Drivers for Job Satisfaction:

There has been significant changes in drivers of job satisfaction trend. Multiple factors that contribute to employee
satisfaction levels including social & economy, as well as overall satisfaction levels tend to shift over time.
Given the lifestyle & economic factors at play in recent times, its hardly surprising that employees ranked job security
as the most important factor for job satisfaction. This is no longer the case.
Opportunities to use skills and abilities have taken the spot, followed by Job security and compensation/pay.
Most recently I have been observing the following as key drivers for job satisfaction, in fact many HR forums and
surveys discuss in similar lines:
Trust and confidence in the companys leadership: It is important the employee made feel part of the organization.
For employees to truly be satisfied, I find its essential that employees are confident in organization leadership ability
to effectively manage the company. Some of the areas that company can look at:
Regularly communicate how the company is doing, where its headed, and any news that affects employees
Take action on employee feedback and involve them more in the planning process
Give adequate special attention to each department/Business unit.
Every employee is valued & special: Employees need to feel that their employer invests for their wellbeing, work
environment, and development. When employees feel they are valued as an important asset to the company, theyre
more likely to contribute extra effort, provide recommendations for the company, and ultimately remain as loyal
employees. Its a continuous process to make employee feel valued by:
Each employee must have an Individual career development plan(IDP)
Providing platforms to employees to provide input and act on their feedback
Work evenly distributed across levels so that an employee has work life balance.
Reduce micro management.
Build effective relationship between employee & immediate supervisor.
Rewards & Recognition for good work.
Career Growth & Development:Employee spends a majority of their day at work, and expects to appreciate for their
contribution to the company. Employees disengaged & unmotivated, dont like the type of work they do. Employees,
those engaged and satisfied contribute exceptional effort most often take pride in and enjoy their work. Some ways to
ensure employees are enjoying the job are to:
Set SMART goals and communicate whats expected and how it contributes to overall success of the company
Ensure that employees are equipped with appropriate resources and training to perform their job.
Have regular 1:1 meeting to hear employee and provide regular feedback on performance.
Give employee flexibility and set priorities
Compensation & Benefits:I often see Compensation as a sensitive subject and a key driver, Its important that
employers adopt pay for performance compensation philosophy so that employees are being compensated fairly to
their contribution. Gone or days where seniority or years of experience paid more. Employers should also focus on
industry compensation & benefits climate study to compare with similar companies.
While conducting comparable study it is also necessary to take steps to reduce any gaps discovered in the
benchmarking process.
Companies should introduce best benefits practices that promote employee wellbeing.
Compensation raises are linked to job performance.
Very often companies rely on employee engagement survey to identify their staff drivers for job satisfaction; I
personally see it is restricting. It is necessary that employers have continuous check on employee pulse not by just
relying on annual survey also other key attributes such as attrition analysis, employee referral trend, employee open
house and other appropriate platform can be a great source of information to check on drivers of job satisfaction and
organizational climate study.
Only agriculture has the potential to reboot the economy
At a time when the global economy shows no signs of revival, and with Russia and Japan faced with recession,
emerging economies like Brazil and South Africa in dire straits; and with no silver lining visible as far as domestic
industrial growth is concerned, all eyes are on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on how he plans to sustain economic
growth that eventually leads to a job-led growth.
Growth without jobs is meaningless. For the past 12 years, despite a high growth rate, it has largely been a jobless
growth with only 15 million jobs created during the 10-years of the UPA regime. With employment per factory
declining steeply over the years, the chances for a revival seems difficult. This is indicative from the data published by
the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). Investment proposals received by DIPP for new projects to
be set up in 2014-15 showed a possibility of creating a maximum of 4.11 lakh jobs.
Although Arun Jaitleys agenda revolves around pushing reforms to lift growth, so as to create jobs but what is not
being realized is that agriculture, the neglect sector all these years, alone has the potential to create massive gainful
employment, build up domestic demand and thereby revitalize the sluggish economy. Whether we like it or not, the
only pathway to reboot the economy passes through agriculture.
This assumes importance given the fact that 153 million youth in the age bracket of 15-29 years were looking for jobs
in 2015-16. With only a fraction of the jobs available, and knowing that new projects in FY15 employed only half the
number of workers compared to new projects a few years ago, creating ample and suitable employment
opportunities remains a Herculean task. Considering that the young people expected to enter the job market by 2020
is likely to further swell to 156 million, the challenge to create additional employment opportunities appear to be
limited, not only in India, but across the globe.
