The Preferences and Job Satisfaction Among Saudi Employees:
A Guide for Human Resources Managers
MEGREN ABDULLAH ALTASSAN
Department of Human Resources Management,
University of Business and Technology,
Jeddah,
KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA
Abstract: - Purpose –Employees’ willingness to continue working for their firm may be related to
their length of service. This is of particular concern in Saudi Arabia where Vision 2030’s objectives
include the Saudization (hiring of Saudi Nationals on a quota basis) of the private sector and where
women are just beginning to enter the labor market in great numbers despite traditionally having a
particularly low labor market participation rate. The research question of this study is: “Who is more
satisfied and what are the preferences for long and short-term employees in Saudi Arabia?”.
Key-Words: - Job Satisfaction- Employee Retention, Employ Training, Women Employment, Saudi Arabia
Received: March 27, 2023. Revised: September 30, 2023. Accepted: October 7, 2023. Published: October 20, 2023.
1 Introduction
In 2019, a high proportion of employees in Saudi
Arabia’s national workforce, 76%, were non-
Saudi citizens. Of the 24% who were Saudi
citizens, solely 8% were women (4.6% in the
private sector according to the General Authority
for Statistics, [1]. Saudization of the workforce,
the hiring of Saudi Nationals on a quota basis
(also known as Nitaqat), has long been an aim of
the Saudi government, and over the decades,
significant resources have been deployed in
attracting Saudi citizens, mainly women, into
private employment, [2]. Vision 2030, a strategic
framework for economic and social reform which
will open Saudi Arabia up to the world
implemented regulatory reforms which were
successful in lifting the economic participation
rate for Saudi women to 23%. Of the unemployed
Saudi women, 66% held bachelor’s degrees, and
23% had finished high school, [1]. Whilst there
were significant barriers to employers of Saudi
Arabian women due in part to the need to provide
for strict gender segregation and substantial
skilled pay differences between nationalities,
Nitaqat quotas, and restraints on the employment
of foreign workers have resulted in minor
successes in the dual labor market comprised of
both foreigners and citizens, [2]. There is a
considerable body of research on Saudi women’s
recruitment and retention in the private sector, but
more needs to be understood about the
demographics and preferences involved to fully
engage female employees with their firms’ values.
Therefore, this study aims to determine the job
satisfaction of employees in Saudi Arabia in
general and particularly in relation to the female
employees of the country. (there is no hint of
preferences for a job in the introduction and the
abstract findings do not say about females).
2 Literature Review
2.1 Workplaces
This section begins by considering Saudi Arabia’s
arguably unique segmentation of its workforce,
and its strategies in diversifying its economy away
from hydrocarbons and towards more employee-
oriented industries such as tourism and leisure.
There are also significant economic costs in
outflows of expatriates’ remuneration, which in
many cases are destined for South Asian
countries. Labor force structures explain the
duality of purpose in employing staff, the
conditions and profile of employment, and the
type of terminations under the Labor law, [3].
2.2 Labor Force Structure
In Saudi Arabia, as elsewhere, the Labor Law
structures the workforce. The Law stipulates
employers must be licensed to employ both Saudi
nationals and non-Saudi workers, and the foreign
private sector employees are subject to work and
residency permits, collectively termed iqama,
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valid for one year and renewable if all conditions
are met, [4]. The non-Saudi workers, as of 2019,
include 3.2 million domestic household staff
whose vulnerable employment conditions and
safeguards were recently strengthened through
additional regulations, [5]. This paper’s
employment focus is therefore Saudization, that
is, recruiting and retaining nationals in the private
sector.
