Where to Find Happy Employees

The 30th annual QP Salary Survey, which appears in the December 2016 issue of ASQ's Quality Progress, contains evidence that “an organization that pays attention to quality seems likelier to have happy employees.”

In particular, one table, “Likelihood of satisfaction with salary based on indicators of organization’s quality culture,” shows that 66.4 percent of respondents from organizations that use Baldrige resources are satisfied with their salaries versus just 19.5 percent dissatisfied; the satisfaction level for organizations that use Six Sigma is 59.2 percent. Another interesting number: 61.6 percent satisfaction for organizations whose top management actively support quality. In the table, the first column of numbers shows the percentages of respondents who said they "agree" or "strongly agree" with the statement "I am satisfied with my salary."

According to analysis by Max Christian Hansen, “The table shows respondents in organizations that invest in quality (rows highlighted in blue) are more likely to be satisfied and less likely to be dissatisfied than the aggregate of all respondents.”

The salary survey, which “has become a solid resource for quality professionals to use to examine the state of the profession and how they fit in it, ponder career possibilities and perhaps start making decisions on what pathways they should take,” according to Hansen, also looks at how salaries advanced and retreated in recent years (the average salary for all U.S. full-time respondents rose by a mere $780, an increase of 0.86%), the relationship of ASQ certifications to salary, salary premiums for higher levels of education by age, attributes looked for by hiring managers, and satisfaction by higher education degree and ASQ certification held.