A few days ago, I was talking to a high-level Pipeline Engineer who told me that several of his colleagues left the company “just to take on a higher salary” at one of their competitors. He also told me he was considering doing the same. I asked him whether salary was the prime motivator or whether there were negative aspects within the current working environment, which might have made people consider a career move. He explained that the new Manager had a completely different working style to the previous one, that he was lacking people management skills and that many of the employees (including himself) felt under-appreciated and had to work more hours and deal with more pressure compared to last year.
To me, it was obvious that in this situation the under-appreciation played a far more important role than the salary.
I don’t believe salary is a prime trigger for changing jobs, however it can play an important role when other factors in the job environment are perceived as negative.
Frederick Herzberg developed an interesting theory about this: he claims that salary is a “hygiene factor”, meaning it only becomes important when lacking. A hygiene factor doesn’t create satisfaction when increased, it only prevents dissatisfaction when present.
According to Frederick Herzberg’s research, (dis)satisfaction at work results from two different factors: “Hygiene” and “Motivation” factors.
Hygiene factors are elements such as:
|
Motivation factors are elements such as:
|
Herzberg states that all above listed factors must be present to create job satisfaction. Hygiene factors need to be present to avoid job dissatisfaction but won’t cause job satisfaction, whilst motivation factors need to be present for job satisfaction and are different to dissatisfying hygiene factors.
The candidate I was talking to joined his current company 3 years ago, after spending 6 years in 4 different countries with his wife and 2 young children. At the time, he took a salary cut of $10,000 but was quite happy with his decision. He moved back to his home country, the children could grow up in a stable environment and didn’t have to move schools every year and on top of that the growth prospects within the company were promising. Two weeks ago, he found out that one of his colleagues had received a pay rise twice in less than two years time, whilst he was told by his Manager that the company couldn’t currently afford to reconsider remuneration. This made him decide to look for another job.
In his mind, it was all about the salary, as to him that was the reason why people left to the competitor and the reason for him to make a switch too. What he didn’t realise is that the fact that he had to work more hours for the same money and that his colleague received a pay rise whilst he didn’t made him feel underappreciated. The new Manager didn’t give him (or his colleagues) any recognition for his efforts. It was only when factors like appreciation and recognition started lacking that salary became important.
So, if you are currently considering a job change, make sure you know which factors are lacking. Are they just hygiene factors or motivation factors? Will they be better somewhere else?
![[Post to Twitter]](http://blog.boolos.biz/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter3.png){kind=icon}
Related posts:
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Hi, gr8 post thanks for posting. Information is useful!