Organisations must acknowledge demographic differences to retain their staff, claims research

UK organisations need to adopt a more flexible strategy for retaining their staff that takes account of the demographic differences of employees in their values, commitment and job satisfaction, according to a new research report.

Called One Size Does Not Fit All, the report - by TalentDrain, the employee engagement and retention specialist - identifies and examines a series of gender, age, ethnic, educational and occupational differences in work values and engagement.

Developed from a study of over 16,000 employees, it highlights the factors that are important to different demographic groups in maintaining their organisational commitment as well as the individual differences that exist in their needs and motivations.

The authors - Ron Eldridge and Anthony Miles - claim that organisations must ditch their one-size-fits-all approach to retaining staff and instead create a strategy that suits the organisational culture and is flexible enough to satisfy the needs and priorities of different groups of employees.

People are different, so rather than adopting a blanket approach to staff retention, organisations need to be more flexible, said the authors. They should provide a 'shopping list' of commitment factors such as salary, career progression, personal growth and work-life balance and discuss these with each employee. These are the factors that influence whether or not people will stay with an organisation but they vary from individual to individual. Employees can then select the factors that will press the right buttons for them. The demographic differences reflect the diversity of the UK labour force but they do not mean that certain groups should be treated any differently.

Demographic differences
The gender differences revealed by the study include: women express higher organisational commitment and lower intention to leave than men; women value the quality of their working relationships more than men; men value salary and career progression more than women.

The age differences show that older employees have higher levels of job satisfaction and organisational commitment; the importance of work-life balance and concern for corporate and social responsibility increase with age; career progression and personal growth decrease in importance with age; young men in manual occupations are the least engaged with their jobs and organisations.

The report examines the different values for white British, Indian, Chinese, Pakistani and black African employees. While there were no significant differences in organisational commitment or intention to leave between these ethnic groups, the report reveals that minority groups place higher importance on career progression than white British people. Pakistani and Chinese groups report the lowest levels of job satisfaction.

The educational differences show that employees with a degree-level education place higher importance on challenge and advancement. Graduates working in customer service or administrative roles report the highest intention to leave.

The occupational differences show that managers, professionals and sales groups have the highest level of job satisfaction; customer service and manual occupations have the lowest. Strong leadership and clear communication are considered more important by the managerial, professional and sales groups.

Competitive advantage
According to the authors, accommodating these demographic differences can give an organisation a competitive advantage.

Understanding individual and group differences can help organisations to better meet the needs of their employees, leading to higher levels of motivation, satisfaction and commitment, said the authors. It can also help organisations to cut staff turnover levels, promote diversity and optimise individual performance and development.

The study asked different groups of employees about factors such as salary and rewards; career progression; personal growth; well-being; their relationships with their colleagues; their relationship with their manager; job satisfaction; their confidence in their organisation; working conditions; their degree of loyalty and trust; their ethical standards and their level of autonomy at work.

As well as detailing TalentDrain's findings, the research report provides an overview of previous studies into work values and engagement for each demographic group and it includes recommendations to help organisations enhance the levels of engagement and satisfaction in the workplace.

One Size Does Not Fit All: Demographic Differences in Work Values and Employee Engagement in the UK can be downloaded free from TalentDrainís website: www.talentdrain.com. For more information, please call TalentDrain on 0870 760 6598 or e-mail info@talentdrain.com.