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More Than Just a Paycheck
With the economy in peril and employees being laid off at an alarming rate, it would sound plausible if workers began putting less emphasis on finding meaning in their jobs and simply concentrated on earning a living. But a new study shows that about half (51 percent) of the global workforce would sacrifice status and pay for more meaningful work, according The Kelly Global Workforce Index, sponsored by Troy, Mich.-based Kelly Services. Conducted from November 2008 to mid-January 2009 -- in the heart of the global recession -- it studied approximately 100,000 people in 34 countries in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. "People want their jobs to provide a degree of emotional fulfillment, even if that means sacrificing money and status to achieve it," says Kelly Services executive vice president and COO George Corona. Workers in the United States seem to be slightly less focused on meaning and more on the Almighty Dollar, with 43 percent saying they would take less pay for more meaningful work, compared to 49 percent of Europeans and 54 percent of employees in the Asia Pacific region. But with mass layoffs all over the United States -- 651,000 workers lost their jobs in February, according to the U.S. Department of Labor -- and a sliding economy all over the world, should employees stop focusing on meaning and just be happy to have a job? No, says Manny Avramidis, senior vice president of global human resources for New York-based American Management Association. "If you think about it, you spend most of your active, waking hours between commuting and working, so it's no surprise that people would like to be doing meaningful work or work they are happy with rather than a job that brings no satisfaction at all except for a paycheck," he says. A few years ago the job market was vibrant, allowing people to find those more meaningful jobs if they so desired, Avramidis says. Now, it's a different story. "When an ugly recession rears its head -- and this one's pretty ugly -- unfortunately, their options are more limited and people find themselves in jobs that perhaps aren't ideal and don't provide as much meaning as they would like," he says. Although Generation Y workers (ages 18-29) are typically seen as more idealistic than their older counterparts, their willingness to sacrifice pay for workplace importance is about the same as older employees, according to the study. About half (51 percent) of Gen Yers are prepared to accept a lower wage for more meaningful work, compared to 50 percent of Gen Xers (ages 30-47) and 48 percent of baby boomers (ages 48-65). In the United States, however, the differences are slightly more pronounced, with 47 percent of Gen Yers prepared to take a lower wage, followed by 43 percent for Gen X workers and 40 percent for boomers. While previous generations dreamed of becoming wealthy, Gen Y workers are more concerned with the importance of their work, says Dan Kilgore, principal at Riviera Advisors, Inc. in Long Beach, Calif. "It's much more a case of 'What's in the job? What am I going to be doing everyday? Am I going to like it? Am I going to have fun? Am I going to enjoy it?' " says Kilgore. The challenge for HR is not to lose sight of the fact that, despite the economic downturn, companies are still locked in "perhaps a perpetual war for talent" and high-performing employees finding meaning in their work are more likely to stick around, he says. "The better the time that the employee has, the happier that employee's going to be," says Kilgore. "That transfers into loyalty, stability, longevity and commitment." Avramidis says that a good way for HR to have employees who find meaning in their work is to hire them at the outset -- weeding out those who are only looking for a paycheck and recruiting those with a genuine interest in the subject matter. "You try to find the right person to match the corporate mission or what the company actually does," says Avramidis. "There's no sense ... hiring someone who could care less about what we do as an organization."
March 26, 2009 Copyright 2009© LRP Publications |
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