What makes a good job?

Summary

Much has been made of employers' views of their existing workforce and potential recruits. But what about workers' views of the nature of work - what makes a good job? An analysis of a national data shows that:

• Four of the top five job characteristics are intrinsic - they don't relate to fulfilling material needs. The exception is job security.
• The other characteristics of a good job are:
  • work you like doing
  • the opportunity to use your abilities
  • friendly people to work with
  • the opportunity to use your initiative
• These are the results "in the round". There are differences across gender, qualifications held, hours worked and family circumstances.

The analysis is based on the best information available, which dates back to 2006. It is interesting to speculate how the picture may have changed as a result of more challenging labour market conditions.

The analysis highlights a number of points which are relevant for policymakers and practitioners:

• Individuals are different - in terms of the world of work, they have different strengths, preferences and aspirations.
• Employers and recruitment agencies may wish to consider highlighting particular aspects of available vacancies in addition to the standard terms and conditions. That is, the scope to use your initiative, the friendly nature of work colleagues and so on.
• Careers information, advice and guidance needs to be tailored to recognise individuals' strengths, preferences and aspirations. And these need to be matched to suitable opportunities in the world of work.

Introduction

Much has been made of employers' views on the skills of their workers and of employers' perceptions of potential recruits. The recent 2010 Scottish Employer Skills Survey provides information on employers' views of recruitment difficulties, skill shortages and skill gaps, amongst other things.

But what of the workers' views? What are the characteristics of a good job? To examine this in detail, we have to return to the 2006 Employee Skills Survey. The core sample for the survey consisted of 4,800 individuals aged 20 - 65 in employment across the United Kingdom. This core sample was boosted to 2,000 observations in Scotland (financed by Futureskills Scotland). This ensures that robust results for Scotland could be generated which were comparable with the UK.

Main Results

Other things being equal, individuals will seek work which is consistent with their values and work orientation. Exactly how these values and orientations are structured, influenced and how they might change over time are contentious issues.

There are two distinct dimensions to work attitudes; work commitment and job attribute preferences. Work commitment is about the importance an individual chooses to attach to employment, something which will be influenced by family, schooling and commitments outside the world of work. Work commitment can also be influenced by changes in the labour market, notably the number and nature of job opportunities available.

On the other hand, job attribute preferences refer to the extent to which individuals attach or desire a variety of specific qualities and outcomes from paid work.

There are essentially two kinds of job attributes:

• Extrinsic - such as good pay, which relate to material needs, and
• Intrinsic - such as variety in the type of work, which relate to personal preferences and needs

In the 2006 Employee Skills Survey, workers were asked to indicate the importance of the following job attributes (Table 1).

Table 1 - Classifying Job Attributes

Extrinsic	Intrinsic
Good promotion prospects	Good relations with your supervisor
Good pay	A job where you can use your initiative
A secure job	Work you like doing
Convenient hours of work	The opportunity to use your abilities
Choice in your hours of work	An easy work load
Good fringe benefits	Good physical working conditions
Good training provision	A lot of variety in the type of work
Friendly people to work with

 

Respondents could identify each job attribute as essential, very important, fairly important and not very important. If these are interpreted so that essential = 4, very important = 3, fairly important = 2 and not very important = 1, then the relative importance of job attributes can be identified. Or, more simply, we can identify, for workers, what makes a good job.

The following table (Table 2) illustrates the relative importance of job attributes.

Table 2 - Ranking of Job Attributes

Overall Ranking	Job Attributes	Intrinsic or Extrinsic?
1	Work you like doing	I
2	A secure job	E
3	The opportunity to use your abilities	I
4	Friendly people to work with	I
5	A job where you can use your initiative	I
6	Good relations with your supervisor/manager	I
7	Good pay	E
8	Good physical working conditions	I
9	A lot of variety in the type of work	I
10	Good training provision	E
11	Convenient hours of work	E
12	Choice in your hours of work	E
13	Good promotion prospects	E
14	Good fringe benefits	E
15	An easy work load	I

A key finding from this analysis is the superiority of intrinsic job attributes in terms of what makes a good job. But these results are 'in the round' and are representative of all Scottish workers' preferences. How do such preferences vary within the workforce?

More detailed analysis has shown that:

In terms of extrinsic job attribute preferences

• Female workers are more likely to value 'convenient hours', 'choice of hours' and 'good training provision' more highly than their male counterparts
• Those with financially dependent children were more likely to value 'good pay', a 'secure job', 'convenient hours' and a 'choice of hours' more highly than workers without dependent children
• Full-time workers value 'good promotion prospects', 'good pay', a 'secure job' and 'good training provision' more highly than their part-time counterparts. Part-time workers were more likely to value 'convenient hours' and 'choice of hours' more highly than full-time workers.

In terms of intrinsic job attribute preferences:

• Female workers value 'good relations with the supervisor', a job which makes 'use of abilities', 'good working conditions' and 'friendly people to work with' more highly than male workers; and
• Highly-qualified workers (those with SVQ level 4 or 5 as their highest qualification [1]) were more likely to value a job which makes 'use of initiative', 'work that they like doing' and work which makes 'use of abilities' more highly than those without qualifications. On the other hand, highly-qualified workers less likely to value an 'easy work load' and 'good working conditions' more highly than unqualified workers.

Conclusions

This research has highlighted a number of key points:

• Individuals are different - in terms of the world of work, they have different strengths, preferences and aspirations
• Employers and recruitment agencies may wish to consider highlighting particular aspects of available vacancies in addition to the standard terms and conditions. That is, the scope to use your initiative, the friendly nature of work colleagues and so on
• Careers information, advice and guidance needs to be tailored to recognise individuals' strengths, preferences and aspirations. And these need to be matched to suitable opportunities in the world of work

Of particular interest is the influence of labour market conditions on personal preferences. That is, how might changing labour market conditions affect individual's perceptions and preferences in terms of job attributes?

Dr John Sutherland,
Honorary Research Fellow,
Centre for Public Policy for Regions (CPPR), University of Glasgow

The Working Paper upon which this article is based, "Job Attribute Preferences in Scotland", may be accessed via the CPPR website or Research Online.

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[1] SVQ Level 4/5 refers to management skills and senior management skills. Typical qualifications at this level include HND, undergraduate & post-graduate qualifications and professional awards such as CA (Chartered Accountant)