Job satisfaction of employees

The AWRS asked employees to rate their level of satisfaction across 7 aspects of their job. These aspects were developed through consultation and cognitive testing processes.

Employees were required to use a 7-point scale to indicate their level of satisfaction, where 1 was extremely dissatisfied and 7 extremely satisfied. Employees were then asked to rate their overall job satisfaction, considering the aspects they had just rated using the same scale.

The average scores presented in Table 6.1 and Table 6.2 that are closer to 7 indicate employees were satisfied with an aspect of their employment, while scores closer to 1 indicate employees were dissatisfied with an aspect.

Overall, female employees were more satisfied across all of the measured aspects of employment than male employees. This is reflected in a higher average overall job satisfaction among female employees (5.49) than male employees (5.33).

Employees were most satisfied with having flexibility to balance work and non-work commitments (5.67) and the freedom to decide how to do their work (5.66). Average satisfaction among females was notably higher than for males in these aspects of employment.

Male employees were most satisfied with having the freedom to decide how they can do their own work (5.59), while female employees were most satisfied with the flexibility to balance work and non-work commitments (5.78).

Both male and female employees were least satisfied with their total pay, with average satisfaction levels among male employees of 4.75, while for females it was 4.82.

Table 6.1: Average overall job satisfaction of employees & satisfaction with aspects of current employment by employee gender & hours worked
	All employees			Female			Male
	All	Full-time	Part-time	All	Full-time	Part-time	All	Full-time	Part-time
Overall job satisfaction	5.42	5.37	5.56	5.49	5.43	5.59	5.33	5.32	5.44
The flexibility to balance work and non-work commitments	5.67	5.55	6.00	5.78	5.63	6.05	5.51	5.48	5.77
The freedom to decide how to do your own work	5.66	5.64	5.75	5.72	5.68	5.79	5.59	5.59	5.56
Your say about what happens in your job	5.27	5.26	5.33	5.31	5.27	5.37	5.23	5.24	5.12
The total pay	4.79	4.75	4.92	4.82	4.77	4.93	4.75	4.74	4.91
The job security	5.32	5.35	5.26	5.35	5.39	5.31	5.28	5.31	4.99
The work itself	5.53	5.51	5.61	5.59	5.55	5.65	5.46	5.46	5.40
The hours worked	5.32	5.27	5.48	5.45	5.37	5.58	5.16	5.18	4.98

Source: AWRS 2014, Employee survey.

Base = 7810 respondents provided a response for their overall level of satisfaction with their current employment.

On average, employees who worked in smaller enterprises with 5 to 19 employees reported higher levels of satisfaction with their current job (5.54) than employees who worked for medium sized (5.39) and larger enterprises (5.32). This is reflected in higher average satisfaction scores for all measured aspects of employment.

Table 6.2: Average overall job satisfaction of employees by employment size
	All employees	Employed in a small enterprise (5–19 employees)	Employed in a medium enterprise (20–199 employees)	Employed in a large enterprise (200+ employees)
Overall job satisfaction	5.42	5.54	5.39	5.32
The flexibility to balance work and non-work commitments	5.67	5.79	5.65	5.50
The freedom to decide how to do your own work	5.66	5.80	5.64	5.49
Your say about what happens in your job	5.27	5.46	5.23	5.06
The total pay	4.79	4.92	4.77	4.63
The job security	5.32	5.47	5.25	5.24
The work itself	5.53	5.61	5.51	5.45
The hours worked	5.32	5.42	5.31	5.17

Source: AWRS 2014, Employee and Employer Characteristics survey.

Base = 7810 employees provided a response for their overall level of satisfaction with their current employment. Of these employees, 1763 worked in small enterprises (5–19 employees), 4665 worked in medium sized enterprises (20–199 employees) and 1382 worked in larger enterprises (200+ employees).