Improving staff satisfaction the case of vietinbank’s branch 91

Lunghwa Universityof Scienceand Technology Department of Business Administration Thesis for a Master’s Degree Improving Staff Satisfaction – The case of VietinBank’s Branch 91 Researcher: Nguyen Thi Hanh Nguyen Supervisor 1: Hung Nguyen (PhD) Supervisor 2: Huang, Sheng-Ju (PhD) November 2018 Lunghwa University of Science and Technology Approval Certificate of Master's Degree Examination Board This is to certify that the Master’s Degree Examinations Board has approved the thesis Improving Staff Satisfaction – The case of VietinBank’s Branch 91published by Mr.／Ms.Nguyen Thi Hanh Nguyen in the Master Program of Graduate School of Department of Business Administration Master’s Degree Examination Board Board Members：Tsan, Chia-Chi Nguyen Van Đinh Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh Advisors: Nguyen Phu Hung, Huang, Sheng-Ju Chair： Tsan, Chia-Chi Date： 2018／ 11／ 23 ABSTRACT Thesis Title: Improving Staff Satisfaction – The case of VietinBank’s Branch 91 Pages: 60 pages University: Lunghwa University of Science and Technology Graduate School: Department of Business Administration Date: November 2018 Degree: Master Researcher: Nguyen Thi Hanh Nguyen Advisor: Hung Nguyen PhD and Huang, Sheng-Ju PhD Keywords: Staff Satisfaction, Factors affecting staff satisfaction, Employee motivation Motivating employees is one of biggest concerns of any managers as happy and satisfied staff will give their best to the organization Numerous previous studies have given the relationship between staff satisfactory and business performance The aim of this study is to explore factors that affect staff satisfaction in VietinBankBranch 91, and then propose several recommendations in order to improvethe degree of staff satisfaction and business performance In this study, the result from an internal survey is used to indicate factors influencing staff satisfaction The questionnaire survey was issued to 19 staff who have more than months working in Branch 91, so they have experienced activities in Branch 91 and can easy answer the questions The research model includes eight factors: respectful treatment of all employees at all level, compensation, overall benefits, job security, trust between employees and senior, development opportunities and recognition The qualitative result indicated a remarkably positive relation between these factors and staff satisfaction Findings from the survey were discussed to propose recommendations for the improvement of job satisfaction of employees in Branch 91 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Firstly, I would like to thank my advisor Dr Hung Nguyen and co-advisor Dr.Huang, Sheng-Jufrom Lunghwa University of Science and Technology Especially Dr Hung Nguyen, he guided me enthusiastically to complete my thesis Secondly, I would like to give special words to all lecturers of the program who always supported, inspired and guided me to carry on such a challenging project Thirdly, I would like to thank my family, my friends and classmates who always encourage me complete the research Thank you! Author NguyenThi Hanh Nguyen ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF TABLES v LIST OF FIGURES vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii RATIONALE OF THESIS 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Introduction of VietinBank and Branch 91 1.3 Problem identification 1.3.1 General challenges facing VietinBankin general 1.3.2 Challenges facing VietinBank’sBranch 91 1.4 Research Objectives 1.5 Research questions LITERATURE REVIEW 10 2.1 Introduction 10 2.2 Concept of staff satisfaction 10 2.3 Theories related to job satisfaction of employees 11 2.3.1 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory 11 2.3.2 Herzberg’s two-factor theory 12 2.3.3 Job Characteristic theory 12 2.3.4 Expectancy theory 13 2.3.5 Equity theory 14 2.4 Factors that affect staff satisfaction 14 2.4.1 Respectful treatment of all employees at all levels 14 2.4.2 Overall Compensation/Pay 15 2.4.3 Overall Benefits 15 2.4.4 Working environmentconditions 15 2.4.5 Job security 16 2.4.6 Trust between employees and senior management 16 iii 2.4.7 Career development opportunities 16 2.4.8 Recognition 17 2.5 The relationship between staff satisfaction and business performance 18 2.6 Lessons of success and failure 19 2.7 Analytical framework of thesis 19 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 20 3.1 Introduction 20 3.2 Researching Methods 20 3.3 Data 21 RESULTS OF SURVEY 22 4.1 Introduction 22 4.2 Results of survey 22 4.3 Findings and discussions 39 RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 40 5.1 Introduction 40 5.2 Summary of staff satisfaction issues in Branch 91 to be solved 40 5.3 Recommendations to improve staff satisfaction in Branch 91 40 5.3.1 Improve Relationship and Cooperation in workplace 40 5.3.2 Stress connection between compensation and performance 41 5.3.3 Balance Work-Life aspects of employees 42 5.3.4 Change the Style of Supervisors to ease unnecessary tension 42 5.3.5 Provide career development opportunities 43 5.3.6 Recognition 43 5.4 Limits of thesis 44 LIST OF REFERENCES 45 APPENDIX 50 iv LIST OF TABLES Table Performance of the Branch 91 Table Design of questionnaire 50 Table Responses from Survey on staff satisfaction 22 Table The staff satisfaction with good relationships and cooperation with colleagues in the office 23 Table Opinion on the distribution of workload among employees 24 Table The satisfaction on salary in relation to job assigned 25 Table The match of rewards with staff work efforts 26 Table The motivation effect of rewards 27 Table The satisfaction regarding benefit packages 28 Table 10 Assessment on the balance between work and life 29 Table 11 Satisfaction on facility 30 Table 12 Assessment on job security 31 Table 13 Satisfaction with style of supervisors 32 Table 14 Satisfaction with supervisor’s respect for employee’s ideas 33 Table 15 Satisfaction with having work-related responsibilities 34 Table 16 Satisfaction on chance to perform job effectively 35 Table 17 Satisfaction on the chance to be promoted 36 