The latest research suggests that U.S. employees have differing opinions when it comes to satisfaction with their employer-offered benefit packages. Based on recently compiled data from Kenexa’s database of employee survey results, WorkTrends™, as well as Kenexa’s normative databases, it appears that employee satisfaction with benefit offerings is largely predicated by the industry in which the employee works and the job function performed.

Industries that report a decline in employee benefit satisfaction include heavy manufacturing, wholesale/retail trade, healthcare products and pharmaceuticals, communications service/utilities, banking, and to a lesser degree, education.

Industries demonstrating a rise in employee benefit satisfaction include health care services and financial services. Overall, employee satisfaction with benefits in the light manufacturing, construction/engineering, food industry, wholesale/retail, government/public administration, transportation services and business services industries showed only slight or no change at all over the past few years.

The most volatile industries were electronics and computer manufacturing, given the unpredictability of the marketplace and the resulting “trickle-down” effect on compensation and benefits.

Actual job functions reporting the biggest decline in benefits satisfaction included first-line supervisors, clerical, service, crafts/skilled trades, operatives and laborers. Those demonstrating the greatest gains in benefit satisfaction were managers, executives, and those with generally slight or no change in benefits satisfaction included those in technical, sales, or professional positions.

Kenexa Research Institute’s Executive Director Jack W. Wiley, Ph.D., said, “It is interesting to note that employees who work in ‘best practices’ companies are noticeably more favorable in their satisfaction with their benefits and their responses tended to be more stable and congruent.”

As logic might dictate, salaried employees gave higher benefit satisfaction grades than hourly employees, while those employed in larger companies showed higher levels of satisfaction than those in smaller companies. The more mature employee in terms of age showed markedly higher levels of satisfaction than their Generation X co-workers.

Database Overview
The Kenexa WorkTrends database is a comprehensive normative database of employee survey results with comparisons on topics including leadership, employee engagement and customer orientation.

Study Details
The report is based on the analysis of data drawn from a representative sample of 10,000 U.S. workers who were surveyed through WorkTrends, KRI’s annual survey of worker opinions. The survey asked participants how they rate their total benefits package.

Survey Results
Responses were rated using a 5-point Likert-type agreement scale. The values in the following tables represent the percent of employees who answered, “Strongly agree” or “Agree” (% favorable).