Whilst reputable global employers value all
staff and seek to attract and retain ‘talent’, Saudi’s
labor law policies pre-2011 were very
conservative and Saudization was directed solely
towards male graduates, rather than tackling the
gulf between the genders that exist in workforce
participation and unemployment rates. Saudi
women found little benefit in Saudization or the
rigors of the private sector and relied on their
family connections (wasta) to gain work in their
preferred public domain, [6]. This was supported
by the General Authority for Statistics, 2020
which found that 58% of unemployed women
were only registered with the Ministry for Social
Service; just 1% responded to job advertisements,
[1]. In economies with aging populations, a
growing lifespan dictates longer retirement, and
thus the pension age is rising; people are working
longer, [7]. However, in youth-oriented Saudi
Arabia, the opposite is true, and age is a major
factor for early retirement with 84.7% of working
men between the ages of 20 and 49 years and
80.3% of employed women between the ages of
25 and 49 years. There is a technical retirement
age in the Labor Law of 55 years for women and
60 years for men, although superannuation (social
insurance) is available at any age after 25 years of
contributions. There is also a location factor, as
78% of employed Saudis are in the urban
provinces of Riyadh and Makkah (including
Jeddah), and the Eastern Province with its
sprawling ports and oilfields. Madinah, near
Qassim, and the southern province of Asir account
for another 11.7% of employed nationals (3rd
quarter of 2019, [1]. An average Saudi employee
is therefore likely to be a male in a large city who
has an economic contribution of 20 – 30 years. In
comparison, the average economic contribution in
Europe is 36.2 years (men 38.6 years, women 33.7
years) and trending towards an increase, [1], [8].
2.3 Terminating Employment
The General Authority for Statistics reported
Saudi nationals leaving the insurance system
(superannuation)
1
in the September quarter of
2019 (189,349 suspended participants) and the
associated reasons for doing so. Of these, 137
notably switched to the civil service
superannuation system (16% of women) and
47,581 resigned (37% of women). A further
52,521 were left involuntarily (end of the contract,
the firm was liquidated, or the employee was fired
or passed away; again 37% were women). Others
(5,956) were transferred within their organization,
presumably out of the country, and 35% of these
were Saudi women (possibly following family
members). The remainder left for a variety of
reasons excluding retirement in the September
quarter. Annualizing these percentages, 25% of
Saudis who left their private sector employers did
so voluntarily. On the other hand, 56,056 Saudis
joined the social insurance system for that quarter;
a surprising 55% were women, [1].
2.4 Saudi Women and Employment
There is a significant amount of literature on
Saudi Arabian women’s negative workplace
experiences with recurring themes including
insufficient pay (2019 mean for women: $US1476
per month private sector, $US2983 pm public
sector), workload (41.3 hours per week for
women, 43.4 for men, both sectors), career
prospects, gender stereotypes and discrimination,
commuting distance (4.6% of the unemployed
women in the 2019 statistics gave this reason for
leaving the last employer), work and family
balance (no unemployed women in the statistics
gave this as a reason for leaving the last employer)
and pregnancy constraints, [1], [9], [10].
Researchers interested in Saudi women’s
commute associated commute cost to the
willingness of women to work in Riyadh as there
was little to no public transport available, [11].
Following Qui’s early suggestion to implement
car-pooling to alleviate this issue, Riyadh’s new
metro rail station and bus system is due to open
fully by the end of 2022, [12], [13].
Similarly, [14], analyzed the experiences of
Saudi working women, finding a hierarchy of
intersecting social norms that impacted women’s
behavior: family honor, female modesty, and
obedience towards men; gender segregation and
harassment in the workplace; the social standing
of the family and the individual’s place within it
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that contributed to wasta (influence) status and
entitlement (or not).
Of the ‘identity’ researchers, some papers
focused on discrimination without mentioning
reforms and/or used dated statistics for support;
none of these writers sought other perspectives,
[15], [16]. One study acknowledged changes to
women’s employment only as ‘incremental and
uneven’. Another study, [17], referred to the
United Nations Convention on Women
2
without
citing religious reservations documented by Saudi
Arabia; however, they noted that rising standards
of living contributed to women’s desire to work,
[18]. Yet another study sought to import foreign
values by using the policies of a British
multinational firm operating in Saudi Arabia:
while formal institutions such as legal
requirements and localization policies support
gender equality, informal forces that are rooted in
cultural norms and traditions are formidable in
hindering such efforts and reinforcing the status
quo, [19].