Table 18 Degree the efforts are recognized by superiors .37 Table 19 I will work harder if I feel appreciated and recognized 38 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure Organizational Structure of Branch 91 Figure Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Herzberg’s two factor 12 Figure Expectancy theory of Vroom 13 Figure Analytical framework of thesis 19 Figure Approach of thesis 20 Figure The staff satisfaction with good relationships and cooperation with colleagues in the office 24 Figure Opinion on the distribution of workload among employees 25 Figure The satisfaction on salary in relation to job assigned 26 Figure The match of rewards with staff work efforts 27 Figure 10 The motivation effect of rewards 28 Figure 11 The satisfaction regarding benefit packages 29 Figure 12 Assessment on the balance between work and life 30 Figure 13 Satisfaction on facility 31 Figure 14 Assessment on job security 32 Figure 15 Satisfaction with style of supervisors 33 Figure 16 Satisfaction with supervisor’s respect for employee’s ideas 34 Figure 17 Satisfaction with having work-related responsibilities 35 Figure 18 Satisfaction on chance to perform job effectively 36 Figure 19 Satisfaction on the chance to be promoted 37 Figure 20 Degree the efforts are recognized by superiors 38 Figure 21 I will work harder if I feel appreciated and recognized 39 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Branch 91 Branch 91 of VietinBank IncomBank Vietnam Industrial and Commercial Bank SBV State Bank of Vietnam VietinBank Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade vii The probability of being promoted is very high 5%0 Strongly disagree 26% Disagree 26% Neutral Agree Strongly agree 42% Figure 19.Satisfaction on the chance to be promoted Regarding recognition by superiors, the survey indicated some problems About 37% believed that their efforts are not recognized by their superiors And other 63% keep neutral opinions about this issue This is an urgent issue as no one really see recognition of their supervisors It leads to another issue that only 30% of respondents are willing to work harder if they feel appreciated and recognized Almost a half have no idea about this problem as they not know if their supervisors will see their effort or not That cause dissatisfaction in office and staff may stop trying to perform better Table 17 Degree the efforts are recognized by superiors Category Count Percentage Strongly disagree 5% Disagree 32% Neutral 12 63% Agree 0% Strongly agree 0% Total 19 100% 37 My efforts are recognized by superiors 0% 0%5% Strongly disagree 32% Disagree Neutral Agree 63% Strongly agree Figure 20.Degree the efforts are recognized by superiors Table 18.I will work harder if I feel appreciated and recognized Category Count Percentage Strongly disagree 0% Disagree 16% Neutral 47% Agree 21% Strongly agree 11% Total 19 100% I will work harder if I feel appreciated and recognized 11%0% 17% Strongly disagree Disagree 22% Neutral Agree Strongly agree 50% 38 Figure 21.I will work harder if I feel appreciated and recognized 4.3 Findings and discussions The survey shows that working environment conditions and job security are not big issues challenging Branch 91 but there are still a number of problems in the workplace First, most staffs are concerned with relationship among staffs at Branch 91 The poor relationships in turn negate cooperation efforts among staffs in the office That is grave, because the mood at work is considered strongly related to the performance of staffs Branch 91 cannot expect higher performance if staffs are at low morale Second, the salary and rewards may be noncompetitive if compared with comparable staffs from other banks If the bank pays less for staffs who work more, the performance will be degraded To solve the case, Branch 91 should install rewarding mechanism to provide incentives for staffs to work harder for higher quality Third, there are complaints on supervisor style Certain staffs feel the supervisor did not distribute workloads fairly among staffs Certain staffs said supervisors are overbureaucratic, conservative, did not listen to staffs Certain others said they could not get their voices into the working policy of Branch 91 Forth, many staffs did not seereasonable recognition from supervisors In addition, lack of career development opportunities for employees are one of major complaints Staffs really want to get rotation, get regular training workshops to improve personal qualification, get promotion in workplace Staffs only get motivated if they think that their efforts would contribute to their future career path Finally, the most disappointing issue is the inability to balance between work and life High workload lead to high burden to each staff, chronic over-time work, lack of time for leisure Staffs return to office the next day with heavy mood and fatigue, leading to their performance compromised In conclusion, there are several issues regarding staff satisfaction The next Chapter will discuss measures to solve those issues 39 RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 5.1 Introduction This chapter propose recommendation for remaining issues in Branch 91which have discussed in previous chapter 5.2 Summary of staff satisfaction issues in Branch 91 to be solved As shown in survey result, Branch 91 is now facing a number of challenges, including:  Dissatisfaction about relationship and cooperation in the office  Noncompetitive salary and rewards  Work-Life Imbalance  Dissatisfaction about supervisor style  Lack of career development opportunities for employees  Unreasonable recognition from supervisors In the following section, the thesis recommends solutions to enhance the overall staff satisfaction 5.3 Recommendations to improve staff satisfaction in Branch 91 5.3.1 Improve Relationship and Cooperation in workplace Employees can perform better and fulfill their tasks easily if the relationships between the employees are good and the work environment is pleasant to them, as it is obviously that employees together can perform so much better than doing it individually In order to make