2012 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement

[Pages:88]A Research Report by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)

2012 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement

How Employees Are Dealing With Uncertainty

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2012 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement

A Research Report by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)

Table of Contents

About This Research Report 1

Executive Summary: Employees Are Focused on Meeting Goals and Using Their Skills at Work2

Survey Results: Employee Job Satisfaction 8 Career Development .......................................................................................................9

Opportunities to Use Skills and Abilities.................................................................9 Career Advancement Opportunities Within Organization ................................10 Organization's Commitment to Professional Development .................................11 Job-specific Training..................................................................................................12 Career Development Opportunities ........................................................................12 Paid Training and Tuition Reimbursement Programs.........................................13 Networking ..................................................................................................................13 Employee Relationship with Management ............................................................... 15 Communication Between Employees and Senior Management ........................ 15 Relationship with Immediate Supervisor .............................................................. 16 Management's Recognition of Employee Job Performance................................ 16 Autonomy and Independence................................................................................... 17 Compensation and Benefits .........................................................................................24 Compensation/pay..................................................................................................... 24 Benefits ........................................................................................................................ 26 Flexibility to Balance Life and Work Issues.......................................................... 28 Work Environment .......................................................................................................32 Job Security ................................................................................................................ 32 Organization's Financial Stability .......................................................................... 33 The Work Itself........................................................................................................... 33 Feeling Safe in the Work Environment.................................................................. 33 Overall Corporate Culture ....................................................................................... 34 Relationships with Co-workers ............................................................................... 34 Meaningfulness of Job...............................................................................................35 Contribution of Work to Organization's Business Goals .................................... 36 Variety of Work .......................................................................................................... 36 Organization's Commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility ......................37 Organization's Commitment to a Diverse and Inclusive Workplace ................ 38 Organization's Commitment to a "Green" Workplace......................................... 39

Survey Results: Employee Engagement 40 Engagement Opinions .................................................................................................. 41

Engagement Behaviors.................................................................................................42 Conditions for Engagement .........................................................................................43

Conclusions 48

About the Research 51 Methodology .................................................................................................................. 51 Notations ........................................................................................................................ 51 About the Respondents ................................................................................................53

Appendix 56

Endnotes 75

Additional SHRM Resources 76

About This Research Report

The following report presents the results of the 2012 SHRM Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement survey of U.S. employees. The objective of this annual survey is to identify and understand the factors important to overall employee job satisfaction and engagement. This knowledge helps organizations better understand and appreciate employee preferences when developing programs and policies designated to influence job satisfaction and engagement. The survey examined 35 aspects of employee job satisfaction and 34 aspects of employee engagement. The job satisfaction and employee engagement aspects are divided into seven topic areas--career development, relationship with management, compensation and benefits, work environment, engagement opinions, engagement behaviors, and conditions for engagement. The overall results, illustrated in figures, are included throughout the report along with corresponding text. More in-depth analyses are shown in tables found in the Appendix; these include the following: ? A comparison of the level of importance of certain aspects to job satisfaction,

including statistically significant differences. ? A comparison of the level of employee satisfaction with certain aspects of job

satisfaction. ? An analysis of the top five job satisfaction aspects by demographic variables,

including organization size, employee job tenure, age, race, education and gender. ? An analysis of the top five engagement aspects by demographic variables, including employee age and gender. ? Additional analyses by demographic variables, including employee job tenure, gender, race and age. ? Overall results for every year the survey was conducted to determine if there have been significant changes in the span of a decade.

2012 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement | 1

Executive Summary

Employees Are Focused on Meeting Goals and Using Their Skills at Work

Several internal and external factors can influence employee job satisfaction and engagement, and these factors may change over time. In the 10 years that the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has been conducting its job satisfaction survey, there has been a noticeable fluctuation in employees' overall satisfaction with their jobs. This fluctuation could be attributed to changes within the workplace as well as economic, demographic and social trends. According to this study, in 2012 81% of U.S. employees reported overall satisfaction with their current job, with 38% of employees indicating they were "very satisfied" and 43% "somewhat satisfied." Employees' overall satisfaction with their jobs is down five percentage points from its peak of 86% in 2009 and four percentage points above its low in 2002 (77%). Figure 1 illustrates the data on overall employee job satisfaction from 2002 to 2012.

When it comes to employee engagement at work in 2012, on average, employees were only moderately engaged (3.6, on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is highly disengaged, 3 is moderately engaged and 5 is highly engaged). Employee engagement levels have not changed in the two years that SHRM has been collecting this metric.

Figure 1 | Overall Employee Job Satisfaction Over the Years

In 2012, 81% of U.S. employees reported overall satisfaction with their current job, with 38% of employees indicating they were "very satisfied" and 43% "somewhat satisfied."

86%

82%

80%

79%

84% 83% 81%

77%

77%

77%

2002 (n = 604)

2004 (n = 604)

2005 (n = 600)

2006 (n = 604)

2007 (n = 604)

2008 (n = 601)

Note: Figure represents those employees who answered "somewhat satisfied" or "very satisfied." Source: 2012 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement: A Research Report by SHRM

2009 (n = 602)

2010 (n = 605)

2011 (n = 596)

2012 (n = 600)

2012 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement | 3

Top Aspects Contributing to Employee Engagement in 2012

Employee engagement, which may or may not be aligned with employee job satisfaction, is about the employee's connection and commitment to the organization. The top five aspects contributing to employee engagement in 2012 were very similar to the 2011 results; the main difference among the lists was that the aspect "employees frequently feel that they are putting all their effort into their work" made the top five list in 2012.

? 83% of employees reported that they are determined to accomplish their work goals and confident they can meet their goals.

? 79% of employees reported satisfaction with their relationship with their co-workers.

? 75% of employees were satisfied with opportunities to use their skills and abilities at work.

? 72% of employees were satisfied with how their work contributed to their organization's business goals.

? 71% of employees reported that they frequently felt that they were putting all their effort into their work and that they were satisfied with their relationship with their immediate supervisor.

83% of employees reported that they are determined to accomplish their work goals and confident they can meet their goals.

Table 1 | Top Five Employee Engagement Aspects

I am determined to accomplish my work goals and confident I can meet them Relationship with co-workers Opportunities to use skills/abilities Contribution of work to organization's business goals Relationship with immediate supervisor I frequently feel that I'm putting all my effort into my work Source: 2012 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement: A Research Report by SHRM

2011 (n = 600)

83% (1) 76% (2) 74% (3) 71% (5) 73% (4)

70%

The top five aspects contributing to employee engagement were also analyzed by employee gender and age. Respondents from the Veterans generation and older were the only group that placed relationship with their immediate supervisor as the top factor contributing to their engagement. These data are shown in the Appendix.

Top Five Contributors to Employee Job Satisfaction in 2012

Although many factors contribute to employee job satisfaction, only two have remained among the top five aspects since 2002. In a recovering economy, none of the aspects employees selected as the top five contributors to their job satisfaction was a surprise.1

Opportunities to use skills and abilities (63%) displaced job security (61%) for the number one spot of aspects most important to job satisfaction, placing job security second in the list. Other aspects that rounded off employees' top five very important factors contributing to job satisfaction were:

2012 (n = 600)

83% (1) 79% (2) 75% (3) 72% (4) 71% (5) 71% (5)

4 | 2012 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement

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