employee satisfaction research

29
 What Workers Want: A Wor ldwid e Study of Attitud es to Work and Wor k-Life Balance ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 1

Upload: 22142214

Post on 19-Jul-2015

113 views

Category:

Documents


1 download

TRANSCRIPT

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 1/28

 

What Workers Want:A Worldwide Study of Attitudes to Work and Work-Life Balance

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 1

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 2/28

 

Foreword

This report represents the findings of the

first study carried out by FDS International in

conjunction with its partners in IriS, a global

network of independent market research

agencies. FDS replaced MORI as the UK

representative in the IriS Network in July

2006. We are delighted to have been able tosee one of the core principles of the Network

realised in this study – ‘be global, think local’

in terms of delivering cost-effective, in-depth

research on international markets while

analysing and appreciating local

requirements.

We hope that through reading the following

pages you gain greater insight into both UK

and international workers attitudes to work

today. There are claims made that the whole

concept of ‘work-life balance’ is dead – as

this study shows, try telling that to aNorwegian!

FDS International has an excellent track

record in undertaking employee research for 

a number of clients within the UK including

British Gas, Transport for London,

Department for Work and Pensions, Identity

and Passport Service and BT. This research

demonstrates our wider capability, with our 

IriS partners to provide valuable insight on

an international scale. It also demonstrateshow we approach research projects, adding

context and secondary sources to help

enhance the insight gained from the findings.

We hope that you enjoy reading this report;

indeed, that you find it useful. Should you

want further information about this study in

particular, or the wider capabilities of FDS

International as a full-service market

research provider, please contact me on

+44 (0)20 7272 7766 or e-mail

[email protected]

Charlotte Cornish

Managing Director 

FDS International

2

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 2

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 3/28

 

3

Contents

5 15

 11 20

Introduction 4

Theme 1: What makes for employee satisfaction? 5

Theme 2: Ranking of employee morale 11

Theme 3: Differentiating attitudes to work-life balance 15

Theme 4: Workers’ problems around the globe – the difference 20

between retention and recruitment

About FDS International 27

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 3

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 4/28

 

4

Introduction

Lucy Kellaway the FT journalist, has written a

provocative forecast in The Economist ‘World

in 2007’ report. In it she says that the idea of 

work-life balance is

‘one of the most pernicious and widespread

of all the ideas of flexible working. The

phrase not only spawned a thousand

conferences but also created false

expectations among workers, and

encouraged companies to be disingenuous

about what they wanted (which was really

for everyone to work as hard as possible).’

While it is true that the global marketplace

has impacted on the UK workplace so that

what we find today is one that has changed

out of all recognition from that of 10, or even

5 years ago. We do not believe, however,

that the power has swung away from the

employee to the employer. Indeed,

increasing competition from overseas,

increasing worker migration, alongside

changes in attitudes to ‘a job for life’ and an

increasing emphasis on personal

development and transferable skills, have all

impacted on the competition between

employers for good employees.

It is harder than ever to recruit the best and

retain the good.

This important study answers vital questions

for all employers today – which aspects of 

employees’ working lives are most important

for overall job satisfaction? How important

is satisfaction with pay? How important is the

working environment? And how important is

work-life balance?

Our hope is that the results from this study

will provide a platform for a more ‘balanced’

discussion of the important issues behind

worker satisfaction and help employers in

their quest to find and retain the best

employees.

FDS International has conducted analysesof data collected in the second half of 2006

from 13,832 employees aged 18+ in 23

countries around the world. The research

was conducted by members of IriS, the

global research group, of which FDS

International is the UK member. Please find

further details of IriS and FDS International

on the inside back cover.

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 4

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 5/28

 

5

Theme 1What makes for employee satisfaction?

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 5

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 6/28

 

6

 A previous international study, using the

World Values Survey (WVS), has indicated

that a shift takes place, as societies become

more affluent and the nature of employmentchanges, from a focus on extrinsic work

values (pay, working hours – the benefits a

 job has for the employees’ life outside of 

work), to a focus on intrinsic work values

(the quality of the work itself).

Some researchers have questioned the

validity of the extrinsic/intrinsic rewards

dichotomy, and suggested that more complex

schema are necessary to understand

employee motivation. This is certainly a well-

researched area. However, few academic

studies (aside from the WVS) occupy theinternational range of this research study,

which represents a broad spectrum of 

countries in the developed world, in terms

of geography, industrial structures, and

income levels so although our measures

are relatively simple by academic standards,

and we do not attempt more than a passing

reference to the large body of theory and

research in this area, we believe that our 

recent research can make a useful

contribution to the understanding of what

constitutes job satisfaction and how thisvaries internationally.

Top six predictors for job satisfaction

Let’s begin with our first question.

 At a ‘global’ level, what makes for 

 job satisfaction?

The results here may surprise – the list

below sets out in order, where 1 is the

most important, the factors most closely

associated with overall job satisfaction:

1: (the strongest predictor of overall job

satisfaction): Opportunities to do aninteresting job

2: Recognition for your performance

3: Balance between private life and worklife

4: Prospects for advancement

5: Job security

6: (the weakest predictor of overall job

satisfaction): Your salary/payment.

