More Than Half of Employees Would Stay Longer at Their Company If Bosses Showed More Appreciation, Glassdoor Survey

SAUSALITO, CA--(Marketwired - Nov 13, 2013) - Glassdoor, a jobs and career community leading the way in workplace transparency, has released its Employee Appreciation Survey¹, revealing how appreciated employees² feel by employers, what really motivates employees at work, and what employer-provided perks they want most this Thanksgiving.

This survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of Glassdoor.

Appreciated Employees Will Stick Around Longer: While seven in ten (68 percent) employees say their boss shows them enough appreciation, more than half (53 percent) of employees report they would stay longer at their company if they felt more appreciation from their boss. In fact, four in five (81 percent) employees say they're motivated to work harder when their boss shows appreciation for their work. However, stress and pressure are also motivating forces for some employees, as 38 percent say they're motivated to work harder when their boss is demanding and 37 percent are motivated to work harder because they fear losing their job. When comparing by gender, more male employees (41 percent) than female employees (32 percent) admit they're motivated to work harder due to fear of losing their job.

In addition, supervisors may want to be conscientious of how much, or little, appreciation is given to certain employees, as one in four (24 percent) say their boss shows more appreciation to employees with more experience, while 23 percent say their boss shows more appreciation to newer employees.

Money Motivates Employees: When it comes to actions employers can take to show appreciation, money leads the way as three in four (75 percent) employees say a pay raise is a motivating and valuable form of appreciation. Other forms of appreciation employees want from employers include unexpected treats and rewards (46 percent; e.g., snacks, lunches, dinners, thank you notes), feeling involved in decision-making processes (40 percent), career opportunities (37 percent), recognition at a team meeting or in a company newsletter (35 percent), and a company sponsored social event (24 percent; e.g., holiday party, happy hour).

Thanksgiving Employer Perks: When it comes to the Thanksgiving holiday, three in five (62 percent) employees say they would appreciate not being required to work the day before, of and after the holiday. Interestingly, as many retailers will open their doors on Thanksgiving, more than two in five (44 percent) employees say they would appreciate not being required to work on Thanksgiving Day.

However, employees would also appreciate other perks around Thanksgiving, including a cash bonus (49 percent), a grocery store gift card (41 percent), a pre-thanksgiving meal at work (19 percent) and the option to telecommute the days before Thanksgiving (13 percent).

"There is a wide variety of ways to show employee appreciation that can go far towards keeping employees satisfied, engaged and retained," said Allyson Willoughby, Glassdoor's senior vice president of people and general counsel. "Even inexpensive forms of appreciation, like thank you cards and treats, or offering flexibility like telecommuting, show employees you value them."

IMAGE & INTERVIEW AVAILABLE: Please visit the Glassdoor Press Center to download a high-res image highlighting key survey results: http://www.glassdoor.com/press/images. For an interview with a Glassdoor spokesperson and/or to request the image or complete survey methodology, please contact pr [at] Glassdoor [dot] com.

Methodology
¹This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of Glassdoor from September 13-17, 2013 among 2,044 adults ages 18 and older (of whom 891 are employed full time and/or part time). This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Samantha Zupan or Scott Dobroski at pr@glassdoor.com.

² For the purposes of this study, "employees" were defined as U.S. adults 18+ employed full time and/or part time unless otherwise indicated.

About Glassdoor
Glassdoor is the world's most transparent career community that is changing the way people find jobs and companies recruit top talent. Founded in 2007, Glassdoor offers members the latest job listings, as well as access to proprietary user-generated content including company-specific salary reports, ratings and reviews, CEO approval ratings, interview questions and reviews, office photos and more. Members also have the ability to see Inside Connections™ at particular companies via their Facebook network. In addition, thousands of employers are using Glassdoor's Talent Solutions to support their employment branding and recruiting efforts. Glassdoor is backed by Benchmark Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures, Battery Ventures and DAG Ventures. More information about Glassdoor can be found on its blog, and by following the company on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.