February’s research (20/02/2011)

February’s research shows that:

Employees are re-evaluating what they think is most important from their jobs
Employers who want to achieve gender equality will have to focus on quality of employment and not just pay Work life balance is no longer considered as that important
Employees on the whole are happy with their employers

What employees rank as important?:

Money continues to remain the most highly ranked factor (one in three employees), but only just - job satisfaction is within a whisker of taking the lead, a tenth of a percent from being the most popular. This shows a change in attitude since last month’s analysis when money was more important by some 5%. It may be that the recession is beginning to make people re-evaluate what they consider important. Having a job that you enjoy is more important than just pay.

What are the differences between the genders?

As with last month, but much clearer this month, is the division between the attitudes of men and women. 35% of women rate job satisfaction as the most important with money being second at 25%. With men the opposite is the case, with 35% rating money as the most important and the second being job satisfaction at 27%. Of least importance for men is work life balance while for women it is career progression.

Work Life balance

One explanation may be that the recession has made people less picky. It is also more likely is that over the years this topic has become self balancing so that most of the people who want a work life balance have chosen jobs now where this can be achieved.

This is supported to a degree by the fact that two in three people rate their current work life balance at four or more out of six.

Work life balance gets the best score (1/3rd of the group) for females between 30 and 40. Interestingly it is this age group of men that also have the highest score for work life balance albeit much smaller. Maybe growing families and “nesting” for this age group encourages individuals to spend more time at home.

The lowest score, again for both genders, is for the under 25s where only one in ten ranks this as the most important.

Job Satisfaction:

Job satisfaction is the most highly rated by women of all ages (except under 25). This provides a clear and unambiguous message to employers; if you want equality of genders then this is not only about pay but also about how people are treated at work.

Employee Attitude:

Generally employees are happy with their employers. Over 2/3rd of both males and females give their employer a score of 6 or of 10 or above, the rating by men being very slightly more.