The employees who are satisfied
with their jobs are more likely to stay with their employers. According to this
article summary 86% of employees indicated overall satisfaction with their
current position, with 41% of employees reporting they were very satisfied.
What’s more, majority of employees (58%) reported that the current economic
climate has not made any difference in their level of satisfaction and this is
good news for employers, especially during the economically challenging time. It
is not surprising that during the current economic downturn, which some have
compared to the 1929 Great Depression, employees selected job security for the
second consecutive year as the most important aspect of their job satisfaction.
It was also at the top of HR professionals’ list this year for the first time.
Benefits, compensation/pay, opportunities to use skills and abilities and
feeling safe in the work environment rounded off employees’ top five very
important job satisfaction contributors nearly identical to the top five.
Factors that were not strongly connected to employees’ overall job satisfaction
were organization’s commitment to a ‘green’ workplace, networking, career
development opportunities, paid training and tuition reimbursement programs, and
organization’s commitment to professional development. Other noteworthy findings
include the following: Employees whose organizations had been somewhat affected
by the current financial crisis were more satisfied overall with their current
jobs compared with employees whose organizations had been greatly affected by
the recession. Nearly three out of 10 employees were very satisfied with their
compensation/pay. The most common methods companies used to measure and monitor
employee job satisfaction were exit interviews, feedback from employees’
performance reviews, speaking with employees on an individual basis, tracking
turnover data and conducting employee attitude surveys.