employees have good relationships and cooperation between colleagues, the suggestions to the managers and supervisors are to: 40  Carry out some meetingsor suggestion box to listen to employees’ opinions;  Organize some meetings and discuss new ideas with the employees and teams;  Teach the staffs how it is essential to work as a team;  Reward teams who have good performance and cooperation;  Give prize to team who have best innovative ideas so as to encourage the employees’ creativity and motivate them to work together;  Organize team-building activities outside working hours;  Try to distribute workload fairly 5.3.2 Stress connection between compensation and performance Salary and rewards are always two most interesting topics in a business If compensation is less than staff expectation, this would lead to employees’ dissatisfaction In order to boost the morale for staffs to raise their satisfaction, regarding to salary and rewards, there are several solutions:  Pay by performance: It is essential to conduct the policy of paying salary by performance The performance and work efficiencyare explained through KPI and linked to performance ranks Currently, the salary gaps among different performance ranks are low, in certain cases are even ignorable Branch 91 must modify policy so that staff with higher performance will be paid higher than staff with lower performance; In addition, Branch 91 should increase the salary of top performers and opportunities for promotion so that everyone could be motivated to try their best  Regular assessment: The assessment should be conducted more frequently because it would reflect efforts of staff quicker Branch 91 should increase the regular staff performance assessment to once every month  Timely-reward: As delayed rewards can have adverse effects likerefusing staff worthy of reward, it is important to timely reward for employees 41  Communication: Make the employees remember and keep in mind what they will gain because of their hard work Finally, Branch 91 must offer extra-benefit for performers, such as offering extra holiday time to those who try to perform well 5.3.3 Balance Work-Life aspects of employees Work-life balance is one of biggest issues in Branch 91 due to the heavy stressful workload All the people need free time for resting, handling their personal work, spending time with friends and family, etc…, so that they would be more energy, happier, more productive, more customer focused and less likely to leave the organization To help staff reach work-life balance, managers should:  Make sure that the staff’s working time is fair and does not exceed their abilities;  Organize “Happy Friday” or any weekday in that day everyone will leave office at 6pm – no working overtime in that day;  Provide employees with some relaxation programs in their free time, such as (i) decoration contest of department, (ii) put a bunch of flower in every staff table, (iii) start meeting with enjoyable and friendly activities  Give the hardworking people more free times 5.3.4 Change the Style of Supervisors to ease unnecessary tension If the employees observe that their supervisors have friendly manners to them, treat them fairly and respectfully, and also help them to perform better, they can work not just by fear, hence, they will be motivated and will work better So the suggestions for the managers are to:  Give the employees the sense of importance and effectiveness;  Care about the employees and the employees would care about the company;  Make the employees involved in the challenges which the business faces;  Give the employees the courage to be able to talk about the problems at work;  Be a flexible person so that employees can make him or her aware of problems at the work; 42  Being fair to the employees, provide trust between the employees and the managers or supervisors 5.3.5 Provide career development opportunities If staff know that they will have more career development opportunities if they the job well, they will try their best and perform better In contrast, they will get dissatisfied if they not have development opportunities despites how hard they try There are some suggestions to supervisors:  Make the employees know that their performance gives them the opportunities for promotion;  Give important responsibilities to employees in order to show them that they have ability and skills;  Regularly organize training classes for the employees in order to improve their knowledge and skills Make sure that the training classes have good quality and employees have improvements in classes;  Sometimes assign staffs to take tasks of their colleagues in the same department to learn new skills 5.3.6 Recognition Recognition is very effective for encouraging and motivating the employees as people need received recognition and praise for doing good work For this part the suggestion to the managers and supervisors are to:  Say “thank you” to the employees doing their job well and show satisfaction  Name the employees or successful group of the week on the board and appreciate them  Give a better position to the employees who have made remarkable effort so that see they have improvements in their working, and also their efforts have not been useless 43 5.4 Limits of thesis The limitation of the study lay with its low sample size A total of 19 responses returned out of 40 questionnaires sent out may not be sufficient to represent the whole spectrum of staffs However, the survey intentionally gave questionnaires only to staffs who had worked long enough to understand In addition, as the questionnaires were sent out only to staff of Branch 91, the findings of this thesis may not be applicable to other VietinBank offices all over the country Nevertheless, the contribution of this paper should not be nullified as it is able to provide a general outlook for the banking industry on this subject 44 LIST 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Research questions For the purposeof analyzing the factors affecting staff satisfaction, the study questions include:  What are the issues of staff satisfaction in VietinBank’sBranch 91?  What can