Motivation in a time of austerity - financial benefits become more important

What motivates someone to want to change their job? Many factors come into play, but during a period of poor consumer confidence and economic austerity, financial motivation climbs to the top of the table. That’s the conclusion of a new survey from the CPID…

A desire to ‘increase pay and benefits’ has become the number one reason why employees want to change jobs, overtaking ‘improving job satisfaction’ in the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s (CIPD) Employee Outlook survey, as the economic downturn continues to erode people’s standard of living.

The survey of 2,000 employees finds more than half of workers in the UK (54%) say their top reason for wanting to change job is to increase their salary and benefits, with improving job satisfaction cited second most commonly (42%). This is a reversal from last year when 61% cited job satisfaction and 48% said improving pay and benefits. The trends are uniform across all sectors of the economy.

Other findings that highlight the increased financial pressure being felt by employees and households include:

• 36% of employees report their standard of living has worsened over the previous six months, compared to 29% saying this was the case in summer 2010
• Just 7% report an improvement in living standards, a fall from 10% a year ago
• Almost a fifth (18%) of employees say they run out of money at the end of the week or month either always or most of the time
• One in five (18%) say keeping up with bills and financial commitments is a constant struggle, while one in 10 (8%) are falling behind with bills or credit commitments

There is lots of evidence in the business news about how households are finding it difficult to manage their personal finances. Business students need to develop a clear understanding of how this translates into changed demand for goods and services, and also how this affects employee motivation at work. The GDP figures for the UK might suggest that the economy is officially out of recession. But for many employees, the rising cost of living and increased threat of unemployment means that they still “feel” that the recession is there.