Читать книгу Motivating Today's Employees - Lin Grensing-Pophal - Страница 27

Unfortunately, Marczinke’s attitude is fast becoming a rare phenomenon. A study by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, the WorkCanada™ survey, conducted during the summer of 1999, polled more than 1,600 Canadian employees at all job levels and across many industries about their attitudes toward their workplaces and their employers. The results of the study indicate that employee commitment in the Canadian workplace is on the decline. Of those surveyed, only 49 percent indicated that they are committed to their employers, establishing the lowest level of employee commitment in the firm’s four surveys conducted over the past ten years. In 1991, the level of commitment was at 62 percent, but has fallen steadily since. At 49 percent, the Canadian level of commitment is 6 percent less than that reported by American workers in a similar survey.

In addition, 57 percent said they were not positive about their company leaders, only 52 percent were satisfied with their supervisors, and 60 percent were dissatisfied with their input into hiring and evaluation decisions.

The survey showed that five key factors drive employee commitment, with employer awareness of people issues topping the list. These issues involve: recruiting and retention procedures, valuing diversity, providing job security for good work, recognizing the need to balance work and family responsibilities, providing flexible working arrangements, and preparing people to work in a changing environment. Other key drivers of commitment in the Canadian study were —

• job environment,

• communicating business goals, strategies, and results,

• compensation satisfaction, and

• management performance.

The U.S. study identified seven key factors. In order of importance, they are —

• trust in senior leadership,

• chance to use skills on the job,

• job security,

• competitiveness of rewards,

• quality of company’s products/services,

• absence of work-related stress, and

• honesty and integrity of company’s business conduct.

Notably, the study showed variation between responses from Canadian and U.S. workers, in addition to responses from different sectors of the workplace and different levels of employees within the organizations. Employees in the high-tech sector reported higher levels of commitment than those in financial services or manufacturing. Healthcare workers demonstrated the lowest level of commitment. Commitment was also found to be related to the employee’s position in the organization — fewer workers and supervisors were as committed as managers and executives.

Why is commitment important? Watson Wyatt has determined that companies with highly committed employees had a 112 percent three-year total return to shareholders, compared to a 76 percent return for companies that exhibited low employee commitment. Clearly, commitment makes a difference.

Generating commitment among employees through motivation can be a daunting task. As we’ve seen, employees do not respond collectively to an employer’s practices or a supervisor or manager’s efforts; employees respond individually.