SHRM survey: Employee satisfaction remains high

Almost nine out of 10 employees said they were satisfied overall with their jobs—with 38% “very satisfied” and 51% “somewhat satisfied”—according to the Society for Human Resource Management’s annual Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Survey released April 24.

Similar levels of employee job satisfaction have been observed in recent years, with a combined 86% of survey respondents reporting satisfaction in the survey released in 2015 and 88% in the report released in 2016.

For the third year in a row, the largest percentage of employees (65%) indicated that respectful treatment of all employees at all levels was a very important contributor to their job satisfaction. However, different demographic segments view the respect issue differently:

• Women were significantly more likely (72%) than men (57%) to report respect being a very important contributor to job satisfaction.

• More millennials (45%) than generation Xers (31%) were very satisfied with the level of respect their employers show them.

Other top contributors to job satisfaction were compensation, trust between employees and senior management, job security and opportunities to use skills and abilities.