Opportunity Knocks, and It Pays a Lot Better Workers Cite Compensation
As a Key Reason They Quit, Contrasting Company Line
Managers like to say employees leave companies because of bad bosses or lack of career growth. A new report suggests a more straightforward reason: money.
In a survey of about 1,100 U.S. employees, 71% of top performers listed pay among the top three reasons they would consider leaving their employer. Yet in a sister survey of 262 large employers, 45% of employers cited pay as a top-three reason workers leave. Instead, employers thought promotion and career-development opportunities were more important. Another oft-blamed culprit, relationship with a supervisor, was cited by 31% of employers but 8% of top performers.
The findings are in a report scheduled for release this week by human-resources consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide and human-resources association WorldatWork. Harris Interactive helped conduct the employee part of the survey. The surveys also found employers underestimate the retention value of health-care benefits.
The results suggest employers don't fully understand the needs of their top employees, frustrating companies' efforts to battle turnover as the labor market improves. "Employers have probably gotten caught up in this myth that employees leave their manager or they leave for better opportunities," says Laura Sejen, director of strategic rewards at Watson Wyatt. "Perhaps we're being a little unrealistic about the fundamental element of rewards, which is pay."
Watson Wyatt focused on top performers because those are the employees whose retention companies value most. Attitudes among average performers weren't significantly different, Ms. Sejen says. She says employees are becoming more focused on pay, contributing to retention problems. For the third consecutive year, employers are reporting increased difficulty retaining employees, Watson Wyatt says.
Nationally, the annual rate at which workers quit their jobs was the highest last year since 2001, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Last month's unemployment rate of 4.4% was the lowest since May 2001.
Employees' increased focus on pay should come as no surprise given cutbacks to health-care and pension plans, Ms. Sejen says. The average employee is forecast to pay $3,305 next year in premiums and out-of-pocket costs for health care, a 7.8% increase over this year and more than double the $1,640 paid in 2002, according to human-resources consultant Hewitt Associates Inc. At the same time, 61% of 950 companies surveyed by Hewitt offered defined-benefit pension plans this year, down from 73% of a similar sample in 2000 and 91% in 1985. To top it off, employers have kept average raises modest in recent years. "When you put all those pieces together," Ms. Sejen says, "it's fairly intuitive that employees are going to be more heavily focused on pay."
Deborah Keary, director of human resources for the Society for Human Resource Management, says pay typically becomes more important as the labor market improves. In a bad economy, workers say, " 'I don't care how much you pay me, I just want to have a job,' " Ms. Keary says. She says pay is a contributing factor to turnover, along with development opportunities and other issues. Companies can't neglect any of them, she says. "You can't single out pay or single out job opportunities," she says.
Some career experts question whether pay is pre-eminent. They assert that pay often isn't the root of employee dissatisfaction, even when employees say it is. Meg Montford, an executive-career coach in Kansas City, Mo., says clients who blame pay often have a deeper problem such as career stagnation, boredom, or feeling unappreciated. "They may come to me with the idea that it's pay, but usually that's a camouflage for something else," she says.
Some employers agree pay has become more important in recent years and are taking steps to address compensation issues. "We're seeing people starting to try to kidnap our talent, and us having to keep them," says Peter Ronza, compensation and benefits director for the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., a private Catholic institution. "The poaching is starting to happen again." Mr. Ronza says about two-thirds of the university's employees are nonacademic workers and managers, for whom many local businesses compete.
To bolster retention, the university has ratcheted up efforts to determine market pay rates and identify underpaid employees. St. Thomas set aside more money for merit raises this year, and increased by 30% its budget for pay increases for employees whose pay is below market or whose salaries have been neglected, Mr. Ronza says. "We have some people we really need to take care of right now," he says.
To reward top performers, university administrators instructed managers to give them bigger raises this year than to average performers. The university also is starting to test bonus programs with an eye toward expanding them.
