People will leave jobs that don’t align with their values, author claims

Pay and benefits are no longer the only critical factors in deciding where to work, with a majority citing their employers’ values (80 percent) and commitment to the environment (76 percent) and social equality (75 percent) as key criteria, claims a survey commissioned by advocate and author Paul Polman.

The Net Positive Barometer, a survey of 2,000 British employees, claims that 41 percent are concerned about paying their bills, while 69 percent are anxious about the future of the planet and society, and 64 percent of employees say that the acceleration of global crises raises the bar of expectations for businesses.

Two thirds (66 percent) of UK employees want to work for companies trying to have a positive impact on the world, but 68 percent say that current efforts by business to tackle environmental and societal challenges do not go far enough.

Forty-five percent of workers would consider resigning from their job if the values of the company did not align with their own. A third (35 percent) report have resigned from another position for this reason, while the same proportion would consider taking a pay cut to work for a company that shares their values.

The Barometer sets out to link companies’ social and environmental actions and employees’ job satisfaction. For instance, those who say their company has goals or targets on the environment are more likely to say they are motivated at work than those who do not think their company has goals or targets (73 percent vs. 50 percent in the UK).

According to the author, this is especially the case for ‘Gen Z’ workers, who already makeup 9.5 percent of the UK population. Two thirds (66 percent) would be less motivated if their company’s values did not align with their own.