Fri, 29 Jun 2012

Job satisfaction comes out as the top motivating factor for UK managers and executives in a survey that also finds one in six of these workers are actively looking for a new role.

The survey of 1,000 managers and company executives from search firm Wickland Westcott shows that the biggest motivating factor in their careers was job satisfaction (37%), followed by money (29%).

Nonetheless, it also shows that one in 10 of those surveyed earn over £250k a year, although half still believe they are underpaid. In the legal sector, one in six leaders earns more than £400k.

Although half of managers had been in their current position over a decade, one in six was actively looking for a new job and one sixth of these people had been looking for 12 months or more.

Meanwhile, a third said they were simply ‘making do’ in an unsatisfying job because their options are limited in the current state of the economy.

Across sectors, bosses in the public sector came across as the most loyal, with more than one in 10 staying in their post for 20 years or more, while advertising, marketing and PR executives averages just five years.

Wickland Westcott managing director Colin Mercer says: “Organisations recruiting at senior level may think they are in a buyer’s market where they can pick and choose, but the best candidates undertake rigorous due diligence on potential new employers, to establish if it is worth taking the risk of leaving behind the installed base of contacts and credibility they have built in their current organisation.”