What are two words that come to mind when you think of what makes you feel satisfied with your career?

We asked you all for two words that jump to the top of your mind when you think about what career satisfaction really means to YOU.

Here’s a summary of all the words that were mentioned -

Looking at this cloud of words above, the size of the words is intentional: the bigger the text, the more often that word was used to describe feeling satisfied at work. While each of these words are fundamentally connected to wellbeing and progression in the workplace, it looked like being recognized and fairly compensated were top of the list.

In true LeadMojo fashion, we decided to explore these two pillars and shed some light on its scientific backing in career satisfaction research.

Recognition

Ample research in this field has shown us that recognition and appreciation not only play a vital role in job performance but also increase our motivation to perform well. In fact, researchers have stated that good managers are those who recognize people by doing things that acknowledge their accomplishments and reward them both tangibly as well as intangibly. The recognition process provides a status at an individual level, which makes an employee feel motivated to go the extra mile in their careers.

Another thing to make sure is what you recognise. While acknowledging great results that lead to high performance or innovative ideas is nice, don’t forget to recognise efforts as well. This will help employees feel a sense of belonging, and not pressure them to always be “on” to prove themselves. Recognising efforts as much as the end results also motivates employees to enjoy the process of working, and aids in building a positive learning culture.

If you are looking to find ways of creating an environment of recognition, here are a few tips that can help you get started -

• Dedicate a space for shout-outs at your company, whether that’s on a bulletin board, in a Slack channel, or even an email thread! Let everyone know why exactly the person/employee is being recognised — This can help inspire others too!
• Balance it out — While monetary rewards are always an option, make sure your culture of recognition intrinsically motives your people as well. One way of doing this is signing up your team for experiences that make them happy (tickets to a play, their favourite meal, etc).
• One size doesn’t fit all. This holds true for recognition as well! Personalise your recognition based on how your employees will respond to them. One way of doing this is surveying your employees on how they’d like to be recognized.
• Encourage and create space for peer recognition, not just top-down recognition. This will also help build an atmosphere of collaboration and connectedness.

The sooner you start actively giving recognition, the sooner it becomes a habit, and the sooner you can start seeing the benefits.

Compensation

Compensation is one of the top contributors of career satisfaction according to a report by the Society of Human Resource Management. In fact, 96% of the people surveyed said that the compensation they get is either “important” or “very important” to their overall happiness on the job.

While promotions or higher job titles might incentivise people to an extent, fair pay for the amount of effort and time put into work is definitely important to ensure employees feel committed to stay. Another research by Glassdoor found that a 10% higher base pay is associated with a 1.5 percentage-point increase in the likelihood of an employee’s commitment towards their company as well as intention to stay (an indicator of decreased turnover).

Apart from base-pay, incentives and bonuses also have a role to play in how satisfied employees feel. For instance, performance related incentives is a common approach companies take, where employees are offered bonuses based on the assessments of their performance. A study showed that such incentives, compared to other forms of bonuses (share-ownership or profit related pay) was positively related to job satisfaction, commitment and trust in management.

An important implication from this is that as employees assume new responsibilities within their respective teams and companies, their compensation should balance and complement their growth arc. If companies do not offer meaningful promotions, in both responsibilities and pay, employees are more likely to look elsewhere for their next role.