What Do Workers Want Most Out of Their Job and Company? This.

Thirty-five percent of employees have changed jobs within the past three years and 91 percent of these employees left their company to do so, according to Gallup’s State of the American Workplace Report.  With all of this seemingly unwanted movement, because we all know that replacing employees is costly, it behooves employers to know what workers want most out of their job and their company.

Gallup asked employees how important certain attributes are when considering whether to take a job with a different organization. Employees place the greatest importance on a role and an organization that offers them:

1. the ability to do what they do best
2. greater work-life balance and better personal well-being
3. greater stability and job security
4. a significant increase in income
5. the opportunity to work for a company with a great brand or reputation.

Employees as a whole largely agree on what they want most in a new job, however, there are variations in how people feel about specific aspects of their job:

• Females are significantly more likely than male employees (60% vs. 48%) to say it is “very important” to them that their job allow them greater work-life balance and better personal well-being.
• Millennials are more likely than both Gen Xers and Baby Boomers to say a job that accelerates their professional or career development is “very important” to them (45% of Millennials vs. 31% of Gen Xers and 18% of Baby Boomers).

BE AWESOME!  As a manager, knowledge is power. What can you do to ensure that every one of your employees is in a role where their skills are being utilized to the fullest, female workers have significant amounts of work-life balance, and your younger workers have more development opportunities than people who have already achieved their career goals?  This is not profiling.  Rather, it’s using data to your advantage to stem potential retention issues and increase employee engagement – the magic dust to amazing business results.

Jill Christensen is an employee engagement expert, best-selling author, and international keynote speaker. She was recently named a Top 100 Global Employee Engagement Influencer, authored the best-selling book, If Not You, Who? Cracking the Code of Employee Disengagement, and works with the best and brightest global leaders to improve productivity and retention, customer satisfaction, and revenue growth.