 A remarkable result! At a global level, pay is

the least good predictor of job satisfaction.

Furthermore, as we’ll see below, it does not

constitute the most important predictor inany of the countries in our survey.

While items 4 and 5 in our ranking are

somewhat ambiguous in terms of the

extrinsic/intrinsic reward dichotomy, it is

clear enough that it is intrinsic rewards that

matter most, at a ‘global’ level.

The broad message to employers is clear –

the opportunity to do something interesting

at work is what matters most for overall job

satisfaction. Investing in skills development,

promoting initiative and creativity, and

inclusivity in strategic decision-making would

appear to make for a happier workforce than

simply jacking up wage levels.

 At first glance, this might be just what

employers want to hear! But this result

should not be taken to mean that token

measures will suffice to replace wage

increases – making all employees’ jobs

more interesting presents a very different,

and hugely more complex and nuanced,

challenge for employers.

Furthermore, while wage increases for existing staff may not be effective ‘in and of 

themselves’, for many, wage increases are

the language of recognition – the second

most important factor in employee

satisfaction. To put it more colloquially,

‘money talks’. And it must be remembered

that pay rises have a symbolic as well as

an economic value. And lastly, we must

remember that the dynamics of recruitment

are very different from the dynamics of 

retention.

On the following page, our table sets out thevariations in levels of correlation between

various measures and overall job satisfaction

between the countries in our study. As we’ll

see, we find universal confirmation of the

idea that salary is not ‘where it’s at’ – but

also intriguing variations in the most

important components of job satisfaction.

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 6

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 7/28

 

Table: Predictors of overall job satisfaction, by country and country group

(Pearson’s Correlations) – most important factor is highlighted in yellow for each country

7

Country advancement interesting job recognition salary work life balance job security

 Australia 0.495 0.585 0.459 0.377 0.348 0.377

Brazil 0.369 0.401 0.444 0.371 0.374 0.340

Canada 0.409 0.561 0.476 0.275 0.343 0.294

France 0.268 0.412 0.333 0.177 0.254 0.141

Germany 0.279 0.566 0.490 0.268 0.356 0.310

Greece 0.398 0.300 0.394 0.330 0.300 0.379

Ireland 0.392 0.454 0.362 0.152 0.310 0.417

Japan 0.468 0.592 0.554 0.432 0.489 0.540

Korea 0.299 0.259 0.129 0.251 0.171 0.429

China 0.358 0.344 0.326 0.422 0.416 0.583

Poland 0.293 0.586 0.494 0.296 0.455 0.300

Portugal 0.234 0.136 0.226 0.225 0.273 0.149

Romania 0.308 0.359 0.352 0.300 0.366 0.166

Russia 0.256 0.414 0.387 0.298 0.222 0.211

Spain 0.257 0.286 0.358 0.270 0.321 0.306

Switzerland 0.201 0.422 0.242 0.097 0.242 0.129

Thailand 0.260 0.386 0.140 0.251 0.397 0.410

The Netherlands 0.286 0.383 0.410 0.211 0.253 0.301

UK 0.366 0.386 0.375 0.232 0.414 0.283

USA 0.416 0.537 0.466 0.341 0.443 0.414

Norway 0.237 0.496 0.333 0.124 0.192 0.180

Sweden 0.315 0.688 0.296 0.055 0.337 0.381

Denmark 0.240 0.508 0.426 0.128 0.267 0.142

Country Groups

Scandinavian 0.270 0.575 0.346 0.105 0.273 0.239

Northern European 0.304 0.509 0.428 0.260 0.353 0.284

Southern European 0.304 0.296 0.326 0.341 0.414 0.417

Central & Eastern European 0.288 0.452 0.422 0.303 0.355 0.226

North American 0.413 0.549 0.471 0.307 0.392 0.354

South American 0.369 0.401 0.444 0.371 0.374 0.340

South & East Asian 0.525 0.529 0.462 0.473 0.440 0.549

UK & Ireland 0.384 0.414 0.380 0.205 0.388 0.326

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 7

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 8/28

 

Variation by country

 As we can see, while in 14/23 countries we

find that ‘the opportunity to do an interesting

 job’ is the most important predictor of job

satisfaction, in 9 of our countries this is not

the case.

 As the ‘country group’-level analysis

shows, the exceptions to the rule may be

summarised by noting that in South and East

 Asian countries, and in Southern European

countries, job security appears to be more

key to job satisfaction. This is something that

coheres fairly well with our discussion of 

different cultures of work-life balance later on

in this report – these countries tend to have a

‘work is life’ orientation. In Portugal, while job

security is less important than in Spain and

other southern European countries, having

an interesting job is the least important

factor, reflecting the ‘work is life’ orientation.

In South American countries, ‘recognition’

appears as more important than ‘interesting

 job’.

