Categories - Retention

Recent studies have made it clear that U.S. workers are growing unhappy, especially the younger ones. A recent Conference Board survey of 5,000 households, found that only 45 percent of U.S. workers were satisfied in their jobs – down from 61 percent in 1987.

Employee satisfaction dipped across the board, but workers younger than 25 were most unhappy in their jobs. “Less interesting jobs” was a key reason for worker unhappiness.

Similarly, a recent Tower Perrins report found that workers are falling victim to recession fatigue. The report notes that employees across large global organizations are expressing more negative views on a range of factors, from long-term career opportunities to company leadership. The report noted that “the most dramatic declines are in employees’ perceptions about their career development opportunities at their current employers.”

A dirty little secret about the current economic downturn is that it provides companies with an opportunity to make changes that otherwise would have been difficult.

Promoting employees without giving them a salary increase is one example.

Can’t do that, you say? Employees would never stand for it?

“That’s not the way we handle things around here?”

The fact of the matter is, for the majority of companies competing in today’s challenging environment, a number of rewards are offered to full-time, regular members of the workforce, including eligibility for both a regular bonus and an equity grant.

Everyone’s heard about the controversy over at NBC. After a not-so-successful attempt at prime time, Jay Leno is moving back to his old time slot and Conan O’Brien is hitting the road.

As all the drama unfolded, I started thinking about how NBC isn’t the only organization to mismanage its succession planning and face a battle of superstar wills. Consider the following...

You’ve got two superstars working for you in similar positions. Star A has been around the longest and is your #1 player. Star B is quickly coming up the ranks though and shows a tremendous amount of potential. Both stars have their own unique style, and both work hard and contribute substantially to your business.

It’s often impossible for an organization to pick who it values more – its seasoned veteran or its hot-shot rookie. While one has made substantial contributions, the other promises to be the next big thing – or an even better thing. Balancing the needs of both can be a tricky task…

I can’t keep up anymore.

One day the economy is up, the next day it is down. One month job losses are steady, the next they’re higher than expected.

We hear the economy has turned the corner, only to be warned that it might be a temporary thing. For the past 18 months, it has been a wild roller coaster ride, and I think most everyone would agree that the ride isn’t over yet.

For human resources departments, it’s been trying times as they work to balance organizational and business pressures with the needs of a stressed and fragile workforce. I think the next few months are going to push HR folks even more, as an increasing number of their employees express discontent over their pay.

Chances are your company has made some tough decisions over the past year in order to cope with the economic climate. Perhaps you’ve frozen salaries, reduced your bonus pool, or cut an employee benefit. You probably agonized a bit over making the changes, but did you spend as much time talking with employees about the changes as you did planning and making them? Probably not, which could be a problem for you. Aside from confusing and upsetting your employees, you may have hurt your bottom line.

Watson Wyatt’s recently released Communication ROI Study details how effective employee communication is an indicator of financial performance, since better communication leads to more engaged employees, and engaged employees are more productive and reach their performance goals. When all else is equal, the company that makes great employee communication a priority and delivers on it will perform better than the company that does not.

Lucky for you, Watson Wyatt’s recipe for successful employee communication seems simple enough. All it takes is a bit of courage, innovation, and discipline. Here’s my take on what the report says:

WorldatWork recently released the results of its 2009/2010 U.S. Strategic Rewards Study, completed in partnership with Watson Wyatt. Results of the survey indicate that the economic recession hasn’t just had a financial impact on organizations; employee engagement and morale have dropped.

The survey reports that employee engagement for all levels of performers has dropped 9 percent since last year, and a staggering 23 percent for top performers. The cost-cutting measures organizations have had to put in place, including layoffs, wage freezes, reduced bonuses, and sometimes pay cuts, have weakened employee commitment.

Cross-training is receiving renewed attention from companies around the globe. In Singapore, for instance, GlaxoSmithKline plans to cross-train employees to make them “more flexible in a fast-changing business environment.” W.R. Grace’s new Customer Centre of Excellence near Barcelona encourages cross training among product groups, “allowing for increased productivity and efficiencies.”

Inc.com  defines cross-training as “teaching an employee who was hired to perform one job function the skills required to perform other job functions.” Cross-training can enhance an employee’s depth of skills (e.g., training a veteran sales person to sell other types of product lines), or add to an employee’s breadth of knowledge (training a compensation analyst to administer benefits.)

Too often, and especially nowadays during these most challenging economic times, I hear of companies that are foregoing a formal performance review process for one reason or another. In nearly every case, the rationale for doing so is that they:

• have to focus on all of their efforts on getting a product to market, or

• can’t distract their sales, marketing, and senior leadership folks from trying to land a key customer, or

• will do an abbreviated version of a review in the near future, or

• need to give attention to other priorities right now.