More than one-third of UK employees do not believe they are paid fairly compared with others doing the same work in different companies, according to research by professional services company Towers Watson.
The Towers Watson Global Workforce report is based on a survey of more than 32,000 employees, with 1,863 from the UK. Figures seen exclusively by HR magazine suggest 38% of workers feel they would receive a higher salary elsewhere for the same work.
Additionally, 30% think that colleagues are paid more than them for doing similar work. Given these sentiments, it is perhaps unsurprising that 32% of respondents report that they are looking to leave their current employer within two years.
Exactly one-quarter of respondents say they are “dissatisfied” with their current employer. Aside from pay, main concerns are excessive pressure (34%) and an inability to support a work-life balance (24%).
Payroll provider Ceridian’s HR director Jeremy Campbell said concerns over pay levels are often symptomatic of a wider problem with engagement.
“People wouldn’t be looking at other people’s pay and making comparisons if they were truly engaged. Disengagement will ultimately lead to people thinking ‘the grass is greener’ and starting to look elsewhere,” he said.
Campbell added there are “plenty of ways” employers can improve the situation without increasing pay. These include working on “flexibility” within the workplace.
“People want to be paid fairly across the board,” he explained. “But if you add things like flexibility, which could be something like the ability to pick up one’s children from school, that’s going to add value to the role in the eyes of the employee. You can almost have a trade-off.”
Campbell admitted, however, that “clear pay structures” are critical for a variety of reasons. “It’s important for your staff to feel they have equity,” he said. “Beyond that it is crucial to have clear pay structures for things like succession planning. It does get harder for one-off roles and more senior positions, but as a general rule having these things in place will help a great deal.”
Towers Watson global rewards practice leader Carole Hathaway said there will always be employees who are “dissatisfied”, but added that many employers have a blind-spot around one “silent majority”.
“There is always a large number [of staff] who are staying but are neither engaged nor energised,” she said. “Employers don’t tend to be good at understanding these people’s state of mind.”
Hathaway conceded that pay can be a big part of this disengagement, but said workers do not always have the full picture.
“People’s perception of pay might not be the reality,” she said. “Employers need to close the perception gap. How well do they help their staff understand how pay is determined? If employees don’t have the information, they will fill the vacuum with speculative talk, both inside and outside the organisation.”
“With career development, pay is always in the top two factors that make up the total ‘employment deal’,” she said. “Make sure managers are trained to have informative conversations with their teams around pay.”
Pure Resource Solutions director Gill Buchanan said that although “people come to work to get paid”, there are other factors to consider, such as wellbeing. “What will affect people wanting to stay is their own set of drivers,” she said. “But the reality is employers have to make the whole package as attractive as they can.”