Top six predictors for job satisfaction

in the UK

The results in the UK are as follows:

1: (the strongest predictor of overall job

satisfaction): Balance between private

life and worklife

2: Opportunities to do an interesting job

3: Recognition for your performance

4: Prospects for advancement

5: Job security

6: (the weakest predictor of overall job

satisfaction): Your salary/payment

Work-life balance is the key predictor of 

 job satisfaction in the UK. It is crucial for 

employees in the UK to feel they have

control over their working life. We go on tounpack what this means to UK employees

and how they compare with their global

counterparts in the rest of this report.

Top six predictors for job satisfaction by

key demographic groups

Before we look at work-life balance in

more detail – a quick detour to highlight

differences by gender and other 

demographic groups in the top six

predictors. While none of these in

themselves is surprising, it is interesting

to see the stereotypes confirmed.

8

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 8

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 9/28

 

9

Table: Predictors of overall job satisfaction, by demographic groups

(Pearson’s Correlations) – key differences in the UK are highlighted in pink

Gender advancement interesting job recognition salary work life balance job security

Male 0.364 0.486 0.415 0.360 0.397 0.406

Female 0.362 0.474 0.407 0.298 0.382 0.366

 Age

18-25 0.394 0.483 0.396 0.372 0.357 0.390

26-35 0.397 0.480 0.406 0.338 0.363 0.380

36-45 0.357 0.478 0.412 0.328 0.426 0.373

Over 45 0.336 0.479 0.423 0.305 0.392 0.402

Education level

Low 0.343 0.432 0.420 0.323 0.417 0.434

Medium 0.362 0.471 0.369 0.340 0.396 0.374

High 0.370 0.506 0.448 0.325 0.379 0.387

Place of work

Non profit

organisation 0.317 0.471 0.391 0.257 0.342 0.270

Own/micro-

business

(1-4 people) 0.384 0.395 0.437 0.442 0.410 0.442

Small business

(5-19 people) 0.382 0.445 0.361 0.358 0.357 0.430

Medium business

(20-99 people) 0.373 0.470 0.424 0.323 0.412 0.409

Large business

(100-1,000 people) 0.356 0.502 0.382 0.317 0.397 0.385

Business over 

1,000 people 0.357 0.540 0.476 0.312 0.402 0.343

Manual or non-manual worker 

Non-manual

(ABC1) 0.374 0.476 0.404 0.338 0.362 0.402

Manual (C2DE) 0.356 0.471 0.396 0.322 0.439 0.392

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 9

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 10/28

 

Money more important to men

Gender differences are not in fact great,

except where pay is concerned. Men’s job

satisfaction rests significantly more on their 

satisfaction with pay, and somewhat more

on their job security. The tendency for men

to maintain their ongoing role as primary

providers in the household doubtless

explains this.

 Advocates of gender equality in

working/caring roles will bemoan the ‘vicious

circle’ that is at play here: women place less

importance on their wages, and thus end up

earning less, caring more, and continuing to

rely on male partners to determine the

household’s standard of living.

Recognition is more important for older 

workers

Younger workers’ job satisfaction is more

dependent than older workers on

opportunities for advancement and salary,

while ‘recognition’ becomes more important

as we go through our working lives.

Educated workers want interesting jobs

More highly educated workers place greater 

importance on doing an interesting job, whileless educated workers’ satisfaction lies more

in work-life balance and job security.

Perhaps not surprisingly, workers in non-

profit organisations have a strikingly different

attitude to work than those in commercial

outfits, being far less concerned with

advancement, salary and security.

Comparing smaller and larger businesses

is also worthwhile – the importance of 

interesting work becomes more pronounced

the larger the business an employee isworking for. Perhaps this is explained by the

kinds of drivers and worries that characterise

life within smaller businesses. The smaller 

the business, the more important salary

and job security become to overall job

satisfaction.

Lastly, work-life balance appears as more

important to manual than non-manual

workers, no doubt reflecting the lack of 

control that most manual workers, except

the self-employed, have in their working life.

 10

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 10

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 11/28

 

Theme 2Ranking of employee morale

 11

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 11

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 12/28

 

In Theme 1, we looked at overall job

satisfaction and how this differed by country.

In this section we develop this theme with

additional variables to highlight differencesin overall employee morale by country –

we produce a ranking to highlight which

countries’ employees have the best morale

in the world.

We have divided the broad concept, ‘morale’,

into three sub-categories; these, and their 

component questions, are set out below:

Category One: Job satisfaction as outlined

in Theme 1

This sub-index is intended to reflect the level

of contentment that workers have with their  jobs themselves. It is based on the same

four measures as in Theme 1:

• Satisfaction with prospects for 

advancement

• Satisfaction with ‘opportunities to do

an interesting job’

• Satisfaction with pay

• Satisfaction with job security

Category Two: Quality of employer-

employee relationshipsThis sub-index is intended to reflect worker’s

feelings about their employers and

managers, and the degree to which they

feel supported, and in turn support their 

management. It is based on three measures:

• Extent to which workers trust decisions

made by management

• Extent to which workers have faith in the

strategic direction of their organisation

• Satisfaction with ‘recognition for your 

performance’

Category Three: Quality of work-life

balance, or ‘negative life-impact’ measure

This sub-index looks at the impact of work on

workers’ lives outside the workplace.

