The CIPD Employee Outlook Spring 2016 Survey: Key Findings.
Posted on 11/05/16
The CIPD Spring 2016 Employee Outlook survey has revealed that job satisfaction has slumped to a two-and-a-half-year low...
This comes at a time when the UK is experiencing on-going economic pressure and austerity programmes. There are also signs of wider global economic uncertainty; sinking stock prices and low interest rates - the effect of which has filtered over to Jersey.
Job Satisfaction
Employers should take note of a substantial slump in job satisfaction along with a substantial rise in job-seeking intentions.
This reduced job satisfaction also appears to be impacting on current job-seeking intentions, with almost a quarter looking for a new job: a two-and-a-half-year high.
61% of employees who are dissatisfied with their jobs are looking for a new job currently, compared with just 9% of employees who are satisfied with their jobs.
Opportunities and skills
There has also been an increase in the number of employees feeling that they are overqualified for their roles – which now stands at a third of all employees.
Almost a third disagree that their organisation provides them with opportunities to learn and grow and over a quarter are dissatisfied with opportunities to develop their skills in their job.
The world of work is changing rapidly and it seems approaches to job design and career management have not kept pace with that change. Increasingly organisations are flatter in structure and many have adopted matrix ways of working.
Consequently employees need to redefine approaches to careers in the light of this new context.
Companies need to work in partnership with employees on their jobs and careers and aligning organisational and individual needs. Companies would be best to think about career growth in the round rather than traditional hierarchical progression; this would give employees opportunities for a breadth of diverse experiences and opportunities that maximise their skills and their employability going forward.
Motivation and aspirations
Employee motivation at work seems to be lacking, with almost as many disagreeing as agreeing ‘this organisation really inspires the very best of me in the way of job performance.’ There has also been an increase in the number of employees believing that their performance management processes are somewhat or not at all fair.
This survey sees an increase in the number of employees saying they are unlikely or very unlikely to fulfil their career aspirations in their current organisation.
Health and wellbeing
This survey explores in more detail the important area of employee health and well-being. This is something that is core to the work of the CIPD in helping to improve work and working lives.
The good news is that the emotion employees most readily associate with work is a feeling of cheerfulness; this is followed by a feeling of optimism.
However, stress is also frequently mentioned and almost a third of employees say they come home from work exhausted either always or often.
Employees feel that both their managers and their organisations show strong consideration for their well-being.
However, almost one in ten employees class their mental health as either poor or very poor – with younger employees significantly more likely to do so.
While overall organisational consideration for employee well- being is viewed positively, over a quarter think that organisations could do much more to support employees with special mental health problems.
Source: www.cipd.co.uk