The plight of female Saudi entrepreneurs in
information technology was the subject of, [20],
work, which published seven iterative titles in
three years. Others took a longitudinal (history)
approach, [21], [22]. There were also findings of a
high ‘excuse’ factor among potential
entrepreneurs with barriers such as lack of social,
family, or government support, [23], [24].
Nevertheless, some Saudi women business
owners circumvent social norms, interviewed
women in business in shops (cosmetics,
confectionery, dressmaker, gift), the arts
(ceramics), and services (interior design,
photography, hospitality), finding that, as small
business owners, they were hampered by
inadequate work skills such as marketing (pricing,
sourcing customers, customer relations) and
administration (accounting, business regulations,
expansion), [25]. However, the authors did not
mention the small business generator Monsha’at,
which was active in Jeddah, nor the local business
associations although the sample was sourced
from there.
In summary, there is adequate government
support for women’s employment in training,
mentoring, and funding; however, it must be
accessed by potential employees or entrepreneurs.
Saudi Arabia has always been a predominantly
service-based economy, whether public or private,
and has had a large youth cohort for the last two
generations. Evidence from statistics and literature
shows that the impetus is not yet there to change
the social mindset toward business involvement.
Thus, for half the Saudi population, a reluctance
to engage in economic participation impacts the
‘intention to quit’ an employer.
2.5 Organizational and Employment
Research
During the 20th century, researchers in
management, education, psychology, and social
psychology were involved in organizational
science and their theories tended to duplicate and
interweave tracked organizational research
interest over decades, in particular relating
leadership to organizational culture, [26], [27].
Culture, according to the theorist, concerned the
objectives, rules, norms, and performances of
businesses that could be configured as anything
from traditional bureaucracies to complex related
entities within an interdependent supply chain (the
luxury corporation of Moët Hennessy Louis
Vuitton, LVMH. is an example of the latter). [27],
explained that entrepreneurial leadership first
established objectives, policies, and practices that
defined the culture or norms of the organization,
whether public or private. These elements evolve
over time as the entity grows and changes in
response to internal and external environments. In
his model, the firm’s culture (and size)
subsequently influences the ‘style’ of its
executives, whose responsibility ultimately is to
recognize internal and external threats and modify
rules and norms to accelerate cultural change.
Leadership in a public bureaucracy is thus
fundamentally different from that of a private
global entity such as LVMH].
2.6 Organizational Psychology
Within the organizational research domain,
psychologists have had a large influence on the
studies of employees. Employee commitment
studies date back to the mid-20th century and
conducted psychological testing on production
line workers in the United States, finding the
Hawthorne or halo effect. This occurs when the
research attention creates its impetus for employee
productivity without further workplace change,
[28]. Similarly, Maslow and McGregor modeled
psychological factors that facilitated commitment
to the task, the team, and the organization, which
encouraged productivity, [29], [30]. Over time,
the perspectives that emerged from mid-century
American workplaces extended globally and
fractured into a diffusion of variables such as job
satisfaction, job commitment, intention to leave,
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personality traits, and high-performance
workplaces. Each of these could be selected as a
dependent or independent variable for research,
[31], [32]. By the turn of the century, influential
theorists in employee behavior were devising an
integrated framework to measure employee
commitment and motivation. This framework is
based on goal attainment, as the employee is
either intrinsically or extrinsically aligned to the
organization’s goals and this alignment is subject
to conditions of either task challenge,
remuneration/recognition, or both, [33].
Theories on job satisfaction, an organizational
dimension, also became fragmented over time.