It reflects the fact that an employee might

be highly satisfied with their job itself, and

the organisation they work for, but

nonetheless feel that their job impinges too

much on the rest of their life. It is based on

three measures:

• Satisfaction with balance between work

life and private life

• Extent to which ‘work-life balance has a

negative impact on my health’

• Extent to which ‘work-life balance has a

negative impact on my relationships’

Each of these sub-indices has an equal

weight in our overall morale measure.

The intention here is to produce a measure

of morale that is fairly comprehensive, and

which gives due weight to intrinsic and

extrinsic benefits of work.

The table opposite sets out the top-line

results from all our indices, by country and

by geographic region.

 12

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 12

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 13/28

 

 13

Table: Employee morale index, and sub-indices

Country overall job quality of employer- work-life

employee satisfaction employee relations balance

morale index index index index

The Netherlands 64 64 62 68

Ireland 62 59 64 64

Thailand 62 66 70 49

Switzerland 59 57 62 56

Denmark 54 54 56 49

UK 53 56 54 49

Norway 52 50 54 53

France 50 48 49 54

China 50 41 57 50Brazil 50 40 55 54

Spain 50 47 53 51

Romania 50 48 55 46

Russia 49 47 51 52

Greece 49 46 56 45

Sweden 48 45 48 51

USA 46 44 49 47

Portugal 45 56 64 16

Canada 45 44 47 45

Poland 44 41 47 42

Korea 43 35 47 50 Australia 42 45 47 35

Germany 42 39 39 49

Japan 33 26 33 42

Scandinavian 51 50 53 51

Northern European 53 51 53 57

Southern European 48 48 58 39

Central & Eastern European 48 45 51 47

North American 46 44 48 46

South American 50 40 55 38

South & East Asian 47 43 51 47

UK & Ireland 58 57 59 56

European 51 50 54 50

North American 46 44 48 46

South American 50 40 55 38

South & East Asian 47 43 51 47

Male 49 48 53 47

Female 50 47 53 48

Non-manual (ABC1) 51 50 54 47

Manual (C2DE) 48 45 52 47

Under 35 50 47 53 48

Over 35 50 48 53 47

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 13

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 14/28

 

The World Beaters

The world beater in terms of employee

morale is The Netherlands, with Thai and

Irish workers tying for second place.

The Lowest Reported Morale

Japanese workers reported the lowest

morale by quite a long way, and were low on

all three indices, and German workers were

second last overall.

It is perhaps surprising to see German and

Japanese workers scoring so low, especially

on satisfaction with employee employer co-

operation. This may well be reflecting the fact

that these cultures have traditionally very

high expectations in this regard. While

economic fortunes are beginning to turn

around again in both countries, these results

may represent a legacy of recent economic

misfortune, and an ongoing failure of 

workplaces to live up to levels of expectation.

While a ‘continental’ analysis may be useful

for summarisation, it is clear enough that this

hides major differences between individual

countries (for example note that Germany

and the Netherlands appear at opposite ends

of the scale, as do Japan and Thailand).

Perhaps the comparison of European sub-

regions is more useful. Here, the UK and

Ireland emerge as having the highest level

of morale among the European sub-regions,

edging out the European competition on all

three sub-indices too.

In the UK, some may point to the decisive

shift that took place in British industrial

relations in the 1980s, while some will point

to New Labour’s record of steady increases

in workers’ standards of living, their halting

of growing income inequality, and their progressive legislative record on work-life

balance issues. In any case, a collective pat

on the back is in order (and an extra public

holiday to celebrate, perhaps?!).

 14

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 14

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 15/28

 

 15

Theme 3Differentiating attitudes to work-life balance

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 15

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 16/28

 

 As we highlighted in Theme 1, in the UK

having a balance between private life and

work life is the most important predictor for 

overall job satisfaction. In most other countries, however, interesting work is the

key predictor. In Theme 3, we dig deeper –

looking in detail at how attitudes to work life

balance differ around the globe.

Before we start, it should be noted that

discerning different ‘cultures’ of work-life

balance around the globe is complicated by

two research factors:

1: In some countries, response rates are

higher for every item. This illustrates a

well-known tendency for positive ‘yes’

responses to be higher in some cultures,

than in others, regardless of subject.

2: Certain items consistently score higher 

than others, regardless of which country

respondents are from. We see this in the

table opposite, the ‘global’ ranking of 

definitions of work-life balance is echoed

in the great majority of countries, with

‘balancing and separating home and

work, and ‘giving weight to home issues’

the predominant definition. This could

lead to the conclusion that, by and large,

attitudes to work-life balance are the

same around the globe.

