Sure, we humans have a lot in common with one another—we breathe oxygen, we need water to survive, our bones give us structure—but when it comes to work, we definitely are not all the same. Some people like to work alone; some like to collaborate in teams. Some employees work for money; some work because they love their jobs. And some people quit because they’re dissatisfied with their employers; some quit even when they’re satisfied.
Yes, it’s true. Dissatisfied and satisfied employees equally quit jobs. That’s the finding in a recent study by a Texas Tech professor and two colleagues titled “Understanding the Drivers of Job Satisfaction of Frontline Service Employees, ‘Learning from Lost Employees.'”
“Mayukh Dass and his team discovered a company’s desire to invest in satisfying employees because it helps with retention may be fundamentally flawed,” George Watson reported for Texas Tech Today.
Dass told Watson that companies should analyze how their employees vary in satisfaction.
“This information will be helpful in developing better employee retention programs, and be successful in retaining the best talents,” Dass said.
The researchers found that employees who quit were not tempted by better offers from other companies. In fact, an employee’s starting salary at a new job was about the same as it was at the previous job.
“Dass’ group also discovered another aspect to employee retention that challenges preconceived notions,” Watson reported. “It is generally assumed the reasons an employee leaves a firm due to dissatisfaction translates all across the employee spectrum. However, Dass and his group discovered the ‘model of satisfaction formation’ can vary from employee to employee.”
Dass suggests that employers evaluate employee motivation on an individual level to better understand why a person would stay or leave.
“I would encourage companies to move away from ‘one-size-fits-all’ retention programs to more ‘multi-dimensional’ retention programs,” Dass said.