These theories supported employee surveys such
as the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire;
however, this and other scales remained validated
and reliable only for employment conditions in the
United States 20th-century jurisdiction, [34], [35],
surveyed the literature on the relationship between
job satisfaction and job performance, which varied
from the job commitment/performance theorists
Maslow, McGregor, [29], [30]. Analyzing over
312 separate studies, they found no correlation
between job satisfaction and job performance,
noting that research attention to this approach had
waned, [35].
However, researchers were not deterred from
pursuing these domains. A highly complex
example was later created by, [36], who explained
the history of modeling job satisfaction (factors
generalized or unspecified; a research approach
they agreed with, [35]) organizational
commitment (affective, continuance, normative
3
;
this research approach they found acceptable);
organizational culture (shared norms and values
categorized as a clan, adhocracy, hierarchy, and
market orientation
4
). They determined that
employees from clan- and adhocracy-dominated
organizations were more likely to exhibit job
satisfaction (not associated with intention to
leave) and organizational commitment (associated
with intention to leave). They further surveyed the
intention to leave for banking staff including both
non-Saudi and Saudi citizens using Cameron and
Quinn’s concept. They found mixed results from
the firms, depending on their model classification,
and results were mediated by both job and
organizational satisfaction, [37]. To account for
the different Saudi social norms relative to that of
Cameron and Quinn, participants, [38], then
applied Hofstede’s Insights social norm modeling,
although there were no definitive findings from
the various analyses they conducted.
As job satisfaction does not correlate with
workplace outcomes, then what is it?, [39], in
1969 summarized the United States’ debate mid-
20th century as ‘the concepts of satisfaction,
dissatisfaction, value, emotion, and appraisal’. By
this century, job dissatisfaction had largely fallen
from favor, except for researchers who returned to
the original models where it was associated with
burnout and intention to leave, [40]. Values in job
satisfaction were established as work values and
rewards by, [41], in 1977 who tested job
satisfaction to each of these values: intrinsic
(internal enjoyment of the task and growth
through learning), convenience (external
enjoyment of the workplace and working
conditions), co-workers (pleasant, friendly
company), resource adequacy (includes mentoring
and physical resources) and career opportunities.
[42], revisited these values four decades later
finding that ‘changes over historical time periods
are most consistently responsible for differences
in work values in the United States. Now
predominantly employed in service industries
including multinational corporations, Americans
focus on job security, high income, and
advancement, as these factors become more
elusive. Life stages are also important in attaining
future independence; raising families and
preparing for retirement, although people are
deferring retirement as they live longer and their
aims for financial security are further fractured by
economic uncertainties.
These topics are constantly revisited. A
researcher’s ‘emotion’ relationship with job
satisfaction, [39], dormant for decades, was
resurrected in, [43], study on incivility, which
they claimed was common throughout
workplaces. They found that incivility from
supervisors and team members produced negative
emotions, affecting job satisfaction but is
mediated by the employee’s affective control,
[43]. [39], final variable, (productivity) appraisal,
was originally associated with job satisfaction
through its relationships with the other values.
However, a large German study supported, this
[38]. American statistical (quantitative) research
which study? In studying job satisfaction,
Kampkötter, in 2017 found that appraisals linked
to monetary outcomes had a significantly positive
effect on job satisfaction, whilst other forms of
reward (or not) from appraisals were detrimental
to self-determined employees whose expectations
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were undermined by inadequate financial reward,
[44].
In healthcare, associating job satisfaction with
stress, [45], determined a ‘good’ (or perhaps
marginal) relationship between job satisfaction
and burnout (correlation r = 0.478), and a
correlation of r = 0.42 - 0.43 for job satisfaction
and self-esteem, anxiety, and depression.
