Jan

24

Job Satisfaction and Engagement of the American Workforce

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A new survey reveals some interesting insights into the American workforce.

Job Satisfaction vs. Engagement

Across the American workforce, only 45 percent of workers say they are satisfied (33 percent) or extremely satisfied (12 percent) with their jobs. At the same time, a much lower number actually feel very “engaged” by their jobs. Only 20 percent feel very passionate about their jobs; less than 15 percent agree that they feel strongly energized by their work; and only 31 percent (strongly or moderately) believe that their employer inspires the best in them.

Firm Size Makes a Difference

Employees at small firms (49 employees or less) report far greater job satisfaction than do employees at large firms. They are more likely to feel “energized” by their work (44 percent vs. 28 percent at large firms) and “very passionate” about their job (53 percent vs. 36 percent).

They [employees in small firms] are also more willing to put forth extra effort to help the organization succeed (61 percent vs. 43 percent), to agree that the organization inspires the best in them (44 percent vs. 24 percent), and to say that they would “accept almost any job to keep working here” (29 percent vs. 16 percent).

This could be the reason, as highlighted in a previous post, on the The National Innovation Initiative (NII) report, from the Council on Competitiveness, which found that smaller organisations are generally more innovative and able to respond more quickly to customer needs, compared to larger organisations.

Emerging Trends

Two interesting trends continue:

1) Time Off and Family Life

Nearly all workers were seeking more time off — and a better balance between work and leisure.

2) Retirement Only One Option

While many workers expect to retire at certain ages (25 percent between ages 61 and 65; 16 percent between ages 66 and 75), today a whopping 34 percent say they NEVER plan to retire. Traditional views of retirement are changing dramatically, with many planning to keep working in some manner after retiring.

Technorati Tag: Management

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2 Responses to “Job Satisfaction and Engagement of the American Workforce”

  1. The ten C’s of employee engagement on February 27th, 2007 20:37

    [...] posted before on the importance of engagement (here, here and here). I recently stumbled across an interesting article “The ten C’s of employee [...]

  2. FACareers » Blog Archive » That guy I work for on June 15th, 2007 9:30

    [...] George Ambler’s blog, The Practice of Leadership tells us that across the American workforce “only 45 percent of workers say they are satisfied (33 percent) or extremely satisfied (12 percent) w…. I bet the numbers aren’t that much different here in South [...]

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