薪酬成为员工跳槽一大原因
很多经理人会这样说，雇员离开公司是因为老板不好或者职业发展受限。但是一份最新调查显示，还有一个更直接原因：钱。
一项针对约1,100名美国雇员的调查发现，71%表现最好的雇员表示，薪酬问题是他们决定离开公司的三大原因之一。然而在另一项对262家大型雇主的相关调查显示，只有45%的雇主将薪酬列入员工离职的三大原因之一。雇主认为，升职以及职业发展机会是更加重要的原因。另一大原因──与上级的关系──被31%的雇主列作三大原因之一，而表现最好的雇员持相同观点的比例仅为8%。
这些发现来自定于本周发布、由人力资源咨询公司华信惠悦顾问公司(Watson Wyatt Worldwide)以及人力资源协会WorldatWork编撰的一份报告。Harris Interactive帮助他们进行了对雇员的调查。这些调查结果还显示，雇主低估了医疗保健福利在留住员工方面所起的作用。
调查显示，雇主根本没有完全理解其表现最好的雇员的需求。在劳动力市场日益回暖之际，这也使公司在降低人员流动率方面的努力一直收获不大。“雇主可能陷入这样一种错觉中：雇员离开公司是为了离开现有的老板，或是为了获得更好的发展机会，”华信惠悦战略奖励负责人劳拉?塞伊恩(Laura Sejen)说。“或许，我们对奖励的基本构成要素──薪金──的想法有点不现实。”
华信惠悦之所以重点调查表现最好的员工，是因为雇主最看重是否能留住这部分员工。塞伊恩说，普通雇员的态度不会有太大的不同。她说，雇员们变得越来越关注薪酬高低，成为了公司出现人才流失问题的原因之一。华信惠悦称，雇主已经连续第三年反映留住员工变得越来越困难。
根据美国劳工统计局(Bureau of Labor Statistics)的数据，在美国全国范围内，去年的年度员工辞职率是2001年以来最高的。10月份4.4%的失业率则是2001年5月以来最低的。
塞伊恩说，员工越来越关注薪酬并不令人奇怪，因为医疗福利和退休金福利都在削减。人力资源咨询公司翰威特公司(Hewitt Associates)称，预计明年每名员工平均要支付3,305美元的医疗保费和自付成本，比今年增长7.8%，比2002年的1,640美元增加了一倍多。与此同时，在接受翰威特调查的950家公司中，有61%在今年提供了定额年金给付计划，低于2000年时的73%和1985年时的91%。另外，雇主近几年来的平均加薪幅度都不高。塞伊恩称，综合考虑所有这些因素，员工越来越关心薪酬也就不足为奇了。
美国人力资源管理学会(Society for Human Resource Management)的人力资源主管黛博拉?克里(Deborah Keary)说，随着就业市场的改善，薪酬会变得更加重要。她说，在经济不景气时，工人们的想法是：“我不在乎工资多少，只要能有工作就可以。”克里称，薪酬是导致人员流动的因素，当然还有发展机会和其它问题。她说，公司不能忽视任何一个问题，不能认为仅仅是薪酬或仅仅是工作机会的问题。
部分职场专家对薪酬是否是最重要的因素提出了质疑。他们断言，薪酬常常不是员工不满的根源，尽管员工们口头上可能会这样说。管理人员职业规划培训师麦格?蒙特福德(Meg Montford)说，抱怨薪酬的员工常常还有更深层次的问题，如职业发展停滞不前、厌倦或感觉未得到重视，等等。她说，他们带着“这是薪酬问题”的想法来找我，但通常这背后都还有其它原因。
部分雇主认同薪酬问题近年来已经变得更加重要，并正在采取措施解决薪酬问题。圣托马斯大学(University of St. Thomas)薪酬及福利主管彼得?龙扎(Peter Ronza)说，我们预计其它人将来争夺我们的人才，而我们需要留住他们。他称，争夺又开始了，该大学约有三分之二的员工为非教学人员和管理人员，他们将成为许多本地企业争夺的对象。
为了留住人才，这所大学想方设法了解市场薪酬水平，确定薪酬水平过低的员工。龙扎说，圣托马斯大学今年拨出了更多资金用于绩效加薪，并增加了30%的预算，给低于市场水平或工资被忽视的人员加薪。他说，我们的确应该立即关注某些员工了。
为了奖励表现好的员工，大学管理者指示经理今年给这些员工的加薪幅度要高于表现一般的员工。圣托马斯大学也开始测试奖金计划，并着眼于进一步扩大该计划。
Erin White
