An estimated 62% of accountants in America feel underpaid. That’s reported by a survey conducted by Fishbowl. The company surveyed 4,708 from across many industries. The study showed more than 60% of professionals feel under-compensated given their qualifications and level of experience.
Professionals Feel Underpaid
Accountants came second following advertising and PR professionals. Specifically, 62.32% of these professionals don’t get the compensation they deserved in their workplace. Consultants rank third at 60.14% of those not feeling the appreciation in their workplace.
A further 47% of employees across professions say their workplace culture has a negative impact on their mental health. With accountants at 56.7% feeling much of the stress followed closely by teachers (50.9%).
Conversely, less than 40 percent of the surveyed say they were content with their current pay based on their experience and qualifications. Consultants top the rankings at 39.86% job satisfaction. Accountants follow at 37.91%. And advertising and PR professionals experience the next highest satisfaction ranking at 37.68%.
The findings echo a recent survey by iHire which revealed 75% of employees in the U.S. do not stay at their jobs for more than five years. In that survey, the top reason people leave their job is over unsatisfactory pay, which accounts for 16% of the surveyed.
Unsatisfactory pay, lack of professional development and negative work environment rank among top reasons Americans quit their jobs. In August alone 3.5 million, Americans had left their jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Why Should Business Care?
Today job openings outnumber skilled professionals. And businesses commonly experience a high staff turnover. The staff turnover can take a significant toll. And small businesses fell this in productivity, revenue and even survival.
It costs businesses money to deal with turnover. The cost might include high compensation and benefits for replacements. It also includes recruitment costs and training costs. At the business level, the company incurs losses such as low efficiency and loss of business.
Take Care of your Employees and They’ll Take Care of your Business
Investing in conscious employee retention strategies adds value to your business. But it often becomes a financially prudent decision as well.
The best employee retention techniques include a mixture of both inner looking and industry perspective. Benefits like salary and health benefits get benchmarked in your industry. While training, career growth prospects, life-work balance, benefits and recognitions remain inner looking.
First off, your company needs to conduct an HR audit to see existing strategies, policies, procedures and documents to address employee dissatisfaction.
Businesses that underpay attract people who come to the company to get experience. Afterwards they transition to a company that pays better. Properly compensating employees shows you value them as workers and as human beings.
If matching industry pay isn’t possible, you might want to consider ways to make job satisfaction higher. creating a fun workplace, recognizing staff and training them can make up for the short change.
A more positive company culture helps keep employees loyal to the organization as a whole. While less engaged staff members more likely abandon ship.
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