26.03.2021

Women Now More Likely to Prioritise Salary Over The Hunt For Flexible Working Hours, When it Comes to Choosing a New Job

More Jobs With Flexibility as Standard, Means Emancipation to Pursue Pay and Happiness

The proportion of female employees prioritising salary and benefits in a job has significantly increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with greater flexibility and choice of work likely a key driver of change in women’s priorities, according to a survey* of 2,000 UK employees. Glassdoor, a worldwide leader on insights about jobs and companies commissioned the survey to ascertain the extent to which employees’ considerations of how to choose a job had changed in light of greater flexibility from many employers in when and where to work.

The survey found that only 16% of female employees say salary/ benefits were the dominant factor behind choosing their current (or most recent) job, with more respondents citing flexible working hours (19%) as the major consideration. When asked what would be the dominant factor behind choosing their NEXT job, 24% of women say salary/ benefits - an increase of eight percentage points - with 20% saying ‘personal happiness/ fulfilment’.

“One of the unexpected outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic is that women in the workplace now have more flexibility and choice in terms of where to work”, said Carina Cortez, Chief People Officer at Glassdoor. “Where once some women might have had to prioritise finding a job in a certain location or with flexible working hours, it has become far more common for employers to offer an element of flexibility as standard, allowing female employees to pursue higher earning potential. Removing barriers to flexible and remote working is a very positive development for pay equality.”

More than half of female employees (53%) think that jobs have become more flexible post-COVID-19, in terms of when and where they work, plus 50% believe they now have more options in terms of which job they might choose. When asked to consider whether they would choose their current job again (specifically with regards to the general workplace change in flexible and remote working over the past 12 months) over one in five female employees (21%) say they would NOT choose their job. This suggests that finding and securing work in a specific location is now less of an issue, allowing people to focus on other factors.

What Other Priorities do Women Have?

Almost half (45%) of female employees surveyed say they fully prioritised their family's needs over their own when they chose their current/ most recent job. There has been a modest increase in the proportion of female employees who say personal happiness was the dominant factor in choosing their current job (17%) compared to the proportion who would make this the dominant factor in choosing their next/ future job (20%).

The proportion of female employees that chose their current job based primarily on location or proximity to home is 14%, whereas just 12% of female employees would prioritise this factor in their next job.

What About Men?

Fifty five percent of male employees think that jobs have become more flexible post-COVID-19, in terms of when and where they work, and 49% believe they now have more options in terms of which job they might choose. Almost one in five (19%) male employees say salary was the dominant factor in choosing their current job over flexible working hours, personal happiness and location (all 14%). The proportion of men surveyed saying salary would be the dominant factor in choosing where they work next increased significantly to 27% and the second-most influential factor is reported as personal happiness (18%).

Glassdoor Now Welcomes its Employees to Work Where They Want

As a leading technology company and global employer, Glassdoor recently introduced its Work Where You Want policy, giving employees more flexibility going forward and allowing employees to choose where they want to work. This can include working remotely, from an office or both. An internal Glassdoor survey revealed 70% of Glassdoor employees prefer a hybrid remote-office work arrangement post-COVID-19. In Glassdoor’s Workplace Trends 2021 report, Glassdoor’s Chief Economist explains why and how office life will return, but will never be the same.

*Survey of 2,000 UK employees conducted by Censuswide, on behalf of Glassdoor, between 10 - 12 March 2021.

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