Revealed: The most important aspects of a job

Ciphr’s research revealed that over two-thirds (67%) of people think having work-life balance is more important than their pay and employee benefits combined (59%).

Job security and job satisfaction were cited as the next most important considerations for over half of survey respondents (57% and 53% respectively). The full results are below.

Pay and benefits are only the fourth most important aspect of a job (46%) for survey respondents in leadership and senior management team (SMT) roles, after work-life balance (60%), job satisfaction (52%) and job security (51%).

Work-life balance is the most-valued job aspect for nearly four in five (79%) remote workers, compared to two-thirds (66%) of workers who are either partly remote or who never work from home. While staff who are office or workplace-based are more likely to see greater value in job aspects that relate to their physical workspace and working alongside other people, such as a healthy work environment (47%), feeling safe at work (40%), and feeling included and belonging at work (38%).

The data suggests that people working in finance and insurance are the most likely to value pay and benefits over work-life balance (60% compared to 58% respectively). For those in IT and software, job security tops pay and benefits and work-life balance (58% compared to 54% and 54%). While manufacturing workers rate the importance of work-life balance and pay and benefits equally (63%).

Ciphr conducted an online survey of 1,006 employed UK adults between 18-21 May 2022. Around two-fifths (61%) of those polled work at organisations which have 251+ employees, a quarter (28%) work at organisations with 51 to 250 employees, and one in 10 (11%) work at organisations with 26 to 50 employees.