For Cass Spies, CEO of Australian ice cream and frozen yogurt maker Twisted Healthy Treats, employee satisfaction comes down to two core principles: effective communication and involving everyone in the company journey.
Ms Spies is responsible for about 60 employees at her factory in Ingleburn, south-west Sydney, and her instinct for workplace etiquette matches a new report by listed human resources consultancy Kelly, which warns that Australian workers are grumbling about what they see as poor management leadership and a lack of opportunities for advancement and training.
“It’s always important to maintain open communication with the teams, right down to my packing team that puts the products into boxes,” Ms. Spies told NewsWire.
“Make sure you communicate that people feel valued and that they understand that they are an important cog in the machine.”
Manufacturing in Australia is often a laborious affair as input costs are sometimes higher than those in other countries.
However, Ms Spies said that taking employees on a company’s “journey” and giving them, among other things, the opportunity to advance within the company could promote loyalty and job satisfaction.
“Promote a sense of pride that we are actually doing something, that we are out there making a difference, that we are making incredible products and that we are 100 per cent Australian dairy,” she said.
“It’s not always the money that drives people. People also want to be satisfied with their work… salary is also an important part, but working in a pleasant work environment where people have the opportunity to develop and feel valued by the management team is a really important part of creating any company and company culture.”
The Kelly report found that a shocking 49 percent of Australian companies struggle to find and retain employees, and that Australian workers are more likely than their international counterparts to complain about management.
About 29 percent of Australian workers are most likely to say their company has poor leadership, compared to a global average of 19 percent, the report said.
The report surveyed 5,500 companies and employees in 13 countries. Executives in Australia said the three most common reasons for employees leaving were lack of career opportunities, lack of flexibility and lack of skills development.
About 32 percent of workers said their biggest frustration was a lack of skills development, while 32 percent cited a lack of opportunities for advancement.
“These findings are eye-opening,” said Pete Hamilton, vice president and managing director of Kelly APAC.
“Australian companies need to develop long-term people strategies that focus on career development, meaningful employee engagement and thoughtful implementation of AI tools that combine the best of human talent and technology.”
A third of Australian executives also believe that return-to-office policies have had a negative impact on work culture (32 percent versus 18 percent globally), so they are now planning to offer their employees more flexibility.
To determine the results, Kelly surveyed 1,500 executives, including senior management, board members, department heads, directors and managers, as well as 4,000 employees at all levels.
The companies surveyed came from economic sectors ranging from retail and energy to financial services and technology.
About 35 percent of respondents came from organizations with more than 10,000 employees, 35 percent from organizations with 5,000 to 10,000 employees, and 30 percent from organizations with 1,000 to 5,000 employees.
Looking at Australia’s wider work culture, Ms Spies praised the country’s “forward-thinking” protections, such as guaranteed holiday entitlements, but warned that statutory worker protections would need to be offset by productivity gains.
“Take people on the journey,” she said.
“Working in manufacturing in this country is hard.”