some time to assess within themselves if they really are unhappy or if it’s just a mood swing or temporary setback.

However, as time goes by, this unhappiness will surface and manifest in their body language. They will also start expressing their dissatisfaction—be it to friends, colleagues, or social media.

If you have a suspicion that one or some of your employees are unhappy in the workplace, you can check if they manifest these 10 warning signs.

10 Warning Signs of Unhappy Employees Infographic

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How to Improve Employee Satisfaction

Even the best companies have unhappy employees. Sometimes, their unhappiness may not even be directly related to their work. However, managers and leaders in your organization still need to be conscious of their responsibility of keeping employees happy and satisfied.

Employee dissatisfaction is debilitating to a company. But with these 10 warning signs, you can identify employees who are unhappy with their jobs. Further, these are signs and symptoms that you should never ignore.

If you take employee satisfaction for granted, you may soon have resignation letters at your desk. Once this happens, your business will start losing revenue from the man hours and productivity that you lose from attrition.

Foster a Healthy Work Culture

Don’t let your company bleed. Listen and learn from your employees. Trust that your employees are in your organization because they can contribute to its development and success. Find out why your employees are unhappy to get to the root problem. Employee unhappiness cannot be addressed by putting a Band-Aid solution on it such giving free meals or increasing their pay.

Open your doors and let your employees know that should they need to talk to you about some concerns, they are free to do so. Most employees are hesitant to talk to their bosses about their issues for fear of being judged or losing their job. Ensure confidentiality in your dialogue.

Employee Training

Recent studies uncovered that employees want to feel like they are preparing for their next job through their current job. A survey conducted among UK civil servants revealed that only 50% were happy with the learning and development opportunities their workplace provided.

With constant employee training, not only can you address the stressors and hardships that your employees are experiencing, but you are also helping them improve their skills and further their knowledge.

Empathy

Using a personal touch will always work when assessing a situation. Your employee is not just a number in your company. They are real people. Put yourself in their shoes and try to understand where they are coming from.

Foster a Healthy Work Culture

Improve your leadership style and foster a healthy work culture. It may not be easy to develop a workplace culture that everyone loves, but employees see when companies and leaders in the organization try their best.

When employees trust the leaders in their company, they know they’re in good hands. Ensure that your employees have a voice in the planning and decision-making process. Empower your people by giving them freedom to express their ideas and opinions. Review your policies together and be prepared to get rid or revise more than half of those.

Unhappy employees can drain the positive energy of their colleagues and weigh down productivity. So, it’s important to act fast and address these issues immediately.

Employees are valuable assets, and keeping them happy is at the top of the list. Think about it – if you can’t make your employees happy, how can you assure clients that you can deliver total customer satisfaction? Let happiness and satisfaction start within the company.

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