 16

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 16

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 17/28

 

 17

Table: What does the term ‘work-life balance’ mean to you? (% choosing each definition,

by country) – top % highlighted in yellow for each country

Balancing Achieving a Good co- Having Flexibility Employer Improved Standard of Innovative

home and quality of life operation flexibility towards awareness working working life solutions

work/giving (general) between in work home of employees’ environment through the

weight to employer & hours issues needs use of  

home issues employee technology

Global average 61% 58% 49% 46% 46% 46% 43% 42% 35%

Country

 Australia 71% 59% 39% 40% 31% 38% 20% 25% 19%

Brazil 87% 95% 92% 86% 89% 88% 94% 90% 87%

Canada 71% 59% 44% 40% 35% 43% 31% 27% 20%

France 70% 85% 81% 65% 69% 77% 77% 78% 67%

Germany 41% 45% 76% 65% 61% 57% 39% 67% 37%

Greece 66% 89% 83% 68% 70% 77% 78% 77% 65%

Ireland 67% 70% 44% 45% 39% 39% 31% 47% 22%

Japan 66% 41% 24% 28% 37% 22% 39% 19% 7%

Korea 29% 49% 24% 29% 38% 28% 33% 18% 31%

Mexico 48% 27% 4% 28% 31% 14% 10% 5% 15%

China 57% 61% 45% 37% 34% 36% 61% 39% 17%

Poland 76% 35% 27% 16% 26% 25% 16% 20% 18%

Portugal 31% 63% 42% 41% 32% 38% 35% 21% 27%

Romania 77% 87% 87% 61% 77% 77% 84% 74% 73%

Russia 36% 36% 24% 37% 25% 32% 31% 23% 18%

Spain 71% 70% 61% 69% 55% 62% 63% 62% 52%

Switzerland 67% 52% 78% 66% 64% 70% 62% 74% 59%

Thailand 75% 92% 89% 84% 89% 85% 76% 90% 79%

The Netherlands 73% 61% 75% 58% 64% 66% 59% 55% 52%

UK 71% 77% 70% 61% 66% 69% 60% 60% 50%

USA 79% 54% 39% 33% 29% 38% 25% 18% 16%

Norway 53% 27% 4% 10% 7% 9% 4% 2% 2%

Sweden 44% 41% 14% 6% 1% 7% 5% 14% 3%

Denmark 46% 24% 17% 17% 38% 17% 7% 9% 5%

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 17

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 18/28

 

 18

A better approach

In order to overcome these problems we’ve

done a correspondence analysis, which:

1: First factors out the difference in overall

levels of response in different countries

2: Then factors out the tendency for some

definitions to do better than others.

So, what we are left with is the relative

emphasis that workers place on different

items in different countries which more

clearly demonstrates the differences in

attitudes to work-life balance between

each country.

The map opposite places each country’sscores on a 3-dimensional map. Each

dimension is based upon a combination

of two of the items above, as follows:

‘Work vs. life’ index: Relative emphasis

placed on items one and four above (giving

weight to home issues and flexible hours)

‘Work is life’ index: Relative emphasis placed

on items seven and eight above (standard

of work life and working environment)

‘Co-operative’ index: Relative emphasis

placed on items three and six(employee/employer co-operation and

employer awareness of employee needs)

Map 1: Relative emphasis placed on various

definitions of work-life balance

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 18

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 19/28

 

This approach produces results that are fairly

intuitively satisfying.

Workers in the Scandinavian countries –

(and in Mexico and Japan, interestingly)

are most likely to emphasise a ‘work vs. life’

attitude, with the Norwegians the most

extreme in emphasising a ‘defensive’ attitude

to work-life balance and the attendant

demand for flexibility .

North American and Australian workers

exhibit marginally more emphasis on a

work vs. life attitude, but are also likely to

emphasise a co-operative stance.

Workers in all the Asian countries in our 

study, Brazil and some Southern Europeancountries tend towards a ‘work is life’ attitude,

placing more emphasis on improvement in

work conditions rather than limiting the

impact on home life as such. This ties in

neatly with the findings in Theme 1, which

showed that in these countries ‘job security’

is a more important factor for overall job

satisfaction.

It is perhaps no surprise to find Germany,

The Netherlands and Switzerland exhibiting

a tendency towards a ‘co-operative’ attitude.

The UK and Portugal are also in thiscategory. For all these countries, it is

relatively more important that there is co-

operation between employee and employer 

and a high level of awareness on the part of 

the employer about their employees’ needs.

We should bear in mind that these

differences in emphasis only make sense in

a comparative context: some countries are

more like this than others – such descriptions

might be misleading if presented in isolation

from the ‘global’ truth: that workers in the vast

majority of developed countries tend to seethe work-life balance issue in terms of 

balance – but with differing weight to home

issues, the need for flexibility, co-operation

and employer awareness of employee needs.

 19

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 19

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 20/28

 

Theme 4Worker’s problems around the

globe – the difference between

retention and recruitment

20

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 20

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 21/28

 

So to re-cap, in Theme 1, we establish how

predictors of job satisfaction vary around the

globe and what employers need to do to

keep their employees happy. In Theme 2,we give a ranking for employee morale.

Theme 3, highlights how overall attitudes to

work-life balance vary from country to

country. In this section, we dig deeper and

look at what workers in each county consider 

to be the problems impacting on their abilityto do their work.

