More than half--58%--of U.S. workers have confidence in their company's leadership. A full 66% say that they would recommend their firm to their friends who are seeking a job.
Those figures come from a survey conducted in April, 2006 by NetReflector, a company that offers
tools for gathering customer and employee feedback. The survey included 9, 351 people in 10 different countries. I'm not sure of the exact amount from the U.S. survey population.
What does this mean?
We're always seeing headlines or journal articles about difficulty in recruiting and retaining talent. If these stats are true, then companies would seem to have a lot going for them. Additionally, the NetReflector folks point out that high employee satisfaction usually equates with high customer satisfaction. Not bad.
Is there a hidden challenge in there?
I think so. Yesterday's post here was about what job seekers want. The top 3 items were interesting, challenging work; rewards and recognition for accomplishments; and a chance for quick career growth and advancement.
The NetReflector survey asked "what could bosses do better?" The highest percentage of responses stated "use my skills and abilities better." And just under half (49%) felt that what they did actually contributed to the company's mission.
If we can assume that this is an accurate representation, then supervisors and managers can probably boost their effectiveness even more by focusing on two things:
1. Creating assignments that offer some stretch goals and professional growth
2. Intentionally talking about how the work unit's efforts tie into the company's overall mission
I'm thinking that if managers are allowed to focus on just a couple of meaningful things at a time--instead of being faced with multiple programmatic fads--they can make a difference.
What do you managers think?
I like Survey Prof most of all survey websites. It is free, it has been made for students.
Posted by: John | June 27, 2011 at 06:53 AM