Job satisfaction more important than pay for Generation Y

A report by performance solutions organisation, iOpener Institute, has suggested that the digital generation – Generation Y – values job fulfilment over financial reward.

Responses from18,000 young professionals were analysed in the report, ‘Happiness at work – Maximising your psychological capital for success’, and the findings suggest that generation Y are motivated to stay with their employer, and to actively recommend their organisation to others more by job fulfilment than pay.

The results also indicate that a belief in the firm’s economic or social purpose, and pride in the organisation and its work, had a strong correlation with staying at a company.

In addition to this, it also showed that that there was virtually no correlation between increased levels of pay and the likelihood of staying in a job.

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Commenting on the findings, Jessica Pryce-Jones, director of the iOpener institute, said:

“This Generation Y insight report provides an important wake-up call for management to pay attention to employee feelings of engagement, empowerment, purpose and future development if they are to retain and foster young talent in their company.

“Recruiting talent is expensive, so measures which retain younger staff save hard cash, and avoid expensive business disruption.”

“Positive word-of-mouth recommendations across a Generation Y employee’s social network play a powerful role in attracting talent, and therefore provides employers with hard financial advantage.”