Table: % of workers who feel that various things are problems for them right now

21

Number of Time it takes to Not getting Not getting Having to Having to No flexibility Not enjoying Dissatisfaction

hours that commute /travel enough enough care for care for in working the work with pay

you work to work holidays/paid unpaid children adults hours you do

time off time off  

Global 26% 20% 22% 17% 15% 12% 23% 16% 36%

Country

 Australia 40% 28% 23% 13% 12% 7% 23% 22% 30%

Brazil 27% 30% 25% 31% 16% 16% 29% 19% 45%

Canada 25% 19% 29% 16% 13% 6% 22% 20% 35%

France 18% 18% 18% 18% 14% 11% 23% 17% 43%

Germany 27% 18% 10% 4% 7% 7% 13% 18% 33%

Greece 41% 20% 32% 20% 19% 15% 35% 14% 40%

Ireland 21% 15% 13% 7% 5% 2% 12% 4% 15%

Japan 26% 12% 28% 17% 9% 8% 15% 18% 38%Korea 42% 29% 37% 28% 30% 32% 47% 14% 44%

Mexico 27% 37% 10% 12% 16% 15% 13% 14% 17%

China 37% 29% 30% 23% 21% 17% 23% 16% 43%

Poland 26% 19% 23% 24% 15% 6% 24% 14% 55%

Portugal 26% 17% 24% 15% 14% 14% 24% 11% 42%

Romania 23% 25% 41% 35% 32% 35% 38% 28% 59%

Russia 27% 29% 36% 18% 36% 39% 31% 32% 61%

Spain 34% 25% 29% 33% 19% 14% 38% 23% 41%

Switzerland 12% 11% 12% 11% 7% 8% 14% 8% 18%

Thailand 19% 17% 18% 16% 15% 22% 31% 13% 32%

The Netherlands 12% 11% 8% 14% 6% 7% 10% 9% 15%

UK 26% 26% 37% 30% 22% 12% 29% 22% 40%

USA 26% 18% 26% 14% 11% 7% 19% 20% 38%

Norway 23% 12% 12% 7% 11% 3% 14% 7% 23%

Sweden 28% 14% 14% 6% 5% 4% 17% 12% 35%

Denmark 20% 13% 9% 7% 12% 1% 11% 9% 22%

Continued over 

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 21

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 22/28

 

22

Continued table: % of workers who feel that various things are problems for them right now

Nb: In the table above, the highest levels of response for each problem, i.e. in each column,

(the top 5 countries, and also the highest country group/gender/age etc) are highlighted in pink.

The highest level of response in each row (i.e. the top problem within each country or demographic)

is highlighted by a bold outline to the cell and bold contents.

Number of Time it takes to Not getting Not getting Having to Having to No flexibility Not enjoying Dissatisfaction

hours that commute /travel enough enough care for care for in working the work with payyou work to work holidays/paid unpaid children adults hours you do

time off time off  

Global 26% 20% 22% 17% 15% 12% 23% 16% 36%

Country

 All Europe 24% 18% 20% 15% 14% 11% 21% 15% 36%

UK & Ireland 23% 19% 22% 14% 12% 6% 18% 11% 25%

Scandinavian 24% 13% 12% 6% 9% 3% 14% 9% 27%

Northern

European 17% 15% 12% 12% 9% 8% 15% 13% 27%

Southern

European 33% 23% 28% 24% 18% 15% 28% 17% 42%

Central & Eastern

European 26% 24% 32% 23% 27% 24% 30% 24% 58%

North American 26% 19% 28% 15% 12% 7% 20% 20% 36%

South American 27% 33% 17% 21% 16% 15% 21% 16% 31%

South & East

 Asian 29% 19% 28% 21% 18% 21% 31% 15% 38%

Male 25% 19% 21% 16% 12% 11% 21% 16% 33%

Female 28% 21% 23% 18% 18% 14% 25% 16% 39%

Non-manual

(ABC1) 28% 23% 23% 17% 16% 13% 23% 15% 34%

Manual

(C2DE) 26% 18% 24% 18% 15% 13% 24% 17% 41%

Under 35 29% 22% 24% 19% 15% 10% 25% 17% 37%

Over 35 25% 19% 21% 15% 15% 13% 21% 15% 35%

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 22

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 23/28

 

23

It is worth noting, straightaway, that there is

no very obvious relationship between either 

the absolute levels of complaint shown here

or the level of complaint relative to conditions(‘scale of demands’) shown later in this

section, and job satisfaction – see first

section. That is to say, demanding workers

are not necessarily de-motivated or unhappy

but they are more likely to complain about

their situation.

1: Dissatisfaction with pay is the most

commonly mentioned problem within

almost every demographic and country.

Working hours is the second most

mentioned problem, and lack of flexibility

third. This is at odds with the result inTheme 1, which showed that when asked

what were the key predictors of overall

 job satisfaction, salary level was of less

relative importance than having an

interesting job and achieving work-life

balance. See later on in this section, for 

a discussion of this difference.