2.7 Intention to Leave
Research interest in the intention to leave the
employer (or profession) was accelerated by a
global slump in nursing careers late last century,
[46]. Probing the mindset of employees regarding
their intention to leave is an accepted research
plan and method frequently chosen by researchers;
however, few if any of these snapshot studies
followed up on whether people left their
employers, or if so, why they left. For example,
[47], studied nurses who wanted to leave their
profession, finding affirmative factors including
lack of support, unsympathetic supervisors, and
lack of work time flexibility. Interestingly, this
was a longitudinal study; however, they were
unable to confirm individual outcomes from the
study.
There are many variables relating to quitting:
job resources and burnout/intention to leave, [48].
Another contemporary study of family physicians
tracked individuals (<50 years of age) over five
years, confirming that 16.5% left direct patient
care with their intention to leave significantly
correlated with leaving, although job satisfaction
only mediated the effect and was not a direct
contributor, [49].
Of the few cohort studies, participants in a
Turin hospital were surveyed on factors related to
intention to leave. Healthcare staff with more than
20 years’ seniority with fractious emergency team
relationships intended to leave their work unit.
Those with over 11 years’ seniority, highly
educated, and in private employment were likely
to leave the hospital (employer); whilst those aged
over forty years stated that working conditions
(remuneration) were influential in leaving the
healthcare profession, [50]. Reporting on a 2010 –
2011 Brazilian nurse survey, [51], found that
being young and male were poor indicators for
remaining in the profession.
A United States federal services database
survey by, [52], although dated, showed a strong
turnover relationship with variables of age and
length of service. A comparison of two statistical
bases revealed annual attrition rates for new starts
as 25% in the first year, 16.5% by the next year,
then 12.4% in the third year, declining to around
5% for the second and third decades and rising
again to approximately 10% annually for the 30th
year (or over 53 years of age), and 18% for the
35th year (15% annually over age 60 years).
The second part of the federal services
database analysis was the intention to leave. [52],
found an inverse relationship between intention to
leave and leaving at the beginning of a staff
member’s career as well as at the end, illustrating
the outflow of staff noted in the above analysis in
the first few years of employment. They attributed
the early turnover results to sample bias: those
who intended to leave did not fill out the survey.
Then, at the end of a career, the intention to leave
was well over double the rate of turnover. Using
age as the basis, a correlation between intention
and turnover was good (r = .7) between the ages
of 35 and 55 years. As the Saudi public service
has jobs for life (i.e., the possibility of a long
career), this may hold also although there are no
accessible databases to test this assumption, and
attainment of superannuation eligibility usually
intervenes.
2.8 Research Approaches May Influence
Outcomes
The frame of reference for social researchers
probing aspects of employment is often a variation
of a constructivist design, [52]. The study was a
positivist quantitative design. Constructivist
designs are based on qualitative research plans
where the researcher and the interviewee mutually
‘construct’ and analyze data to probe the reasons
behind a research problem, the ‘why’. However,
the qualitative data may be varied by being
quantitatively validated (mixed methods design),
[53], [54].
Although, [37], use of long-standing
constructivist models and their research processes
of independent, dependent, and mediating
variables were academically valid, the research
approach was not effective in answering their
research questions: why do employees want to
leave, and will they subsequently quit? In, [52],
the data were accessed from publicly available
government records. In this study, the data
published by the Saudi General Authority for
Statistics, 2020 was also quite effective: for the
September 2019 quarter, unemployed Saudi
nationals who had a job and left it without yet
gaining another position were asked why: 50.7%
said they had completed their contract or were laid
off; 38.6% resigned over working conditions, and
the remaining 11.7% left for various reasons
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including health and retirement (2.7%). Those
who chose to leave rather than move jobs did so
because they considered that the remuneration for
the allocated tasks was not worth their time. The
2.7% who retired yet were still in the workforce
arguably preferred working or had insufficient
superannuation and needed extra income, [1].
2.9 Work Satisfaction and Aging
The focus of this study is to test whether longer-
term or older employees may be more ‘satisfied’
than their medium-term (mid-age) or new (young)
coworkers. Consistent with job satisfaction and
other affective employee variables, the answer is
not straightforward, [55], found no age
relationship among Australian health workers
when deciding to stay or leave their employment.
