When thinking about their ideal job, most people think about pay, how far they have to travel, their career path, or what ‘work perks’ they get. But research shows the things that actually make a job great are some ‘work related factors’ that might not be on your list at all.
Ask yourself these 6 questions that will get you thinking about whether your work is actually working for you.
- Do you get along with your colleagues and employer, or with your staff?
- Do you feel appreciated and respected in your workplace?
- Are you able to offer suggestions or change things about how you do your work?
- How well do you know what you need to do every day, and why you are doing it?
- Do you feel you are supported and safe at work?
- Do you have too much work, or too little, to do?
1: Do you get along with your colleagues and employer, or with your staff?
If you answered yes, then great! Good workplace relationships are a huge factor in performing well, feeling supported and alleviating stresses at work. People are more likely to perform well when in a workplace that they feel a sense of belonging.
If you answered no, then you should seriously consider why you as an employer or employee aren’t feeling comfortable about your work relationships. In this case it is likely that you may be hesitant to ask for help when in a tough spot. This translates to less productivity and in a worst case, an unsafe situation at work where you are likely to hurt yourself or others. What can you do?
Effective relationships are founded on good communication – listening carefully, choosing the right response to the individual situation, and having clear conversations. Importantly, good workplace relationships are supported by the right policies in place.
Listen to the situation:
- Jono: drugs and alcohol at work
- Daniel: inappropriate conversations at work
- Bayani: mental health at work
- Lucho: homophobic language at work.
Make your choice:
Have a CLEAR conversation:
Find and use the right policies. Go to the Employee Lifecycle
2: Do you feel appreciated and respected in your workplace?
If you answered yes, then you will feel good at work. Recognition and reward can really help people to work hard and get engaged in the workplace. It makes coming to work feel worth it.
If you answered no, this might be preventing you from contributing your best self and may mean that you stop trying to do your best, as no one recognises or rewards your efforts. This might mean you are missing out on constructive feedback or learning new skills that could help you do your job better.
What can you do?
It doesn’t matter if you are a boss or a worker, you can always choose to find something to appreciate in your colleagues. You just have to focus on noticing what is going right, instead of what is going wrong! It is important to celebrate what has been achieved, together as a team, and separately. Managers can offer rewards in terms of new skills development opportunities.
Have a CLEAR conversation:
Find and use the right policies. Go to the Employee Lifecycle
3: Are you able to offer suggestions or change things about how you do your work?
If you answered yes, then you are able to bring innovation and new ideas into your workplace and help everyone achieve what they need to do. You feel like you are a valued part of the workplace and have some measure of control over your work.
If you answered no, this might be making you feel unmotivated and unvalued. It helps to know you are really adding value at work, not just going through the motions, and feeling powerless – especially if you are being micromanaged.
What can you do?
There are some workplaces where roles are strictly governed by technical and safety requirements, and there won’t be any flexibility. In other jobs, the tasks you have to do might be fixed, but maybe you can have some input into the order you do them. Or perhaps the way that jobs are done in a certain way is because of habit or tradition. If you feel comfortable at work, it might be worth considering having a conversation to check if there is anything that can be altered, to make you feel a bit more in control. This might be changing when you take a break, or building in flexibility about starting and finishing times.
Listen to the situation:
Make your choice:
Have a CLEAR conversation:
Find and use the right policies. Go to the Employee Lifecycle
4: How well do you know what you need to do every day, and why you are doing it?
If you feel confident that you know how to do your job, and what your place is in the workplace – then that is great!
If you feel unsure and need to ask lots of questions (or wish you could ask lots of questions, but don’t feel like you can) – then this means you don’t have clarity about your work, and this can feel very uncomfortable and stressful. It also means more mistakes can be made, which might cost both the worker and the business.
What can you do?
Good onboarding and induction processes are really helpful for new staff to know what they need to do – based on clear position descriptions. But all workers need to feel that they can ask questions safely, without repercussion. Managers and supervisors can actively create a workplace where asking for help is welcomed, communication is respectful, and it is safe to learn from mistakes. It helps if workers are not given conflicting tasks, and know who they report to – preferably one immediate supervisor For workers, the trick is to work out who to ask and how to ask questions.
Make your choice:
Have a CLEAR conversation:
Find and use the right policies. Go to the Employee Lifecycle
5: Do you feel you are supported and safe at work?
When you feel supported, you have everything you need to do your job well – the tools, the information, and access to help if you reach out.
When you don’t get the support you need from leaders and colleagues, your job is much more difficult. If your instructions are not clear, you are not given any feedback, you don’t know who to ask for help, or you feel isolated in the workplace, then this can lead to problems with safety that can cost you and your business.
What can you do?
A good place to start is to encourage communication with and between your workmates, with an open door policy and regular team meetings. Make the time to listen and learn how to have conversations that can provide clear solutions.
Listen to the situation:
- Jono: drugs and alcohol at work
- Daniel: inappropriate conversations at work
- Bayani: mental health at work
- Lucho: homophobic language at work.
Make your choice
Have a CLEAR conversation
Find and use the right policies. Go to the Employee Lifecycle
6: Do you have too much work, or too little, to do?
If you feel you have the right amount of work to do, and can get through your allotted tasks every day, then you are one of the lucky ones!
If instead, you feel bored and that your work is pointless, or you are frantically busy chasing your tail so that you can’t do your job properly, then this is a very stressful and difficult situation.
What can you do?
If you are a supervisor or a manager with staff who don’t have enough to do, you can help by rotating the most monotonous tasks and discussing career pathways. If staff are too busy, ensure staff have all the resources that they need, know they can come to you to ask for help, make sure deadlines are realistic and everyone understands why. As an employee, all you can do is work out who best to talk to, and how to ask, about your workload.
Have a CLEAR conversation:
Find and use the right policies. Go to the Employee Lifecycle
Watch this WorkSafe video to learn more about work related factors. Learn examples of what these can be and how you as a leader can influence them.