Are Employee Attachment Levels Up?

Friday, September 30, 2011

Employee attachment levels, in other words, employee engagement, are they increasing in these economic times? Increased levels of employee engagement are seen as indicators of higher levels of employee retention, product and service production, increased customer service, and lowered production costs. Randstad, the global staffing organization, recently reported that “employee attachment levels” have risen during the first two quarters of 2011. The Randstad Employee Attachment Index reported a 5 percentage point rise in employee attachment between March and June of 2011. The survey of both employees and employers attempts to measure “… employees’ sentiments, potential actions and attitudes … indicators to reduce potential employee volatility.” By attempting to measure the differences in the perceptions of employees and employers, the survey attempts to identify the “gap” between those two groups.

So what did the survey tell us, is the glass half full or half empty?

Half Full:

• A 5 percentage point increase from the initial study in March and the follow-up in June 2011.

• Employee volatility: how likely employees were to seek alternative employment declined about 4 percentage points.

• 66% of all employees are likely to stay with their current employers over the next 6 months.

• 50% of highly engaged employees are likely to stay with their current employers.

Half Empty:

• Retention by engagement: a measure of the correlation between an employee’s engagement and the likelihood they will leave. 29% of the highest engaged employees report they “are somewhat to very likely to seek” a new job within the following six months.

• Employer – employee disconnect: a series of metrics of the “gab” between the perceptions of employers and employees. Significant disconnect appears in the areas of employee recognition and “Enjoying going to work every day”.

• Reasons for seeking alternative employment:

    • 38% -- Inadequate pay 

    • 24% -- High stress level

    • 23% -- Lack of opportunity for advancement

• Commitment in question: when questioned about their perception that employers are “committed”, employees responding to the survey graded their employers between 2.2 and 2.6 on a 5 point scale.

• Employers vs. employees on motivation: a 14 percentage point gap was reported between Employers (88%) and employees (64%) on employee motivation levels. Similar gaps were found in “training” and job “commitment”.

• Employee retention: over 50% of employers reporting struggling with retention and over 70% have difficulty in recruiting the “right” employees.

• Employer confidence dips: employer’s confidence around their own organization’s ability to succeed fell from the mid 80’s to about the mid 70’s.

• Optimism about the future: employers vs. employees, as with motivation, the survey found highly significant gaps between employers and employees and their perception of the future of their organizations. The greatest gap between employers (83%) and employees (57%) is whether the organization is hiring the “right” management employees.

Many of the gaps reported by Randstad’s Employee Attachment Index are well documented by the large human resources consulting and management firms. The gaps noted in the survey between employer and employee perceptions are, to some extent, to be expected, and also well documented. While in and of itself, the survey may provide little in the way of new insight into the employer-employee relationship, nevertheless, it does reinforce that employee engagement is one of several key factors vital to the current and future success of every organization.