Look Beyond The Money If You’re Job Hunting

Is salary everything?

It’s instinctive to think that salary is the primary motivation to seek a new job, but there’s evidence that money doesn’t automatically equal job satisfaction. One recent academic study showed that high-earners often have lower job satisfaction than medium-earners.  If the salary is not accompanied by elements like responsibility, mental challenges and a positive work environment, disappointment sets in. This chimes with a global study by Accenture, showing that the major reasons for leaving a job are: responsibilities that don’t match a job description (38%), pay (38%) and uninteresting work (34%). 

So, even though Africa was predicted to be the global region with the highest average salary increases this year, with base salary increases of 7.06% in North Africa and 7.23% in Sub-Saharan Africa, there’s no room for African employers to be complacent.

Other perks and benefits

If salary isn’t everything, what are people looking for? In a US survey of ‘dream’ job benefits, half-day Fridays came out top, followed by on-site fitness centres; the ability to wear jeans and daily catered lunches. In more pragmatic questions about what promotes employee retention, flexible working seems most highly valued. Study/training allowances and additional holiday are also popular and useful perks.

Flexible working is popular because it’s a route to work-life balance. More than half (52%) of workers around the world say they have turned down a job owing to concerns about its impact on their work-life balance. In South Africa this figure is 67%. 

With a choice of working hours and location, people gain more control over their lives. They can juggle their commuting times to miss out on rush hour, and fit working hours around caring for children or aged relatives.  If you also offer them flexibility about where they work, the benefits stack up. If they can work at a location 15 minutes away from home, instead of an hour and 15 minutes, they gain two hours a day.

Employers benefit too. In a global survey for Regus, 63% of businesses said flexible working had made staff more energised and motivated, and 68% said it had led directly to staff generating increased revenue.

How to ask for  - and get – new benefits

How likely you are to gain a request for flexible working (or other perks) depends on the general labour market as well as your own performance. In Botswana – where 56% of businesses say a skills shortage is constraining growth, the highest percentage globally – skilled workers are obviously in a strong bargaining position! Wherever you are, you’re more likely to get these benefits if you do the following: 

Be reasonable. Don’t present an exhaustive shopping list. Focus on a couple of aspects that will really improve your life.

Do your homework. Gather industry trends and research illustrating that the practice you’re asking for is becoming mainstream. If you can show that competitors are offering it, your employer may feel pressure to follow suit.

Make a business case. Consider the employer’s point of view. If you want flexible working, show how the firm could benefit from people starting earlier or finishing later, or how allowing people to work remotely could reduce real-estate costs. 

Offer solutions. If you want to work closer to home, set out the possible locations, costs and logistics. Otherwise, you just create work for the HR department, and they’ll be less amenable.

Be practical. If you ask for, and are given, flexible working, make sure it won’t affect your future career prospects. Questions could include: do other people in the company work flexibly? Are any of them senior managers? Does the performance appraisal and rewards system reflect output, not time at the desk?

Remember, it’s easier to turn down a job offer than to exit a job if it’s the wrong one. If negotiating flexible working is like pulling teeth, this doesn’t bode well in terms of making the arrangement a success. Think about that before you say Yes to a new job offer.