On the other hand, Ertas, in 2015, found that
American millennials were more likely to quit
civil service than their older coworkers, [56].
However, among American youth under 25 years,
unpalatable wage levels ruled intention to leave,
[57].
Of issue, there is no commonality in the
literature on whether employee age cohorts can be
taken to be synonymous with individuals’ length
of service. Very few workers remain with one
employer throughout their careers; in fact, career
progression in the private sector often means
changing employers, [58]. Thus, most studies use
public sector data. One example from Australia
concerned the relationship between ‘innovation
climate’ (where staff ideas are officially supported
and resourced) and intention to leave, [59],
subdivided the concept of ‘intention to leave’ as
moving to another agency, to the private sector, or
to retire, thus giving some cohort dimension to
their data analysis. Those who intended to retire
and their length of service were found to be
influenced by the innovation climate, as
described.
Another aspect of job satisfaction and aging is
‘sustainable labor participation’, that is, the extent
to which older people want to stay at work. In the
Dutch public service, [60], made several
observations relating to employee age cohorts.
They found that older employees considered that
their skills and knowledge were undervalued in
the labor market as a whole and that they were
therefore not employable elsewhere. Yet within
their workplace, they felt excluded and unable to
contribute adequately, and advancement
opportunities that their younger coworkers could
access were not available to them. Nevertheless,
they felt unable or unwilling to work at the same
intensity as the younger cohorts. In these aging
patterns, the Dutch researchers agreed with, [52],
findings that if young American employees found
employment onerous then they left quickly; mid-
age employees were more circumspect in their
intentions to quit their employer; whilst older
employees thought about leaving but did not
follow up, [61], found that employee commitment
(motivation) followed the same pattern, high for
young and older cohorts, and lower for the mid-
age cohort.
2.10 Duration of Leave of the Job
A Prior study (By the author) hypothesized and
found that long-term employees are more likely
than their shorter-term counterparts to leave their
employer. However, this finding contradicts
existing literature, including the United States
federal services database survey by, [52], which
found the opposite; newer employees were more
likely to leave their employer than those who had
been with the company for longer. To address this
contradiction, this paper asked a double-sided
question: do older employees value their work
more, or do they intend to leave at a greater rate
than their younger coworkers, and how does this
intention to leave differ between the Saudi labor
market and the global labor market?
To answer this question, first, a literature
review was conducted to understand the existing
hypotheses and findings in the field on a global
basis. Then, for information on Saudi Arabia
specifically, as there is a lack of existing studies,
data was collected from the Saudi General
Authority for Statistics 2020, [1]. Finally, a simple
survey was conducted, collecting 227 responses
from the 25% of Saudis who left their private
sector employers voluntarily to offer empirical
insight into the problem.
The affective variables first established by
psychologists for mid-century American
manufacturers endured far longer (at least in one
instance) than their originators imagined. [42],
stated that the changing nature of employment as
depicted by, [62], in 2017, had now put the values
of ongoing employment, advancement, and
income, higher on the values scale for employee
cohorts raising families and those working
towards retirement. According to the Office of
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),
2018, part-time (atypical work) of ‘less than 30
hours’ per week is the norm for over 35% of
Dutch, and around 25% of Japanese, Indonesians,
Australians, and Swiss, well up from low part-
time rates for past generations, [63]. The ‘less
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than 35 hours’ rate for the United States was
22.6% in 2020 and is similar for several OECD
states, [64].
The age/longevity response was mixed and
was found to be based on income. Young
(millennial) workers were not staying with an
employer without good reason, typically money
and experience, [65]. Mid-age workers raising
families needed promotions and higher income
and were, therefore, less committed to
organizations that did not deliver, [52], [61]. Older
workers finally left or retired, but were in no hurry
to do so, building up their funds and
superannuation for retirement – or not, [42].
