How Much Is Job Satisfaction Linked to Salary?

Posted on April 13, 2016 by bermanevansretail
Glassdoor provides a lot of useful information about the job market, employee compensation, and employee satisfaction.
Consider the observations for Glassdoor by Mario Nuñez in “Does Money Buy Happiness? Link Between Salary and Employee Satisfaction”:
“To isolate the relationship between money and happiness, we ran a linear regression with company satisfaction rating as the response variable and log-transformed total pay as the explanatory variable. We also included controls for location (state), gender, education, years of experience, job title, employer size, industry, and employee status (i.e., was the employee working for that company at the time the review was written?). For ease of interpretation, we transformed the company satisfaction rating to a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 being completely dissatisfied (a 1-star rating) and 100 being completely satisfied (a 5-star rating).”
“Our model suggests that a 10 percent increase in employee pay is associated with a 1 point increase in overall company satisfaction on a 0-100 scale, controlling for all other factors. If an employee making $40,000 per year was given a raise to $44,000 per year, his or her overall employee satisfaction would increase from 77 percent to 78 percent. And it’s important to note that there is a diminishing return to happiness for every extra $1,000 in earnings. Although this effect is statistically significant, it is small.”
“Since money doesn’t seem to have a huge effect on employee satisfaction, what other factors influence job satisfaction?”
The following Glassdoor chart identifies the most important non-money factors that affect employee happiness.
Impact of Factors Beyond Salary on Employee Satisfaction

Source: Glassdoor Economic Research.

 

Posted in Career Useful Information, Careers in Retailing, Part 5: Managing a Retail Business | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Retailers: Are You Studying Demographics AND Psychographics?

Posted on April 12, 2016 by bermanevansretail
Most retailers use consumer demographics (easily identifiable and measurable data) when determining and appealing to their target market. In addition, many retailers recognize that understanding consumer lifestyles and personalities are crucial in target marketing. However, too many companies do not place enough emphasis on the latter.
Here is a synopsis of the situation from Alexandra Samuel, writing for the Harvard Business School:
“Marketers are used to thinking and speaking in demographics, since slicing a market up by age, gender, ethnicity, and other broad variables can help to understand the differences and commonalities among customers. Think, our target audience is 14- to 34-year-olds,’ or ‘we are launching a campaign aimed at urban Latinos.’ But psychographics, which measure customers’ attitudes and interests rather than ‘objective’ demographic criteria, can provide deep insight that complements what we learn from demographics.”
“Until recently, it was harder to get psychographics than demographics, and even if you had psychographic data, it wasn’t always obvious how to make it actionable. The Internet has changed the relative importance of demographics and psychographics to marketers in three key ways: by making psychographics more actionable, by making psychographic differences more important, and by making psychographic insight easier to access.”
To learn a lot more from Samuel, click on the image.
Chart by Laura Schneider for HBR

 

Posted in Part 3: Targeting Customers and Gathering Information, Part 7: Communicating with the Customer | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Shoes of Prey: Buying Customized Shoes Online

Posted on April 11, 2016 by bermanevansretail
Shoes of Prey, an Australia-based company, is an interesting name for an interesting retailer. In the U.S., Shoes of Prey is located in several Nordstrom stores. Here’s how the firm defines itself at its Web site:
“Shoes of Prey is a global, multichannel retail brand that enables shoppers to design their own shoes online. The company is changing the way women shop for shoes, and is on track to become a significant international retailer over the next five years. Since 2009, the company has specialized in flats, heels, wedges, sandals, boots, and more that can’t be found anywhere else – because they’re designed by shoppers, for shoppers.”
“The process is easy and fun. Using the Shoes of Prey 3D DESIGNER, customers choose the shape, color, and height of their shoes. Designs are handmade within four weeks and delivered worldwide. The result: no shoe-lover ever has to wish for a lower or higher heel, different colors, or more or less embellishment. They’ll never see their shoes on anyone else. And they’ll never, ever walk home with their heels in their hands again. Your design. Your size. Your perfect shoes.”
Here is a Shoes of Prey company video on YouTube.
 
Now take a video tour with Jodie Fox, Co-Founder of Shoes of Prey. The video is from Retail TouchPoints and  features a new interactive experience in the Nordstrom at Garden State Plaza (New Jersey).


 

Posted in Global Retailing, Online Retailing, Part 1: Overview/Planning, Part 2: Ownership, Strategy Mix, Online, Nontraditional, Part 3: Targeting Customers and Gathering Information, Part 4: Store Location Planning, Part 5: Managing a Retail Business, Part 6: Merchandise Management and Pricing, Part 7: Communicating with the Customer, Part 8: Putting It All Together, Retail Executive Interviews, Video Clips (non-career) | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment