Are you looking to improve job satisfaction?

Finding yourself burned out from your job and dreading going into work each day? While you may think the obvious solution to this problem is to find a new position, it's not always the best option.

It's true that to improve job satisfaction for many, a new position in a different environment or corporate culture can do the trick. However, for many others, leaving your current job isn't always necessary, especially if you do enjoy many aspects of your position.  

In many instances, improving your job satisfaction can be easily achieved by being more effective in your current role, and ensuring that the corporate culture in allows you to flourish and thrive. Take matters into your own hands and take necessary steps to be a happier employee. To start, take a career assessment test – those that focus on personality, personal work style, values and skills.

The idea behind utilizing the results from career assessment tests is to understand yourself, what makes you unique in the workplace, your strengths, weaknesses and learning and leadership styles. Understanding information like this can help you improve job satisfaction, become more efficient at your role and may even bring on opportunities or new tasks you didn't even know you would enjoy.

For example, if you find that a weakness of yours is public speaking, but your position requires you to speak at conferences several times a year, that could be a major cause of workplace dissatisfaction. It can also let you clearly see when it's time to move on from a position: if a task you really don't enjoy is a major part of your position and that cannot be changed, it's likely time to begin a job search.

Once you understand why you work the way you do, it's time to start changing how you work. The first step in improving your job satisfaction is to stop doing work you don't enjoy, and start doing more of what you do. Discuss with your manager how you can emphasize and increase the parts of your role that you enjoy most and decrease the time spent doing tasks you're not engaged in or don't enjoy. You may even find you don't mind a larger workload if it's full of tasks you truly enjoy doing.

Whether or not your workplace is a positive environment can also help to improve job satisfaction. If you aren't finding your workplace to be positive, take it upon yourself to make some necessary changes. Get to know your colleagues better – having great co-workers is sometimes all you need to be excited to head into work each week. Stay encouraging and positive with one another, invite a group to lunch or mentor a new employee. These small actions can help improve your job satisfaction in big ways.

Do you have a goal in the workplace? During your job search, you likely had a long-term career goal you were aiming for, and a plan in place to achieve it. Do the same in your workplace. Are you working towards a promotion? Or developing new skills that you find rewarding and fulfilling? Staying engaged is key to improving your job satisfaction – and you can easily develop new skills or learn new tasks without having to change careers!

If you've taken some of the necessary steps to improve job satisfaction and aren't seeing the results just yet, it may be time to move on from your position.

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