2: Certain countries and demographics have

a higher level of response for most or all

items. Unlike in the case of Theme 2,

where cultural knowledge indicates a

likely difference in response patterns – wehave to take this at face value. It does

seem intuitively fairly plausible that in

countries such as Romania and Russia

workers will indeed have more difficult

working lives. Equally, the fact that

women and younger workers find work far 

more ‘problematic’ may have an attitudinal

dimension, but more likely simply reflects

their relatively oppressed position in the

global workforce.

3: The biggest differences between

countries emerge in levels of satisfactionwith pay (particularly low in Central and

Eastern Europe (CEE countries)), and the

‘care burden’ on workers (again, in CEE

countries, workers are four times more

likely than British workers to shoulder 

elderly-care responsibilities, and eight

times more likely than Scandinavian

workers).

Where are the world’s most demanding

workers… and also, conversely, where are

the world’s most willing workers?

Our data on the problems that workers face

is useful on one level. But is it telling us more

about the realities of workers’ lives, or about

their attitudes to work? Can this explain the

differences with the findings in Theme 1?

When we looked at ‘raw’ levels of complaint,

we’ll recall that workers in CEE and Asian

countries generally had the highest levels.

But, given that pay levels are in fact relatively

low in CEE countries, and working hours are

exceptionally long in South Asian countries,

wouldn’t this be quite justifiable? A

reasonable attitudinal measure, of how

‘demanding’ workers are, would surely be

based on levels of complaint relative to

actual working conditions.

Put it another way: which workers are

really hard done by, and who just think

that they are?

Some of our ‘problems’ data, if placed

alongside ILO and World Bank statistics,

give us the opportunity to compare workers’

perceptions to global realities.

We can look at two measures that cover all

the countries in the study:

1: % who feel their pay is a problem

(compared with actual average levels

of income relative to the cost of living

(Purchasing Power Parities))

2: % who feel their working hours are

too long (compared with actual

working hours)

Let’s look at the results overleaf:

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 23

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 24/28

 

24

Table: Worker complaints and the realities of work: 23 countries, pay and working hours

Pay Working hoursCountry Overall % unhappy Actual income Pay % feeling Actual Hours

‘whinginess’ with pay relative to whinge working hours average whinge

rank cost of living rank impinge on weekly working rank

private life hours

France 1 43% 30540 2 34% 34.5 6

UK =2 40% 32690 3 35% 36.4 7

Sweden =2 35% 31420 6 38% 35.7 4

USA 3 38% 41950 1 31% 39.6 11

 Australia =4 30% 30610 12 44% 34.8 2

Portugal =4 42% 19730 13 57% 39.1 1

Canada =5 35% 32220 5 28% 31.9 10

Greece =5 40% 23620 10 38% 39.8 5

Poland 6 55% 13490 14 45% 39.8 3

Germany =7 33% 29210 8 28% 34.5 12

Spain =7 41% 25820 7 28% 35.2 13

Japan 8 38% 31410 4 25% 42.2 19

Switzerland 9 18% 37080 16 33% 36.1 8

Norway 10 23% 40420 11 24% 34.9 17Brazil 11 45% 8230 21 35% 42 9

Denmark =12 22% 33570 15 27% 34.5 16

Korea =12 44% 21850 9 18% 45.7 22

Romania 13 59% 8940 18 31% 41.2 14

China 14 43% 6600 22 29% 37.8 15

Russia 15 61% 10640 17 17% 33.2 21

The Netherlands 16 15% 32480 20 17% 29.7 20

Thailand 17 32% 8440 23 30% 48.9 18

Ireland 18 15% 34720 19 15% 35.1 23

This analysis of two very fundamental

measures – pay and working hours – across

23 countries, and produces some fascinating

findings.

French the most demanding workers

In the overall measure, it is French workers

who are most demanding, with UK and

Swedish workers equal second, that is

workers in these countries are most likely

to be dissatisfied despite their relative

good fortune.

 All our top five nations here show a fairly

high level of worker complaint about both pay

and hours, neither of which are actually

particularly harsh in global terms. A slight

exception here are US workers, who emerge

as the third most ‘demanding’ in the world.

 Although they are quite happy to work

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 24

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 25/28

 

25

long hours, the fact that US workers have by

far the highest levels of income (relative to

the cost of living) in the world, and yet almost

four in ten feel that their pay is a problem,places them third. Compare US workers with

Thai workers, for example – while real levels

of income are more than eight times higher 

in the States, more workers in the US feel

their pay is a problem than in Thailand.

UK second most demanding

Workers in the UK come second overall

(alongside Sweden) in our global ‘demanding

workers’ league table. Again, as with the US,

it is relatively high levels of dissatisfaction

with pay despite what is, in global terms, a

very good standard of living, that accounts

for this.

Perhaps there is something in the nature

of US/UK society, with its competitive

individualism and highly unequal wealth

distribution, that accounts for this. This may

provide support for the idea that such

societies, characterised by consumerist and

individualist ideologies, fail to convert their 

material wealth and benign working

conditions into higher levels of satisfaction

or happiness. The comparison with levels

of worker dissatisfaction in Scandinavia,

Northern Europe and Ireland is striking.

Irish most willing workers

Looking to the other end of the scale now,

it is Irish workers who emerge as the world’s

most willing, simply because they are so

unlikely to complain about their hours or pay

 – fewer than one in six employees in Ireland

indicate a problem with either.

