What Do People Really Want From Their Jobs?

Managers and employees are often not in agreement about what they believe are the most important aspects of a job, especially as they relate to employee morale and satisfaction.

Rank the following based on which items you believe contribute most to good employee morale. Rank the items from 1-10, assigning 1 to the most important item, 2 to the second most important, etc. Use all 10 numbers.

-High Wages

-Job Security

-Promotion in the Company

-Good Working Conditions

-Interesting Work

-Personal Loyalty of Manager

-Tactful Discipline

-Full Appreciation of Work Done

-Help with Personal Problems

-Feeling of Being in on Things

You can compare your responses to the national average based on thousands of workers around the country.

When managers were asked to rank the importance of these items as they relate to employee responses, they ranked the items in this order:

1. High wages
2. Job security
3. Promotion in the company
4. Good working conditions
5. Interesting work
6. Personal loyalty of supervisor
7. Tactful discipline
8. Full appreciation of work done
9. Help with personal problems
10. Feeling of being in on things

When employees were given the same exercise and asked what affects their morale the most, their answers followed this pattern:

1. Full appreciation of work done
2. Feeling of being in on things
3. Help with personal problems
4. Job security
5. High wages
6. Interesting work
7. Promotion in the company
8. Personal loyalty of supervisor
9. Good working conditions
10. Tactful discipline

Note that the top three items marked by employees are the last three felt to be important by their managers!

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Debra J. Schmidt, a.k.a. "The Loyalty Leader®," helps companies boost their profits by leading them to greater customer, employee and brand loyalty. You can subscribe to Debra's free email newsletter packed with loyalty tips at: http://www.theloyaltyleader.com/