Retention of employees is critical to all organizations. This is because organizations incur costs in training employees. Besides, losing employees disrupts employees as new employees have to be looked for and trained until they reach the efficiency of the employees who exited. Therefore, losing employees is a setback to any organization. There is extensive research on factors that result in employee retention. One of the most common factors and widely researched is employee satisfaction. Employee satisfaction refers to how whether employees have a pleasurable feeling from their current job engagement. There are various factors that motivate employees thus making them satisfied with their job. This paper seeks to assess the factors that influence employee satisfaction.
Rust, Stewart, & Debb, (1996) acknowledge that there are variety of ways to measure job satisfaction. The engage in an exploratory research because most of the aspects are qualitative in nature. They conducted in depth interviews with management and then with employees. The study identified four main processes that influence job satisfaction; supervision, benefits, work design and working conditions. The researcher used correlation and analysis of variance to assess the various factors that influence employee satisfaction. They found positive correlations for supervision, work design, benefits, work environment, hourly wages, training and pay periods.
Leanne (2002) sought to determine that factors that influence job satisfaction by nurses. Leanne (2002) is concerned that the current crop of nurses in Australia are retiring and there are no .nurses to replace them. The number of nurses are declining yet the number of patients that need care are increasing resulting in a massive shortfall of nurses. Therefore, there is an immediate need to not only recruit more nurses but also retain existing nurses. Therefore, the study seeks to determine the factors that influence nurses’ job satisfaction as well as recruitment. Leanne (2002) points out that there is a correlation between retention of nurses and their job satisfaction. The study uses a multi group longitudinal design to assess the attitude of nurses towards job satisfaction and retention plans. Leanne (2002) reveals that job satisfaction was relatively stable for experienced nurses compared to new graduates. Therefore, experience determines job satisfaction. Leanne (2002) also revealed that other factors that influence job satisfaction are professional status, remuneration, and autonomy and career growth prospects..
The two studies were conducted in different setting. However, it can be observed that there is a common thread between the two studies. There are certain factors that cut across both studies. Those factors are wages, autonomy and career status. Therefore, this study seeks to determine whether those three factors are significant determinants of employee satisfaction. The null hypothesis negates the exception of the researcher while the alternate hypothesis reflect the expectation of the researcher. The null and alternate hypotheses will be as follows.
Alternate hypotheses
There is no relationship between wages and employee satisfaction
There is no relationship between career status and employee satisfaction
There is no relationship between autonomy and employee satisfaction.
Wages will be measured using the hourly wage rate. Career status will be measured using the number of years an employee has worked in a given organization. The assumption is that organization have a promotion scheme that is based on the years of service. Autonomy and employee satisfaction will be measured using a seven point Likert scale. Respondents will be given statements and asked to rank it on a Likert scale. The scale will range from 1 to 7 with one being strongly agree and seven being strongly disagree. The statement for autonomy will be: “I feel I am autonomous at my work place.” The statement for employee satisfaction will be: “I am satisfied with my job”.
Alternate hypotheses
There is a positive relationship between wages and employee satisfaction
There is a positive relationship between career status and employee satisfaction
There is a positive relationship between autonomy and employee satisfaction.
The review of literature suggest that all the three null hypotheses should be rejected. Employee satisfaction is likely to increase with wages, autonomy and career status. Those factors positively influence the emotional and financial status of employees. Therefore, they are likely to result in pleasurable feeling at work place.
The researcher stated the null and alternate hypotheses. The null hypothesis was that there is no difference in the between the wages paid to employees and the wages paid by other manufacturing companies for the three job groups. The alternate hypothesis was that there is a difference in the between the wages paid to employees and the wages paid by other manufacturing companies for the three job groups. The researcher then formulated an analysis plan by deciding the test to conduct and significance level. The test was a t-test for mean and the significance level was 0.05. Thirdly, the researcher analysed the data that was collected and computed the t-statistic using the data. It is computed using the means and the standard error. Fourthly, the researcher compared the t-statistic with the t-critical that is based on the significance level and degrees of freedom. Lastly, the researcher interpreted the data and drew conclusions. The study only does not show how the population means were determined. It is possible that the sample used was not representative of the industry.
References
Kirk, R. (2007). Statistics: An Introduction. London: Cengage Learning.
Leanne, C. (2002). The Effects of Nurses’ Job Satisfaction on Retention: An Australian Perspective. Journal of Nursing Administration, 283.291.
Rust, R., Stewart, G., & Debb, H. M. (1996). The satisfaction and retention A customer satisfaction. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 62-80.
