Age, Gender Dictate Important Job Factors

October 24, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - A new survey from the American Business Collaboration (ABC) has found that factors important to worker job satisfaction differ depending on age, gender, and even worker salary class.

According to a press release, general results from the survey of 2,800 salaried and hourly paid men and women workers found that, following salary, work/life balance was the next most important factor to salaried men in joining their current company. For salaried women, learning and growing was the second most important factor after salary. For both hourly paid men and women, benefits followed salary as the next most important factor in joining their current company.

However, the news release said, when broken down by age, factors important to worker job satisfaction varied even more. Following salary, the factor most important to workers less than 30 was:

  • Advancement for salaried men,
  • Meaningful work for salaried women,
  • Job security for hourly-paid men, and
  • Benefits for hourly-paid women.

While the second most important job factor stayed the same for hourly paid men and women in their 30s, it changed to flexible work options for salaried men and work/life balance for salaried women.

For workers in their 40s, according to the press release, the second most important job factor after salary was:

  • Job security for salaried men,
  • Opportunity to learn and grow for salaried women, and
  • Benefits for both hourly paid men and women.

The survey measured how important job factors were to workers in terms of how willing they would be to leave their current job for one which offered something better. Almost half of workers (49%) said salary was most important to them and 25% of those said they are seriously considering switching to a job that pays more.

One-in-five (20%) workers said job security was the most important job factor to them and 20% of those said they would seriously consider leaving their company for one that offered more job security. While only 9% said advancement opportunity is the most important job factor, 41% of those said they would seriously consider leaving their current job for one that offered more advancement opportunities.

Debbie Phillips, Director of the ABC, said in the news release, “This new study demonstrates what is important to men and women at different stages in their career, which can help companies more effectively cater to employees’ needs and retain them.”

Members of the ABC include Abbott, Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, Exxon Mobil Corporation, IBM Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, and Texas Instruments. The ABC survey was conducted by Harris Interactive. For a copy of the study email Andrew Foote at afoote@peppercom.com .

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