Here's the presentation I gave at Upstream Group's Seller Forum on 6/27/13. Bottom line: (1) more than half your employees plan to leave in next two years (2) training and career path are the keys to retention.

1. The Happiness Gap
The Happiness Gap

2. The Happiness Gap
About the Survey
• Goal to determine drivers and effects of job
satisfaction in digital media industry
• Digiday polled its opted-in base of leading digital
media and marketing professionals
• Results gathered over 3 weeks
– February 11 – March 3, 2013
• 601 Respondents including 171 Publishers

3. The Happiness Gap

4. The Happiness Gap
How We Analyzed the Results

5. The Happiness Gap

6. The Happiness Gap
• Multiple regression analyses were
conducted to identify the most important
predictors of Industry Job Satisfaction
• New variables were introduced to rinse
and condense the information present
in survey questions
• Explored using both interval scale and
dummy variables. In the end, we used
dummy variables for our analysis

7. The Happiness Gap

8. The Happiness Gap
The Results

9. The Happiness Gap
Happiness by Industry Role
3.29 3.21
3.58 3.54 3.46
Advertiser Agency Publisher Tech / Service
Provider
Other

10. The Happiness Gap
We’re Generally a Happy Group
3.5
10.5
18.1
59.6
8.2
Miserable Unhappy Satisfied Enjoy Love
Rate Your Happiness
85.9%

11. The Happiness Gap
And We’re Getting a Bit Happier
2.9
17.0
39.8
26.9
13.5
Much Worse Worse Same Better Much Better
Change in Happiness in Last 12 Months

12. The Happiness Gap
What we LOVE
about our jobs

13. The Happiness Gap
“That I am The Man”

14. The Happiness Gap
We Love the people, the technology, and the dynamic nature of our jobs

15. The Happiness Gap
Always… / Constantly…
• Always a new challenge
• Always challenging and changing as technology and landscape constantly changes.
Young and/or young minded people work in industry.
• Always dynamic and never a dull moment. Also, it's not black and white which
provides a constant challenge and opportunity to innovate and test.
• Always interesting, never boring
• Always moving and changing. Always something to learn and implement.
• Constant learning and innovation
• Constantly changing marketplace, applied mathematics, custom sales solutions,
RFPs, thinking outside the box, I get to play in a lot of different sandboxes
• Constantly changing, exciting field.
• Continually evolving.

16. The Happiness Gap
What we HATE
about our jobs

17. The Happiness Gap
“That other people
hate The Man”

18. The Happiness Gap
“I hate how crazy the
marketplace has become.
My job has a lot to do
with stalking people and
trying to get answers.”

19. The Happiness Gap
We hate the some of the people (agencies), the work, and the lack of …

20. The Happiness Gap
Lack of…
• Lack of response from agency contacts
• Lack of after sales support. Not having enough time to be a
true consultant to help evaluate campaigns in detail.
• lack of standardization, professionalism, chaotic at times
(but I guess that could be any discipline)
• lack of standards; too much reliance on manual processes
• Lack of tracking metrics, and the ability for ad agencies to
adapt to publisher metrics.

21. The Happiness Gap
We’ve Been Loyal to Our Employer
12.5
28.0
19.0
29.8
10.7
<1 year 1-2 years 3-4 years 5-10 years >10 years
Time in Current Job 59.5%

22. The Happiness Gap
But Not Because We’re Happy
3.71 3.55 3.78 3.56 3.44
<1 year 1-2 years 3-4 years 5-10 years >10 years
Happiness by Time in Current Job

23. The Happiness Gap
Most Plan to Leave in Next 2 years
11.1
45.0
36.8
7.0
Actively looking Next Year or Two Five Years Lifer
Percent by Commitment
56.1%

24. The Happiness Gap
We’re Leaving Because We’re Unhappy
2.7
3.4
3.9 4.1
Actively looking Next Year or Two Five Years Lifer
Happiness by Commitment Level

25. The Happiness Gap
Who is Unhappy?

26. The Happiness Gap
First, what doesn’t
correlate with job happiness

27. The Happiness Gap
Both Sexes Equally Happy
3.49 3.67
Male Female
Happiness by Gender

28. The Happiness Gap
We Work Hard
0.6 0.6 1.2
36.3
40.9
14.6
3.5 2.3
<20 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80+
Percentage by Hours Worked

29. The Happiness Gap
Long Hours Don’t Make Us Unhappy
4.00 4.00
2.00
3.58 3.54 3.56
4.00
4.50
<20 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80+
Happiness by Hours Worked

30. The Happiness Gap
We Feel A Bit Underpaid
4.1
24.6
57.3
4.7
9.4
Gulag Worker Underpaid Fair Overpaid Top of field
Rate Your Compensation

31. The Happiness Gap
But Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness
3.6
3.2
3.7 3.5
3.8
Gulag Worker Underpaid Fair Overpaid Top of field
Happiness by Compensation

32. The Happiness Gap
Tenure Doesn’t Matter Much
3.50 3.54
3.85
3.42
3.69
<1 year 1-2 years 3-4 years 5-10 years >10 years
Happiness by Time in Industry

33. The Happiness Gap
Age Doesn’t Matter
3.58 3.53 3.71 3.50 3.60
20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60+
Happiness by Age

34. The Happiness Gap
Now, here’s what does
correlate with job happiness

35. The Happiness Gap
Underlings Make Us Smile
3.42 3.59 3.70
4.18
3.60
4.00
0 1-10 11-20 21-50 51-100 101+
Happiness by # of People Managed

36. The Happiness Gap
Location makes a difference
3.46 3.50 3.60 3.67 3.83 4.00 4.00 4.00
Happiness by Location

37. The Happiness Gap
We Are Unhappiest in Lower Ranks
3.38 3.39 3.50 3.53 3.89
4.40
3.78 4.17
Happiness by Seniority

38. The Happiness Gap
Training Makes Us Happy
2.80
3.17
3.51
3.82
3.45
Drowning Need Help Adequately
Trained
Maestro In My Sleep
Happiness by Preparation for Current Job

39. The Happiness Gap
A Career Path Makes Us Even Happier
2.43
2.97
3.80 3.94 4.00
Stuck in Dead
End Job
A Chance for
Advancement
Will Eventually
Get Promoted
Easy to get
promoted if
work hard
Guaranteed with
reasonable
effort
Happiness by Opportunity for Advancement

40. The Happiness Gap

41. The Happiness Gap
focus on lower ranks with
training + opportunities
-> happiness
-> retention

42. The Happiness Gap
If we had a magic wand…

43. The Happiness Gap
Publishers want agencies to be creative, understand, and communicate

44. The Happiness Gap
jpych@nextmark.com