Under valued employees like colleagues too much to quit

Only 28% of the UK workforce states that they feel valued by their employer, new research reveals today. One fifth said that they did not feel valued at all, whilst another 52% only feel valued sometimes. The research, commissioned by Sterry Communications, the independent business communications specialist, questioned the UK workforce in order to identify current employee attitudes and satisfaction levels towards their work environment and employer.

When employees were asked why they donít leave their jobs, 22% of them said that they only stayed in their current position because it was too hard to find another job.

Sterryís research also explored to what extent staff happiness and retention is impacted by benefits provided their employers. Positively just over half (52%) of employees surveyed stated that their company was good at rewarding them for good work.

The most popular employee benefit was private medical insurance or a pension, accounting for almost 40% of the vote. These financial benefits were closely followed by being able to work from home and having access to the use of a company mobile phone, PDA or other mobile device. Surprisingly company funded social events were the least popular benefit with 43% saying that this would be the employee reward that they would least like to receive.

A key fact identified by the research is that the biggest driver for people to stay in their jobs is the fact that they like the people that they work with ñ a massive 65% of employees said that this was why they remained working for their current employer. In addition 39% stay because they find their work challenging and rewarding. Just 6% said they stayed because their company offers good employee benefits and financial reward is low on the list with only 13% staying because their job paid well.

John Fox, sales and marketing director, at Sterry said: ìThe UK is enjoying a more stable economy and job prospects look positive. Now is an interesting time to assess how content the British workforce is, and to try to understand what the key drivers are for staff to stay in their jobs or seek alternative employment. We wanted to uncover how employers can provide a working environment and benefits, or not as the case may be, that employees actually desire, as a means to help improve staff retention.î

Sterry provides flexible working solutions to over 3500 UK businesses and has experienced a rise in interest levels for deploying such solutions by almost 80%. Despite growing demand for flexible working conditions, Sterry research (conducted in 2003) highlighted that over 50% of UK IT and telecoms departments are not prepared for increased employee requests to work more flexibly under new government legislation. The legislation stipulates that all employees with children under the age of six or a disabled child under 18 has the right to request more flexible working hours and home working methods.