Salary, Employee Benefits and Workplace Atmosphere Most Likely to Improve Staff Loyalty

Business Insights
02/05/2018

A recent UK study has revealed the top reasons that employees are likely to stay loyal to companies that they work for, with ‘good salary’ topping the list (89%), followed by employee benefits (76%) and the workplace atmosphere (73%). What’s more, the most loyal sectors were uncovered, with ‘construction’ topping the list.


Keeping employees for longer than a few years can be a challenge for all businesses, no matter the sector, but new research has revealed what employees perceive to be the top reasons as to why they will stay loyal to a job. Furthermore, it was found that 37% of Britons have had a job that lasted less than 3 months.


The team at www.Equipsme.com conducted the research in a bid to further understand what is important to employees in the UK. A total of 2,980 adults from the UK were quizzed as part of the study. All respondents revealed that they had a full-time job and each was asked to state which sector they worked within prior to the study.


All participants were initially asked, “What is the shortest amount of time that you’ve ever worked for an employer?”, to which more than a third, 37%, revealed that they had previously had jobs that lasted less than three months.


To find out more about this, relevant respondents were asked why it was they had left this job (giving more than one answer if needed), with the following five answers emerging as the most common reasons:


1. Hostile work environment – 28%

2. No employee benefits – 21%

3. Bad salary – 17%

4. It wasn’t the job I thought it’d be – 15%

5. I was made redundant/fired/didn’t pass probation – 11%


All respondents were then asked, “How long have you been at your current job for?” to which 33% stated that they had been at their job ‘1–5 years’, 24% answered ‘less than a year’, 23% said it was between ‘6 – 10 years’ and the remaining 20% revealed that they had been at their current company for longer than 10 years.


Wanting to find out more, those respondents who had been at their company for more than six years were asked what had encouraged them to stay so loyal to their job/employer. Participants were asked to provide as many answers as were applicable to them, with the following five reasons emerging as the most common responses:


1. My salary is good – 89%

2. Good employee benefits – 76%

3. The workplace atmosphere is great – 73%

4. I enjoy what I do – 67%

5. There is room for growth – 56%


Anyone who selected ‘good employee benefits’ was asked which benefits in particular they most favoured at their workplace, to which ‘healthcare policy/plan’ (38%) was the main answer, followed by ‘discount/cashback schemes’ (21%) and ‘generous pension scheme’ (15%).


Finally, researchers used previous responses and the sectors given prior to starting the study to reveal which industries has the most loyal staff. ‘Construction’ workers were the most loyal, with 32% of these respondents having worked at their current company for more than 10 years, followed by ‘Healthcare’ (17%) and ‘Hair & Beauty’ (15%).


Matthew Reed, Managing Director of Equipsme, commented on the results of the study:

“Many employers underestimate how much recruiting new people can cost a business. It makes better financial sense to try and keep the employees you have currently, so it’s important that businesses take salary, healthcare and even the workplace environment into account when they want to reduce employee turnover. Employee benefits are clearly a top draw for loyal staff members and healthcare provision is a favourite, which is exactly why we want to help SMEs provide affordable and accessible healthcare plans for their staff… to keep them longer! ”