Salary.com’s 2006/2007 Employee Satisfaction and Retention Survey is just the latest piece of research to highlight the disconnect between what employees value and what employers perceive to be the most important factors in employee job satisfaction. The survey, completed by 11,852 employees and 311 HR professionals in the US, has found that employers dramatically underestimate levels of discontent among their staff.
In fact more than six out of 10 of the employees surveyed said they plan to look for a new job in the next three months, nearly double the proportion that employers believe are looking. And while lower-paid employees are more likely to look for a new job than higher-paid employees, the survey still found that around half of executives were quietly getting on with the job of job hunting.
What’s more, it is the most productive staff who are most at risk of leaving – people who have been in their position for between three and 10 years , whose departure would have major cost implications. HR professionals estimate that the hard costs to replace an employee range between 33 percent and 50 per cent of their base salary. In addition to this are soft costs such as loss of productivity and institutional knowledge, as well as new recruiting and training expenses.
Employees rate good relationships with colleagues, managers and, significantly, decent work-life balance as the top factors that keep them in their current jobs. This contrasts with responses from HR professionals who still rate benefits, job commitment and culture as the leading contributors to employee retention.
The result is a perception gap that can put employers at risk of losing key talent, simply because they are focusing retention efforts in the wrong places.