More of the same therefore is not the answer.
Budget 2016 provides an opportunity to break through the shackles. The potential of growth economics to create jobs
has reached saturation, and the growing protests, often accompanied by violence, for job reservation -- by Jats in
Haryana, UP, Delhi, Rajasthan; Patidars in Gujarat; Marathas in Maharashtra; Lingayat in Karnataka seeking job
quotas for the communities is clearly indicative of the failure of the trickle-down theory. It also reflects on the
continuing neglect of agriculture that has turned farming into a loss making enterprise. Farm incomes are now at the
lowest level thereby forcing the huge farm workforce to abandon agriculture in search of menial jobs in the cities.
This trend has to be reversed. In my opinion, there is no other alternative.
As per Census 2011, 52 per cent of the countrys workforce is engaged in agriculture. In other words, agriculture
sector is the biggest employer. But over the past few decades, agriculture has been systematically starved of financial
resources, and the continuing neglect and apathy has turned farming highly uneconomical. The spate of farm suicides,
which has now increased to 52 deaths on an average every day, and reports of farmers selling their blood to make a
living in the drought-hit Bundelkhand region, shows the severity of the agrarian crisis, worsening with every passing
year.
Presenting the budget last year, Arun Jaitley had listed increasing farm incomes as the top most challenge. But
somehow by the time he ended his speech he had probably forgotten to rescue the farming community from
economic distress. NSSO 2014 had computed the income of an average farm household at about Rs 6,000 per month,
of which only Rs 3,000 came from farming. Rest of it came from non-farm activities, including MNREGA. Studies by
the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) have shown that the net income per hectare from cultivating
wheat and rice even in the frontline agricultural state of Punjab is about Rs 3,000 per hectare. If this is the situation in
Punjab, the economic distress prevailing in the rest of the country can be imagined.
If Rs 6,000 is the income of a farm household comprising five members it is quite natural that the young would
swarm into the cities looking for menial jobs. RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan as well as the deputy chairman of Niti
Ayog Arvind Panagariya have repeatedly said that the best reform is to move farmers out of agriculture so as to
provide cheaper labour force for the industry. This is based on the economic prescription doled out by World Bank
and pursued by the global financial markets. However, Arun Jaitley needs to ensure that at a time when jobs are
scarce and farm incomes are plunging, his focus should be on reviving agriculture instead of creating an army
of dehari mazdoor. This will provide gainful employment to those who are already engaged in farming, and in turn will
create more domestic demand.
Here are five thrust areas that I think need immediate attention:
After two years of back-to-back drought, and with an unprecedented spurt in farmer suicides in 2015, I expect the
government to provide an economic bailout package of Rs 3-lakh-crore to the agriculture sector. Remember, a similar
economic bailout package of Rs 3-lakh-crore was provided to the industry after the economic meltdown of 2008-9. An
economic bailout package for agriculture would benefit roughly 10-crore farm families.
Public sector investments in agriculture must be increased to Rs 1-lakh crore for 2016-17. Allocations for agriculture
should be enhanced by 25 per cent in every budget to make any meaningful contribution. Not many are aware that
the budgetary allocations for MNREGA at present exceed that of agriculture, which employs 52 per cent of the
population. In 2014-15, the budget allocation for agriculture was Rs 15,267-crore. A year earlier, in 2013-14, it was
12,006 crore.
Since the NDA government has through an affidavit in Supreme Court made it clear that it has no intention of
providing farmers with 50 per cent profit over and above the cost of production as recommended by the
Swaminathan committee, as it will distort markets, the government should announce setting up of a National Farmers
Income Commission, which will work out the minimum assured monthly income package a farming family must get.
The 7th Pay Commission provides a basic monthly salary of Rs 18,000 to a chaprasi whereas the average monthly
income for a farm family does not exceed Rs 6,000. This anomaly must be corrected.
Focus of infrastructure investment must shift to agriculture and rural development. Adequate investment must be
made available for building market yards or mandis. If a market yard has to be provided in a radius of 5 kms from a
village, India will need 42,000 such mandis. At present, only 7,000 APMC regulated mandis exist. Along with
the mandis, the emphasis should also be on building a network of rural godowns and rural link roads.
Rural enterprise too needs encouragement. Start-Ups have been given a three year tax holiday with several other
concessions. The same benefits should also be given to Farmer Producer companies, which continue to pay 30 per
cent tax every year. Similar tax concessions should also be given to small and medium entrepreneurs who are linked
to Mudra Bank.