Birmingham, Alabama-based financial guru Jeff Roberts, who was recently named one of the top private wealth advisors in the nation by Barron’s®, came on Yellowhammer Radio to lay out the facts so people can decide for themselves.
The full conversation with Mr. Roberts can be heard on the Yellowhammer Radio podcast or in the video above, and a lightly edited transcript of his interview with Yellowhammer’s Scott Beason can be read below.
Subscribe to the Yellowhammer Radio Podcast on iTunes. Learn more about Jeff Roberts’ private wealth advisory practice at JeffRobertsAndAssociates.com.
(*Transcription starts at 2:14)
Scott:
What’s on your mind today?
Jeff:
Today is going to be a little different. In the last month or so I’ve had a few different conversations on a similar topic. And one of the wonderful people on my team, Whitney Bateman was kind enough to suggest this as a topic today. We’re going to talk about the components of job satisfaction. And the reason this is important is, I’ve had literally in the last month I’ve had conversations with small business owners, employers, as well as clients that we work with that are employees working within an organization and I’m always amazed. When people ask me about my career they say what’s one of the more interesting things or observations in your financial planning business and one of them is I’m amazed at how many people are working in a job that they’re not satisfied with, that they’re not happy with. Now, I’m not going to go as far as to say that everybody is miserable in their job because that’s certainly not the case. But many, many people when we drill down on their financial life and their goals, and kind of what’s happening a root of a lot of issues is that they’re just not happy in their job. So, over the years I’ve kind of listed out four components to what I think leads to job satisfaction. And so I share these often times when I’m talking with employers and business clients, saying these are the things that you might want to be thinking about if you’re trying to create job satisfaction amongst your employees. Or if I’m talking with an individual that is still working and trying to help them work towards their goals. And if I’m hearing or sensing that they’re not happy in their work we’ll talk about these components of job satisfaction so that we can drill down and figure out really where the root of the problem may be. Because it may not be changing the job it’s just restructuring where you are and what you’re doing. And sometimes that’s under your control and not. Today I was going to throw out some of these things and talk about them a little bit just as information so that individually listeners can drill down on these topics themselves to find out if there’s issues for them and learning opportunities.
Scott:
It’s the start of a new year, a lot of people try to do New Years resolutions and we’re all reevaluating where we are at this time of the year. So I would think that’s something that would interest a lot of people.
Jeff:
Indeed so to start it I’m going to make the assumption that whatever we’re talking about, or job that people are in, I’m going to assume that the job itself is something that people are wanting to do. Meaning, obviously a form of job satisfaction is doing a job that you enjoy. Well, let’s just assume that for our discussion that you’re in the job that you like. So if you’re a pharmacist but you’re wanting to be a radio show host that’s a totally different career change. I’m talking to people that are in the job they want but there’s something about it that’s making them unhappy. And those usually boil down to one of four things, compensation, culture, recognition, and lifestyle. I’ll walk through each of those so that we can get a sense and talk about it. These are in random order and these are a few things that I’ve figured out over time from talking to people and listening to a lot of stories and it usually comes down to one of these four areas. Compensation is the easiest one to identify. Obviously when people are looking at a job they concentrate on what’s the pay, how much am I going to make? So we know what compensation is, it’s salary, it’s wage structure, it’s bonus opportunity, it’s benefits that I am getting or am not getting, it’s insurance coverage, it’s having a compensation program that’s maybe a level comp verses something that’s tied to productivity, it’s commission verses salary. All of those things wrap up under the compensation bullet point so that’s an easy one because we all know what that may or may not that look like. But understanding too that compensation is a little bit more than what you’re paid in terms of salary, you have to look at your total economic package. And by that I mean is the company paying for some of your insurance or all of your insurance and if so what’s the dollar amount of that? Do they make a contribution to the retirement plan? If so, what’s the dollar amount of that?
Scott:
I think people miss that a lot of the times, Jeff. I remember when I was in the legislature you would talk to people and teachers would be one of those. And often times they would be upset about pay and when you started asking about what the state pays in health insurance a lot of people just didn’t have any idea what their total package was. And that changed their view of it once they realized the benefits they were receiving.
Jeff:
Correct, and in fact that’s some of the planning that we do with clients. And when clients are talking about not being satisfied. When talking about compensation I like to help people understand what is your total economic package. What is the company’s total expense for having you on their books, all in. Even though a portion of that maybe what you take home but it’s important. So job satisfaction as one of the components, compensation that’s obviously important. And the next are is going to be culture which I call culture or environment. To me this is huge, I mean huge and this is about speaking to the tone of an office and it can come in many different forms. Trust amongst the people that are working together verses an environment where people don’t even trust each other. Having excellent communication within an office or lack there of. The alignment of values of the people working on a team or in an overall company. Do the company’s values align with your own or do they even have defined values? Is there a clear purpose that everyone is working towards and aligned with setting that culture? What are the relationships like within the office? Which is gigantic as well. How are people treated within an organization? What’s the dress code, what are people wearing? There’s a difference between if you’re wearing a suit and tie or wearing scrubs everyday. It physically feels different, that’s a culture. Are people encouraged or discouraged to do certain things and what is that and what does it feel like. What’s the leadership of an organization and is the actual environment that you’re in comfortable? I worked with a client one time and the biggest complaint that they had was that the physical facility that they were working in, uncomfortable chairs, desks that wobble, computers that don’t have good internet connections. Those are all cultural related things and most of it has to do with the relationships and the inter-workings of the people. And you and I both know, we’ve probably both worked in enough environments that it only takes one or two bad eggs to truly control and change a culture and make life miserable for lots of people.
