What Makes a Great Place to Work?

Key Takeaways

• Employees report that they're motivated to perform well when they're challenged, respected, treated fairly, and appreciated.

• Other factors may contribute to employee satisfaction. Some companies use job redesign to make jobs more interesting and challenging.

  • Job rotation allows employees to rotate from one job to another on a systematic basis.
  • Job enlargement enhances a job by adding tasks at similar skill levels.
  • Job enrichment adds tasks that increase both responsibility and opportunity for growth.
• Many organizations recognize the need to help employees strike a balance between their work and home lives and offer a variety of work arrangements to accommodate different employee needs.
• Flextime allows employees to designate starting and quitting times, compress workweeks, or perform part-time work.
• With job sharing, two people share one full-time position.
• Telecommuting means working from home. Many employers also offer dependent care, paid leave for new parents, employee-assistance programs, and on-site fitness centers.
• Competitive compensation also helps.
• Workers who are paid by the hour earn wages, while those who are paid to fulfill the responsibilities of the job earn salaries.
• Some people receive commissions based on sales or are paid for output, based on a piecework approach.
• In addition to pay, many employees can earn financial rewards based on their own and/or their employer's performance.
• They may receive year-end bonuses, participate in profit-sharing plans (which use predetermined formulas to distribute a share of company profits among employees), or receive stock options (which let them buy shares of company stock at set prices).
• Another component of many compensation packages is benefits – compensation other than salaries, wages, or financial incentives. Benefits may include paid time off, insurance, and retirement benefits.