Every business owner knows that keeping your employees happy with their careers is key to ensuring you have the best people working for you at all times. If you have an unmotivated workforce full of people who are convinced they are stuck in a dead-end job, you will soon end up losing them.
This is rarely a good thing. A high staff turnover looks bad for your company, discouraging the most talented people from applying for a job there. When you employ somebody with the potential to have a huge positive effect on your firm, you want to ensure they stick around rather than jetting off to another business.
This lack of job satisfaction is huge in the UK. In fact, the country is currently seeing the highest ever levels of self-employment since records began, and it is thought this is due to people's desire for more freedom and control in their careers.
In total, 15 per cent of the UK workplace is self-employed, which is the highest figure seen since records began in 1975. The last time anywhere near this proportion of the workforce was self-employed was in the mid-90s.
This growth is thought to stem from a general dissatisfaction with the current labour market. "Many people aspire to be their own boss and self-employment has been a growing part of the labour market for most of the last 30 years," said a spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions.
So, how do you make sure your employees are satisfied with their jobs? It seems the answer is to make them feel like they are progressing and give them some control about how to do that.
One way to achieve this is with optional training sessions. Hosting a wide variety of these gives employees the chance to pick and choose the areas they wish to develop, giving them a diverse and dynamic skillset. This is a great way to keep them happy overall with their careers.
