Social workers’ struggles for work adaptation, such as dissatisfaction in work, the lack of motivation at work, the increased departure rate, and demoralization, have recently become a crucial issue, which directly leads to the stability of the workers and the results of social welfare services. Therefore, it is high time to conduct more surveys of the actual circumstances and propose realistic alternatives. Hence, this study involved the empirical analysis of the status and job satisfaction of workers of social welfare institutions, based upon the factors affecting job satisfaction, which were found out by preceding researchers. Not only those working in Gumi, but the social workers in other parts of Korea were targeted, as the reference resources of this study, so that they can practice better welfare services in future.
Considering all the above, the results of the study, targeting workers of social welfare institutions, can be summed up as follows:
First, the statistical analysis of the general situations of those working at social welfare institutions reveals:
In general, 85.92% of the social workers are women and 73% of them below 35 years old, and those aged over 56 were not employed. As well, 70.24% were unmarried; most of the workers were relatively young and unmarried. In addition, 64.79% had less than 24 months (2 years) of experience in the job, which calls for the urgent need to prepare solutions about long-term and continuous service. Furthermore, 57.75% had the second grade of qualification in social work, while 23.94% had none. For academic backgrounds, the workers generally graduated from at least 2-year colleges. 74% have changed jobs more than once whereas 25.35% have never changed their jobs. 25% have had more than 3 occupational changes, which requires urgent measures. The top four reasons for such changes included the work environment (32.07%), low wages (15.09%), inability to adapt to work (9.43%), and impersonal treatment (5.66%).
Regarding the work environment of social welfare institutions, 52.11% of them have 11 to 20 employees, and (questionnaire) respondents were selected evenly from nursing homes for seniors, facilities for the medically handicapped, and organizations for the disabled, and childcare institutions. Also, 84.51% of the workers work full time while 15.49% part time, which requires plans for employment security. Although 87.32% work 8 to 10 hours per day, 13% still work for over 11 hours, which is much higher than the standard, 8 hours, prescribed in the Labor Standard Act. Furthermore, 45.07% were paid from 12,000,000 to 18,000,000 won per year, but 5.63% are paid less than the minimum wage (8,000,000 won). In such circumstances, measures for those working for over 8 hours are desperately needed.
Second, the study involved the correlation analysis to find out the relationship between departure intentions and the job satisfaction. The analysis revealed negative correlation between the two (-0.453 from the significant level, 99%). It implies that, the higher departure intentions, the lower the job satisfaction, and vice versa.
Third, the study employed the analysis of variance to investigate departure intentions and the job satisfaction of social workers, which led to the following conclusion:
Departure intentions were shown relatively high if they are male, aged between 26 and 35, unmarried, employed for 7 to 12 months, college graduates with the first grade of qualification in social work, with 4 occupational changes, employed in places with more than 31 workers, or in institutions for the disabled, working full time.
Further, the job satisfaction was higher if the workers are male, aged between 18 and 25 or over 46, unmarried, lower than high-school graduates, with the second-grade social work certificate, employed for over 49 months, without any experience in other jobs, currently working at places with less than 10 workers, at childcare institutions or facilities, working part time.
Fourth, the result of research on the job satisfaction according to the controlled variables of social workers revealed significant differences in facility types, the size of institutions, academic background, and the marital status.
From now on, this research study intends to provide basic resources for high-quality childcare services by analyzing the job satisfaction and departure intentions of workers of social welfare institutions in Gumi and suggesting solutions to improve the job satisfaction.