Scott:
That’s absolutely true. One person with a bad attitude or whining, moaning, complaining or just trying to cause problems in an office environment can wreck the whole place and it doesn’t take much.
Jeff:
It doesn’t and unfortunately a lot of times these things grow organically in an organization slowly and become a problem and sometimes you have to step back and recognize what is this culture and what has it gotten into? And realizing that this is where I’m unhappy. And again, this is because it happens gradually or slowly. One bad person turns into two, two turns into three and the next thing you know you have a culture in an office. It’s something to step back and pay attention to. A third is, recognition and this can be so simple but incredibly important and that is simply having acknowledgement for a job well done or executed correctly. Again, seems so simple but being an employer myself I recognize that sometimes there’s a lot of great things that go on in my own organization and am I recognizing those individual efforts that happen many dozens of times on a daily basis. It’s tough to manage that, it’s tough. But over time if you’re not doing it at all people begin to feel disincented for being recognized at all for the good work that they’re doing. Sometimes it’s not just giving credit but making sure that you’re not giving credit to the wrong person.
Scott:
I have been in that job.
Jeff:
Taking credit incorrectly. Again, very simple and it sounds basic but as a business owner myself I have to step back and realize on a scale from 1 to 10 am I a perfect 10 at doing recognition amongst my team members or not? Evaluate that yourself if you’re a small business owner because it’s a huge component and for some employees, on my team I know, their recognition and thanks for the work they do is a giant part of their job.
Scott:
And it’s not a trophy, you’re not giving out the yearly trophy. “Hey man that was fantastic, that’s good work” that goes a long way especially if someone’s going a little bit over and above what’s expected. It goes a long way.
Jeff:
Well, it’s just like in the beginning of our conversation when you mentioned referring someone to the practice and I said I appreciated the kind words and we do this for the roar of the crowd, that’s recognition. It means a tremendous amount to us and so when your business grows, you’re referred and people come in because other people are saying nice things and it’s just the highest compliment. You work an entire career to be in a situation where people are coming to you because they recognize and appreciate the work that’s done. So yeah, it’s big. The fourth component that I see is lifestyle and this too is huge. And that’s the flexibility that the job has within ones life. Several examples, if you have children and you have daycare issues or a daycare closes, you’re child gets sick and somebody has got to pick up the kid. Caring for a family member that has health issues or if you have personal health issues how do those things play out in your job? Is the job flexible for that or not flexible? Scheduling, are the hours or the requirements of the job match your personal schedule or needs? If you’re a morning person is the job something that requires work late a night? Those lifestyle components are just tremendous. Vacation, time off, is part of your job entertaining after hours and does that align with your personal lifestyle. The location of the office, the commute, the ability to have extra time to work out? All of those have to do with the job fitting within your own life. Quick example, the first 3/4 of my career, well I’ve never been much of a morning guy but if I had to be sitting at my desk at 7:45 – 8:00 in the morning or teaching a class or doing something really early it just killed me because it’s hard for me to be “on” at that time. I can be alert and focused and at my best at 8:00 in the evening. So to have a job that requires me to be spot on at 8:00 in the morning didn’t fit my lifestyle as well. So those 4 things are essential ingredients but most importantly understanding, compensation, culture, recognition, lifestyle that they change over time. When I was 21-22 years of age I got out of Samford, started building a financial planning practice, dead broke. Literally dead broke, I was having to borrow money from my mom just to keep my car out of the shop and pay my bills while building a financial planning practice. At that time the most important thing to me was simply having enough production, being successful enough to have a paycheck so that I could put gas in my car and so I could care less about the culture. I could even care less if this career fit within my lifestyle because I just needed to try and have money literally to get the work. If somebody was standing at my front door of the office and they punched me in the stomach three times every time I walked in, I was willing to do it as long as I could pay my bills. Over time that changes, like if someone has a family or needs to spend more time with their kids then they may be willing to take less money if it fits more within their lifestyle. And other people that have worked in bad environments before in the past may say that they would work less as long as the culture and the environment is a pleasant place to be. Recognizing those different elements and which is important. So when I hire people on my team we literally discuss compensation, culture, recognition and lifestyle and I have them tell me what’s most important to you now at this stage in your life? Because I need to fire on those cylinders for those individuals and recognize what’s important to them. So I encourage that to employers and to employees to begin thinking about their satisfaction in those terms because you may be able to create that within the job you already have. Or you might find out that there’s no way I can change this environment and I need to be in a place where I’m happier.
