Many owners may worry a lot about how their workers feel about their jobs, and whether that's affecting their performance, but new data shows that those fears may be somewhat misplaced. In general, it seems that the vast majority of small business employees are happy with their jobs.
Today, more than four out of every five people working for independent companies say they're satisfied with their jobs, and are working a little longer than normal – 44 hours per week – as a result, according to a new survey from GFI. Part of the reason for this is that their businesses are a little bit more flexible in allowing them to work remotely; close to three in five say that they've done so at some point, and 43 percent of respondents have also used mobile devices to connect to their companies' networks. Three in four employees say that the ability to work remotely has allowed them to have greater flexibility, and that consequently improved views of their jobs.
No loss of productivity
Meanwhile, a large number of entrepreneurs may be a little bit worried about the ways in which access to more technology might be actually be hurting their employees' ability to get their work done, but 72 percent of those polled said that access to social media use has no impact on their productivity, while 18 percent of respondents felt it did hurt their chances to get work done. Perhaps not surprisingly, the social network that is used most often in the workplace is Facebook, with close to two in five workers saying they check it daily, and another 12 percent saying they use it less often, but still regularly. Slightly more than a third noted that their employers actually went to the lengths of blocking certain websites from being accessed on work computers.
Trying to maximize employee efficiency is one great way in which owners can make sure their bottom lines are as healthy as possible, but at the same time, it might also be wise to check revenues and expenditures to make sure there's no wiggle room for improvement. If costs are a little higher than they'd like, owners can look at the ways in which small business insurance policies are affecting their chances for success. Finding more affordable coverage for things like workers' compensation or general liability insurance can save small businesses thousands of dollars per year.
