Job Satisfaction and Employee Retention Essay

It is the goal of Team-C to evaluate the relationship between job satisfaction and employee retention using nation-wide sample data in an “organized, systematic, data-based, critical, objective and scientific” inquiry (Sekaran, 2003) to solve a specific problem. The team will present a rationale for the use of unrestricted, random cluster sampling data in the business development research process to hire and retain quality personnel, particularly during a climate of high unemployment. In so doing, Team-C consulted with numerous federal, state and local agencies to study unemployment statistics, conducted a random Employee Satisfaction Survey from employed contacts and associates from around the country, and “gathered from each respondent “in the randomly chosen cluster” (pg. 274) the data necessary to compliment this study. The team also designed a Power Point to demonstrate our findings.
Purpose of the Study – Job Satisfaction and Its Measurement
Particularly during a season of high unemployment, organizations whose employees suffer from low job satisfaction spend a fair share of corporate resources looking for options to increase retention rates of their employees. This fact alone helped to the team to realize that there was quantitative data available that could be used to infer that a relationship did exist between the two variables and for the purpose of this study the team wanted to measure and compare the statistics associated with job satisfaction and employee retention. The study has a dual purpose and that is to demonstrate that this issue is directly related to the broader problem of high U.S. unemployment rates in general and can help organizations save money by decreasing the probability of making the wrong decisions in particular.
Whether or not employees value benefits over other work incentives to keep their jobs will be viewed as an additional variable in this study and identifying what influences motivate workers to stay on the job, advance in their chosen careers, or make the choices that they desire would give them pleasure and satisfaction is also being investigated and measured.
Problem Definition
In order to clearly define this problem, Team-C developed a set of questions about what would motivate an employee to stay on the job, or leave if they were totally unsatisfied, even in a climate of high unemployment. The team asked employees from across the country some basic questions to help solve the problem.
Does the average employee base his/her job satisfaction on how much money they earn?
Are companies ranked according to what salary is offered to their employees?
Are employees more concerned about the monetary value attached to careers, quality of life with family and friends, personal activities or the ability to juggle both career and private life?
Do employees rank their own value and self worth according to their paycheck?
Does a higher salary mean more or less stress and responsibility?
Even in an election year when jobs are scarce and unemployment is predicted to be in the double digits, this team predicts that an employee would rather be happily unemployed then miserable in a job that does not meet his or her satisfaction threshold.
Research Hypothesis
To further define the problem that Team-C wanted to solve we reviewed Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and compared the issues based on the basic human need for self-actualization. We hypothesize that an employee will surrender his basic human need of self-actualization and continue to be gainfully employed, regardless of an unsatisfactory work environment.
The research hypothesis implies that the job satisfaction depends on both material and non-material motivation. The material motivation is limited and last only until the employees satisfy his material needs and they need non-material motivation to be satisfied with their workplace environment. Therefore, the material and non-material motivation can increase the job satisfaction of employees.
Since 2006 the percent of the U.S. labor force of unemployed workers has increased to nearly 9.0%. Even though employers have significantly pulled back from creating new jobs, many organizations suffer from low self-actualization within the current civilian labor force. Today’s labor is currently at about 64.2 % of the U.S. population, including approximately “822,000 discouraged workers,” according to the 2Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Firms are looking for options to increase job satisfaction and employee retention among its current workers and for future employees they are seeking to hire.
Chief Operating Officers (COO) are seeking ways to make the workplace environment more exciting, inviting, comfortable and as family-friendly as possible. However, corporate heads often forget about motivation, especially when the economy dictates cost cuts. This is an area where motivational tools are among the first to be eliminated, or the motivation used is no longer effective. As a result, the job satisfaction of the wage earner decreases which leads to the deterioration of performance and a weakening of organizational productivity over all.
Organizations typically make the mistake of underestimating the importance of motivational tools in regards to their impact on performance and productivity. Additionally, organizations support the notion that, material motivation is a paycheck, which should be sufficient enough to keep their employees motivated. The paycheck however, and monetary motivation are apparently not enough to keep employees satisfied with their jobs.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY OVERVIEW
Team-C met in Week Two, discussed the problem and designed an approach. An Employee Satisfaction Survey was decided on and each member contributed a minimum of two (2) questions to the survey. The questionnaire was distributed by E-mail to contacts and associates of each team member, who were given 72 hours to respond. The data was collected in several different ways. Primarily, interviews were conducted via E-mail and a small sampling was conducted by telephone. The on-line survey questionnaires conducted on the Internet provided the best vehicle for communicating in the short period of time allotted for this research.
Respondents were polled about their attitude towards the relationship between motivation and job satisfaction, and the study was conducted and concluded within the four-week time allotted. Ideally, focus groups that would have involved more employed workers in the study and group members who were unable to participate in discussions related to the subject matter, would have increased the amount of data collected. However, the data collected and analyzed in detail was sufficient enough to demonstrate the point that job satisfaction and employee retention is related to the high unemployment rate and those statistics do have affect self-actualization.
Literature Review
There have been several research studies created as a way to determine what makes a person fulfilled in his or her employment situation. Job satisfaction has been studied extensively and each study suggests different opinions depending on many of the demographic questions that were asked. According to a research study conducted by The New York Times, (2010) “…it wasn’t so much that money made a worker happy, but rather the fact that stress levels drop dramatically when an employee is not worrying about money, thereby creating harmony and productivity.” Other research suggests that companies that offer higher than average benefits have higher employee retention. One such research went so far as to say that “job satisfaction can only be [attained] through the right attitude and that one can create her/his own happiness in the workplace” (The VisionLink Advisory Group, (nd)).
VisionLink is a consulting firm that works with companies to formulate strategies that will increase employee retention. After careful review of the firm’s literature it was suggested that retention is overlooked and lists Four (4) key reasons why people leave their jobs:
Uncertain about their future at the company,
Uncertain about whether the company is the right place for them,
Uncertainty about doing the job for the rest of their lives, and
Certain that more money can be earned elsewhere.
The firm further identified four (4) key components to retention that included:
The perception that the company has a future and the employees play an important role in that future,
A positive work environment,
Opportunities that will enhance and strengthen employee abilities, and
Financial rewards in the form of compensation that fulfills the employee’s monetary necessities and goals.
The literature provided by VisionLink does not support that these key components alone can be addressed with compensation and benefits. They also suggest that without proper communication retention plans can fail even with a good compensation plan. Also, compensation and benefits encompass more than financial reward and this firm encourages its business research teams to consider several components as compensation:

Salary
Short-term cash incentives
Long-term cash awards
Equity awards,
Core health and welfare plans
Executive benefits plans
Qualified retirement plans
Non-qualified retirement plans
The author of the VisionLink literature continues to points out that employee satisfaction is on the decline by providing the following statistics:
Employees………. under Age 25, 35.7% are satisfied
Ages 25-34, 47.2% are satisfied
Ages 35-44, 43.4% are satisfied
Ages 45-54, 46.8% are satisfied
It is important that organizations recognize the factors that increase or add to employee satisfaction. A 2009 survey administered by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) identified the five (5) most important primary factors:
Job security,
Benefits (heath care and retirement),
Wages,
Opportunities to use skills and abilities, and
A safe work environment.
The next five (5) secondary factors include:
Relationship with immediate supervisor,
Recognition from management for job performance,
Communication between upper level and lower level employees,
The work itself, and
Autonomy and independence.
When surveyed, Human Resources (HR) professionals identified these ten factors as the most valuable in employee satisfaction:

Job security
Relationship with supervisor
Benefits
Communication between upper and lower level employees
Opportunity to use skills and abilities
Recognition from management of job performance
Job specific training
Safe work environment
Wages
Overall corporate culture
The differences are apparent between HR’s viewpoint and that of the employee. However, several studies underestimate the significance of material and non-material motivation in the rise of dissatisfied employees and the association of unemployment rates. As a rule, researchers view motivation both material and non-material as the complementary tool to enhance job satisfaction. Current research suggests that material and non-material motivation may be a major driver, but not the only driver. Nevertheless, researchers (Caudron, 2000) agree that motivation is important for the effective performance and productivity, contributes to the job satisfaction and retention, reduces unemployment and is viewed in the context of influencing the business development research process.
Sampling Design Assumptions
Although it can be assumed that a study involving the use of such methods as interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, etc., will result in a solution to the problem of high unemployment, job satisfaction and employee retention, research alone is “not going to guarantee that the right decisions will always be made, and it is still up to someone to accept or reject the results (Cole, 2011).
The aforementioned methods involve managers and employees, who responded to the sampling survey, answered the questionnaires and participated in interviews. The subjects however, represent different organizations and industries, are of different age and status within their organizations and in such a way, can be assumed will reach a high level of reliability and validity.