Your employer may think that the bottom line for your satisfaction is, well, the bottom line: your salary. In fact, money comes in way down a list of less tangible measures of employee satisfaction. The 2001 Randstad North American Employee Review's recent poll identified three key elements of employee satisfaction: trust, flexibility, and a career mindset. Ninety-one percent of employees define true success as being trusted to get a job done. Flexibility in the workplace is also a strong element in job satisfaction. Marcus Buckingham, a senior consultant for Gallup and author of Now, Discover Your Strengths, agrees. Using data from a poll of 80,000 managers and workers, Buckingham isolated 12 questions that can elicit the true satisfaction levels of employees. Not one of the questions is about remuneration. Some questions address the need for the basics of fulfilling the job description (Do I know what's expected of me? Do I have the materials and equipment I need?). But most of the questions have to do with autonomy, recognition, the quality of interaction with colleagues, and the need to be valued as a worker and colleague (Do I have the opportunity to do my best? Does my opinion seem to count? Is there someone who encourages my development?)

Although many large corporations have made an effort to foster the kind of work atmosphere that would produce positive answers to these questions, the likelihood of finding flexibility, satisfaction in personal achievement, and substantial recognition may be much greater in smaller companies.

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