The Saudi labor market does not follow the
same patterns as employment in other countries,
as economic self-support in the Kingdom is based
on different values. Women are very slowly
entering the workforce, the first generation to do
so in any number. Their economic contribution
last century was confined to education and nursing
in gender-segregated professions, although they
may have worked in family firms (waste) in the
private sector. Saudi employees’ careers are
influenced by their social security entitlements at
25 years payment and their numbers fall away
significantly in their forties, [1]. This supports
their retreat from work commitments; they may be
just biding time to gain full social security for a
long retirement. Whilst there is provision for
atypical or part-time work in the Saudi Labor Law
there are no statistics regarding this for Saudi
nationals and atypical work remains subject to
future research.
3 Methodology of Research
A survey related to experience and work values or
preferences was conducted to complete the task. A
survey of 227 employees was taken with a
structured questionnaire. The participants’
responses were categorized as novice or short-
term employees having under 3 years of
experience, mid-term employees having 3-9 years
of experience, and experts or long-term employees
having over 10 years of experience. Of the 227
respondents, 151 were experts (66.5%), 47 were
mid-term employees (20.7%), and the remaining
29 were novices (12.8%).
The survey aimed to know: Are long-term or
short-term employees in Saudi Arabia more likely
to leave a job. The survey aimed to answer this
question by asking respondents “Who is more
likely to search for a new job? A) A person who
served 3 years or less or B) A person who served
10 years or more.” In this analysis, full validation
of responses of respondents was estimated in the
result and the one was excluded that have the lack
of experience to understand the preferences and
values of longer-term employees, as well as they
were unable to provide proper information that
fulfilled the study objectives. A descriptive
analysis was used for the same and the result was
interpreted accordingly in the analysis section.
4 Analysis of Study
From Table 1 it can be seen that the majority
58.6% agreed that long-term employees are more
likely to leave the job than short-term employees
41.4% of the respondents. In addition, the result
also found that mid-term experience holders
respondents agreed that long-term employees are
more likely to leave their employer 56.3% than
short-term employees 43.8%, (Table 1).
Table 1. Are long-term or short-term employees more likely to leave a job?
Who is Likely to Leave a Job?
Overall Experience
Percent
Cumulative Percent
Long-Term
Long-term
58.6%
58.6
Short-term
41.4%
100.0
Total
100.0%
Mid-Term
Long-term
56.3%
56.3
Short-term
43.8%
100.0
Total
100.0%
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However, despite knowing that long-term
employees are more likely to leave their employer,
the question of ‘why’ remains. As the workforce
ages, employers should be aware of the incentives
targeted at different age cohorts which attract
productivity as well as the intention to stay. As
well, understanding the differences and
similarities between Saudi Arabian employees and
foreign employees will aid human resources
departments in welcoming and supporting
expatriates. As such, the second focus of the
survey was to ask, “What are the factors
influencing the decision to leave? Choices:
Experience, Mentoring, Salary, Appraisal and
Promotion, Culture,” to aid hiring managers in
understanding which factors are the most
important in retaining employees.
As expected, salary was found to be the most
important factor, but with inflation and a declining
economy, salary increases are not always an
option in hiring or retaining employees. Rather,
the HR team can instead focus on the 2nd most
important factor, culture, than the 3rd, etc. The full
ranking of Saudi Arabia employees’ preferences
as found by the survey may be seen in Figure
1.The survey also attempted to understand the
general preferences of Saudi employees and
analyze how these preferences, besides income,
vary based on length of service. The survey aimed
to answer this question by asking “What is more
important? A) Income and Training/Experience or
B) Income and Job Title/Higher Responsibilities.”
As may be seen in Table 2, long-term employees
slightly prefer experience over title (50.6%
compared to 49.4%), mid-term employees
moderately prefer title over experience (51.7%
compared to 48.3%), and short-term employees
prefer experience or training 7 times as much as
their title (87.5% compared to 12.5%).
