According to the latest research by the Conference Board job satisfaction in the US is the lowest it’s been in 22 years. In fact, job satisfaction has gone down 61% since 1987. While the report provided plenty of insights worth pondering, the piece that worried me the most (aside from the fact that 22% of the respondents said they don’t plan to be in their current job in a year), was that only 56% said they liked their co-workers. That’s a huge red flag, the report says: “The downward trend in job satisfaction could spell trouble for the overall engagement of US employees and ultimately employee productivity.”

Your employees depend on each other for unconditional support when facing constant change, set backs and increasingly demanding customers. Those friendly informal conversations are the glue that holds relationships and organizations together. When the basic need for mutual trust and peer support is not met, front-line employees feel less motivated to do their best every day. Esprit de corps plummets. When morale goes south, performance soon follows.

Unfortunately, one of the first things to go when managers and supervisors are under pressure to do more with less (fewer experienced reps to handle higher-than-usual call volumes, for example) are regularly scheduled team meetings. This is a major mistake.

I know, even under the best conditions it’s hard to carve out the time for one-hour meetings twice a month (recommended minimum). Granted, you have to be plenty creative and committed to be able to get your staff in one place at one time and meet the needs of the business. Workforce management often sees these meetings as “nice to have” vs “have to have.”  Bosses who don’t understand the correlation between high employee engagement and high customer satisfaction can be difficult to sell on the idea.

Want to meet your business needs while fostering a healthy work environment in which your people aren’t just surviving — but are thriving? Then do what you can to meet the basic need we all have to spend some time face-to-face. Conduct regular, intentional team meetings. Even if you have to fight for it, hold those times on the schedule sacred.

If you run the meeting right and by that I mean creating a safe container in which your employees can share their ideas and discuss mutual challenges, I guarantee that after a few of these get-togethers you will see a rise in esprit de corps, as well as productivity.

I leave you with this thought: When a group of work mates lack the opportunity to meet with each other regularly so they can get to know each other and discuss mutual challenges — and potential solutions, they are not a “team” in the truest sense. What you have is a collection of boxes on an org chart.

[In fact, I believe in the importance of skillfully conducted, intentional team/staff meetings so much that I have developed a series of DIY (do-it-yourself) training modules based on the ideas in my book. Designed to help supervisors, managers and trainers conduct meetings that build employee engagement these DIY kits are fun and easy to use. The first module will be available FREE with the purchase of the new hardcover book in early February. Look for more details soon.]

This Aha! and SODA are from my book,
The Napkin, The Melon & the Monkey.
Available in bookstores on February 1.

Click here and you can peruse the inside of the book!