Employees Place Value on Compensation and Benefits
Alexandria, Va. [SHRM.org] – Nearly eight out of 10 employees report overall satisfaction with their current positions, according to Society for Human Resource Management.
Compensation/pay, benefits, job security, flexibility to balance work/life issues and communication between employees and senior management were the top five contributors to job satisfaction, according to employees. The top five employee aspects mirror last year’s findings; the main difference was that communication between employees and senior management replaced feeling safe in the work environment as the fifth important aspect.
For the past four years, benefits and compensation/pay have both been rated by employees as the top two aspects most important to their job satisfaction. In 2007, 59% of employees each reported that benefits and compensation/pay were very important to their job satisfaction.
“It should come as no surprise that employees remain concerned about their compensation,” said Susan R. Meisinger, President and CEO of SHRM. “With the rising costs of health care premiums and prescription drugs, employees know they need to put more of their money toward covering health care and retirement.”
The survey also measured aspects of employee job satisfaction predicted by human resource (HR) professionals. The top five aspects were as follows: 1) relationship with immediate supervisor; 2) compensation/pay; 3) management recognition of employee job performance; 4) benefits; and 5) communication between employees and senior management.
Other findings of the report include:
— Male employees listed health care/medical benefits as the top aspect, while female employees identified feeling safe in the work environment as the most important factor to their job satisfaction. In 2006, compensation/pay topped the list for both males and females.
— Employees from medium and large staff-sized organizations selected compensation/pay and health care/medical benefits, respectively, as most important, while employees from small organizations identified feeling safe in the work environment.
— Compensation/pay was indicated as the most important job satisfaction factor by employees aged 35 and younger and 36 to 55. Employees aged 56 and older indicated that feeling safe in their work environment was their top priority.
— Career advancement opportunities, job specific training and networking were not strongly connected to employees’ overall job satisfaction. Contribution of work to organization’s business goals, variety of work and networking were perceived as the least important factors to employee job satisfaction according to HR professionals.
— Similar to previous survey years, HR professionals perceived many aspects to be more important to employees than employees themselves did. HR professionals typically place a higher priority on relational aspects of a job, such as how an employee works with his or her immediate supervisor.
One Response to “Top 5 Keys to Job Satisfaction”
Young HR Manager
One of the key factors that I have seen in people which leads to Job Satisfaction is on doing a good balancing act between personal and professional commitments. Any organization which helps the employee to equally devote his time for the family ranks higher in his mind. We ensure that none of the employee stays more than spending 8.5 hrs in a day at Work. I think this a good practice.