BizAnalyst Network: Survey shows why employees leave

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Survey shows why employees leave

The Salary.com 2005/2006 Employee Satisfaction and Retention Survey revealed surprising disparities between what employees value and what HR professionals perceive to be important to overall employee job satisfaction. Many employers are at increased risk of losing their most valuable and productive employees and may be off target with their efforts to retain these employees.

The survey revealed major disconnects in employee and employer perceptions of job satisfaction that may be key learning points for company management and human resource professionals. HR professionals list the top factors of employee happiness as: Adequate Benefits, Friendly Co-workers and Fair Compensation, in that order. However, dissatisfied employees cite inadequate compensation, no opportunities for advancement, and no recognition for their work as the top three reasons (in order) for leaving.

Salary.com quantified the monetary threshold (i.e., the increase in base salary that would convince an employee to stay or leave). For example, HR professionals estimated turnover costs to be 30 percent of the annual salary of the person being replaced. However, over half of dissatisfied employees say they would stay another year for as little as 15 percent more in base salary.