Thai workers come a close second. Despite

having the third lowest pay levels within the

23 countries, and the longest working hours

(at a staggering 48.9 hours per week), Thai

workers have lower than average levels of 

complaint on both counts.

Workers in The Netherlands also emerge as

some of the world’s most willing. Here (as in

Ireland) it is not a case of great forbearance

in the face of low pay and long hours – in

fact, pay and hours are relatively good.

The reason The Netherlands does so well is

because workers there have exceptionally

low levels of complaint, with fewer than one

in six saying hours are a problem and only

17% feeling pay is a problem – way below

the levels seen in other countries aside from

Ireland (see also the basic ‘problems’ datatable on pages 21 and 22).

Introducing holiday allowances into the

analysis

 An EIRO (2002) study gives us comparable

data on average annual leave and public

holidays, which intersects with 11 of the

countries in our study, all of which are

in Europe.

The table below sets out a comparison which

we will now be familiar with – who complains

most about the amount of time off they get,and who least? – and how does this

compare with actual holiday time?

Table: % of workers who feel that their holiday allowances are

a problem and actual holiday allowances

country % feeling Actual days Holiday

they don’t annual leave whinge

get enough & public rank

holidays holidays

UK 37% 33.5 1

Greece 32% 34 2

Spain 29% 35 3

Portugal 24% 37.5 4

Ireland 13% 29 5

France 18% 36 6

Sweden 14% 36 7

Norway 12% 35 8

Denmark 9% 38.5 9

Germany 10% 39.6 10

The Netherlands 8% 39.3 11

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 25

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 26/28

 

26

UK workers most holiday hungry

 Among the 11 countries included here,

it is UK workers who emerge as the most

‘holiday hungry’ – to be fair, overall holiday

allowances in the UK are not generous by

European standards, but the proportion of 

workers who are unhappy with their holiday

allowance is almost three times higher than

the European average in the UK, at 37%.

Compare, for example, Irish workers, who

get four and a half days less than those in

the UK, but are almost three times less likely

to complain about it!

In summary:

 At a European level then, we find that:

• French workers are the most demanding

about their pay (in both absolute and

relative terms)

• Greek workers are the most demanding

about their working hours (in both absolute

and relative terms)

• UK workers are the most demanding about

their holiday allowances (in both absolute

and relative terms)

Our overall, combined measure shows thatworkers in France and the UK are the most

demanding (relative to reality – and in

absolute terms, on the whole), while those

in The Netherlands are the most content.

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 26

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 27/28

 

FDS International is a top 15 market

research agency as posted in the

Marketing league tables for 2006.

Established in 1972, annual turnover in 2006 for FDS and its sister company,

acefieldwork, was close to £6 million.

 A blue-chip customer base includes long-

standing clients such as BT, British Gas

and Yell in the commercial sector and UK

central government clients such as the

Office of Fair Trading, HM Revenue and

Customs, Identity and Passport Service

and Department for Work and Pensions.

 A core area of specialism for FDS is

customer satisfaction research, in both

consumer and business segments, whichaccounts for over 60% of revenues and

encompasses large continuous projects for 

BT and Jobcentre Plus. Research focuses on

providing information that assists clients in

creating a prioritised agenda for change and

in post-implementation tracking.

FDS also has a strong track record in

mystery shopping, both physical and

increasingly online, employee and

communications research, using quantitative

and qualitative techniques to derive genuine

business insight for clients. A highlyexperienced research team carry out a

range of sophisticated analysis using data

gathered in-house through our own 100-seat

telephone centre, online or by post. Where

face-to-face research forms part of a project,

sister company, acefieldwork carries out this

work. FDS has quality accreditations and/or 

industry membership with MRQSA,

ISO 9001, MRS, ESOMAR and IQCS.

FDS is the UK representative in the IriS

(International Research InstituteS) Network

of global, independent research companies.

More information on IriS can be found at

www.iris-net.org.

In June 2006, FDS and acefieldwork were

the subject of a management buy-in by a

new marketing services group, Munro Global

Limited (www.munroglobal.net). With backing

from Electra Kingsway Venture Capital Trust

funding, the MBI team comprised Charlotte

Cornish (new MD) and Richard Hepburn

(new CEO), who were joined on the Munro

Global Board by three non-executive

directors, Janet Weitz (original founder of 

FDS), Fiona Stewart (a former CEO of 

Opinion Leader Research) and Mark Speeks

(Electra Kingsway representative). All the

existing senior management teams within

the FDS businesses remained in their 

current roles.

For more information on FDS International

visit www.fds.co.uk

FDS International Limited

Hill House

Highgate Hill

London, N19 5NA

+44 (0)207 272 7766

[email protected]

About FDS International

27

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 27

5/17/2018 Employee Satisfaction Research - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/employee-satisfaction-research 28/28

 

FDS International Limited

Hill House

Highgate Hill

London, N19 5NA

+44 (0)207 272 [email protected]

ge11651 7/3/07 09:21 Page 28