According to a study done by data collection platform Qualtrics, it is revealed that salary is not the biggest driver of satisfaction among Singapore employees.
The Straits Times (ST) published an article about the results of the report which was released yesterday (16 January), and sought to provide details of the daily experience of Singapore’s working population and how key engagement metrics like work-life balance, job satisfaction, motivation at work, attrition and retention differ across the working crowd.
The findings showed that the main driver for job satisfaction in the Republic were confidence in the company’s senior leadership team and a helpful manger in resolving work-related issues.
Besides that, receiving sufficient training to perform the job effectively was also a key factor behind enhanced job satisfaction, as well as increased desire to go to work and higher staff retention rates. This shows that employees appreciate when employers invest in them.
The results also revealed that while Singapore workers had the lowest level of job satisfaction compared to other countries, they had the lowest levels of work-related stress. Only under half of those surveyed were satisfied with their current job, below the global average of 62 per cent employee job satisfaction.
As for stress level, 22 per cent said that they felt stressed or overwhelmed “always” or “most of the time”. Australia, the US and the UK were found to be the most stressed at 29 per cent.
In addition, work-life balance was also found to be linked to job loyalty. Workers who were satisfied with their work-life balance, and those who said their companies were extremely supportive of a work-life balance, were more likely to stay in their jobs.
Singapore workers may also be seeing an improvement in their work-life balances in the future. This is because more employees are offering formal flexible work arrangements, based on the latest Conditions of Employment Report released by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Wednesday.
In 2018, 72 per cent of employees worked in companies that offer at least one such arrangement, like part-time work, flexible hours or tele-working, up from 70 per cent in 2017.
Flexibility in working arrangements had the biggest impact in staff retention, said the MOM report, validating the findings of the Qualtrics report.
The survey, which was carried out with more than 500 participants from Singapore, was done in a multiple-choice format with a five-point scale for participants to choose from, ranging from “always” to “never” or “extremely satisfied” to “extremely dissatisfied”.
These results are part of a larger survey on more than 6,000 participants globally, including countries such as Australia and the United States.
After getting to know the results, many ST readers find it ridiculous and wrong, and opine that they definitely work for the money.
