Dr. Jim Loehr, author of the excellent book The Power of Full Engagement,  offers the following tips for encouraging job satisfaction, based on findings from inventory data:



1. Build employees’ competence and self-confidence through training, feedback and recognition. “There is a very close relationship between high job satisfaction and feelings of effectiveness on the job,” says Dr. Loehr. “Encouragement of genuine self-confidence is probably the number one way to achieve higher job satisfaction.”



2. Communicate the value of the organization’s products and services, and the role the organization plays in the marketplaces where it operates. “People with high job satisfaction also report an extraordinarily high sense of mission, vision and passion for their work,” says Loehr. “They feel their work is consistent with their values. They couldn’t achieve that feeling if their employers didn’t enable them to get meaningful insight about the value they provide to customers,” says Loehr.



3. Encourage and reward thoughtful risk-taking. “People with high job satisfaction also score high on the desire to try novel approaches, face challenges and perform problem-solving both individually and in groups,” says Loehr. “They appear to have an appetite for mission-driven change. They also rate themselves very high on perseverance.”



4. Encourage positive workplace relations. “People who are highly satisfied in their jobs report good feelings about their bosses, peers and coworkers,” says Loehr. “Their feelings of opportunity are elevated, and they perceive a low hassle-factor.”



5. Encourage meaningful rest breaks and light diversion. “High job satisfaction correlates strongly with the feeling of having fun at work,” says Dr. Loehr. “Highly satisfied individuals also report that they find it easy to wake in the morning, and that their sleep is deep and restful.” He adds, “This is consistent with our thirty years of research on world-class athletes. Top performers in every field know how to enhance performance through rest and recovery.”

As life-long employment fades and the workforce becomes increasingly mobile, many companies look to hire skilled, experienced workers to improve productivity quickly. Those workers, however, often bring baggage from prior jobs that can negate the benefits of their prior experience, according to new Wharton research.

Companies might be better off investing in training fresh recruits with little experience in an industry so the companies can have more control over how the new workers adapt to their new employer’s corporate strategy and culture. The research found that training may be more productive than paying a premium to hire experienced workers who might come from a different sort of corporate environment.