Fig. 1: Saudi Arabia Employee’s Preferences
Table 2. How do the preferences of long-term and short-term employees vary?
19,4%
19,8%
24,2%
29,5%
42,7%
45,8%
0,0% 5,0% 10,0% 15,0% 20,0% 25,0% 30,0% 35,0% 40,0% 45,0% 50,0%
Appraisal system
Low experience gained
Job security
Promotion
Culture
Salary
Saudi Arabia Employee's Preferences
Preference
Overall Experience
Percent
Valid
Percent
Cumulative
Percent
Long-term
employee
Valid
Experience
50.6%
50.6
50.6
Title & Responsibility
49.4%
49.4
100.0
Total
100.0%
100.0
Short-term
Employee
Valid
Experience
87.5%
87.5
87.5
Title & Responsibility
12.5%
12.5
100.0
Total
100.0%
100.0
Mid-term
Employee
Valid
Experience
48.3%
48.3
48.3
Title & Responsibility
51.7%
51.7
100.0
Total
100.0%
100.0
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These results may aid HR in retaining
employees and decreasing turnover rates by
catering to the preferences of their employees:
providing opportunities for experience and
training to their short- and mid-term employees,
while offering long-term employees more
responsibility and higher titles.
5 Conclusion
While there exists a limited amount of literature
comparing and exploring employee satisfaction
and the intention to leave Saudi Arabia, this paper
helps fill the knowledge gap. This review has
found that Saudi employees leave when their
social security entitlements are attained. A very
similar effect occurs globally, however,
employees in other countries take much longer to
gain the same level of financial independence
which permits them to leave without financial
risk.
This result is beneficial to understand both
within Saudi Arabia and globally. First, by
understanding the values and preferences which
factor into an employee’s decision to either
remain or leave their employer are known,
companies can work to address these preferences,
increasing employee satisfaction and reducing
their turnover rate. As was found in this study, one
of these main values is financial stability.
However, in the case of inflation and a declining
economy, where salary increases are not always
an option, hiring managers can turn to secondary
preferences, such as culture, as found in this
study.
Second, within the Saudi population, 37% are
non-Saudi citizens, thus, understanding the
similarities and differences between citizens and
expatriates may benefit employers, and
particularly their HR department, by fostering a
workplace environment that caters to the values
and preferences of both Saudi citizens and foreign
employees, [66]. Much the same is true for global
companies employing Saudi citizens and other
foreign employees.
In the future, it would be beneficial to further
verify the results of this literature using various
user research methods which directly study
employees’ values and preferences. This will both
provide additional validity to these findings and
further expand the knowledge base by allowing
greater insight into employees’ values and
preferences.
Additionally, it would be recommended that
future studies focus on the differences between
female and male employees, especially in Saudi
Arabia where female employees are only just
beginning to enter the workforce in great numbers,
as well as study the differences between Saudi
Arabia and the global market to further understand
the differences between citizens and expatriates.
In addition, it is to be noted that the employer
needs to motivate the employees not to leave the
job, they should be provided some incentive to
stop further such kind of employees’ attitude. And
short-term employers also take care of achieving
the long-term goals of organizations as more
turnover will lead to a loss of image and not
having good employees for a longer period will
badly affect the employee culture which will be a
potential barrier to the success of the organization.
Another limitation of this study is that it
focused solely on private-sector employment in
Saudi Arabia. In the future, studies that, in
addition to the private sector, investigate the
public sector would have the potential to add
significant contributions to the field.
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Contribution of Individual Authors to the
Creation of a Scientific Article (Ghostwriting
Policy)
The author contributed in the present research, at
all stages from the formulation of the problem to
the final findings and solution.
Sources of Funding for Research Presented in a
Scientific Article or Scientific Article Itself
No funding was received for conducting this study.
Conflict of Interest
The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
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