GUEST BLOG: What businesses could learn from job satisfaction levels

By Simon Prince, head of Marketing, Conference Genie

Most workers rate their job satisfaction as a three out of five, where they are neither happy nor unhappy in their current job. Not ideal, right?

Conference Genie recently surveyed 2,000 full-time UK workers and the results they found were quite surprising. You don’t need to invest in a brand new office or send your entire company on a holiday to make them happy (they don’t even want unlimited holidays). They just want a paid day off for their birthday or early finish Fridays.

59% of respondents who gave themselves a happiness of five out of five said that work perks definitely contribute to their job satisfaction, and 48% of respondents who gave themselves a one out of five agreed that they would look at work perks before they applied for a job.

So it is true what they say: it’s the small things that count.

As a great piece of insight, Conference Genie discovered the five main work perks that the happiest workers currently receive:

• Free tea and coffee (60%)
• Car parking (50%)
• Work phone or tablet (30%)
• Extra training (30%)
• Regular bonuses (30%)

But if you’re thinking about implementing perks on an everyday basis, desired perks differ between ages. 18 to 24 year olds would like clothing allowances and a work phone or tablet, where as those over the age of 35 prioritise flexible working and free tea and coffee.

The one similarity that all ages do share, however, is free food as their most favoured everyday work perk – a tip that all employers could learn from.

Workers are now looking for more than just who can offer a higher salary, and employers need to have more to offer them if they intend on hiring top talent

Hiring staff is difficult, because businesses now need to compete with more than just pay. Workers are now looking for more than just who can offer a higher salary, and employers need to have more to offer them if they intend on hiring top talent.

This is where small things like work perks can really make the difference. And if 48% of respondents who gave themselves a one out of five said that they would look at work perks before they applied for a job, the likeliness is, they’re probably starting to look for a job now if they haven’t already.

So if there’s one thing to learn from the job satisfaction level, if employers intend to improve and keep their staff happy, work perks need to be a big part of company culture.