Workers Send Clear Message to Employers: Put Aside Bonuses and Stock Options -- Keep Us Safe

New CareerBuilder Survey Suggests Workers Have New Priorities In the face of terrorism, safety is now closer to the top of the wish list for workers. Workplace safety has overtaken the trendy job satisfiers that once dominated and defined the Internet boom, including bonuses, stock options and other perks.

In the face of terrorism, safety is now closer to the top of the wish list for workers. Workplace safety has overtaken the trendy job satisfiers that once dominated and defined the Internet boom, including bonuses, stock options and other perks. According to a new CareerBuilder survey, Worker Resilience: Post 9/11, safety was chosen by 82 percent of full-time workers as a significant job component.

September 11 forced many workers into a high-alert status," said Barry Lawrence, a career expert with CareerBuilder. The survey indicates workers are looking for companies to create comfortable, dependable and safer work environments."

The Top 10 job satisfiers, according to workers:

1.   Salary.
2.   Work/life balance.
3.   Benefits.
4.   Relationship with direct supervisor.
5.   Company location.
6.   Career growth opportunities.
7.   Relationships with peers.
8.   Flexible schedule.
9.   Workplace safety.
10.   Company success.

Not in the Top 10: bonuses, perks, corporate leadership, job titles, stock options and opportunity for travel.

Being Prepared

Safety has moved up the list because the comfort of being prepared for a disaster helps workers cope," Lawrence said. Workers are moving back to the basics -- 'show me the money, let me have a life and keep me safe."

According to the survey, only 53 percent of workers said their companies had an emergency plan that had been communicated. Seventy-nine percent said companies need to take additional action. According to the workers polled, employers should:

-Develop and train employees on disaster preparedness.
-Increase building security.
-Improve procedures for package and mail handling.
-Allow more flexibility for working at home.
-Conduct more thorough employee background checks.
-Improve property surveillance (cameras and guards, for example).
-Provide medical preventive measures, when necessary (antibiotics and vaccines, for example).

About the Survey
The CareerBuilder Worker Resilience: Post-9/11 was conducted October 25, 2001, through October 30, 2001. A total of 1,187 full-time workers participated in the survey. To collect data for the survey, CareerBuilder commissioned SurveySite to use an e-mail methodology whereby individuals who are members of SurveySite Web Panel were randomly selected and approached by e-mail invitation to participate in the online survey. The results of this survey are accurate within +/- 2.8 percent.

About CareerBuilder
CareerBuilder is the recruiting source for connecting employers with the right talent and professionals with the right jobs -- in print and online. CareerBuilder attracts candidates from more than 100 national, local and niche career sources, including Web portals Yahoo! Careers and USATODAY.com, and specialty sites such as Bloomberg.com,ComputerJobs.com, SiliconValley.com, iVillage.com and the American Hospital Association. In partnership with Tribune Company (NYSE:TRB) and Knight-Ridder Inc. (NYSE: KRI), CareerBuilder provides the most integrated print and online recruitment solutions available in major markets throughout the United States, including CareerBuilder-branded help wanted sections reaching more than 25 million people every Sunday. With the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, The Miami Herald, The San Jose Mercury News, and The Philadelphia Inquirer, as well as many other major metropolitan newspapers and local news and information sites throughout the country, CareerBuilder provides more local jobs than any other recruitment solution. For more information about CareerBuilder products and services, call 888.670.TEAM or visit CareerBuilder at www.careerbuilder.com.

Press Contact:
Alicia Ephraim, CareerBuilder, 703-259-5886 alicia.ephraim@careerbuilder.com