Majority of Working Adults Say They Are Paid Fairly,
‘Productive,’ Responsible for Own Career Success
Only 10% of Working Adults Look
to Federal Government for Job Security
Companies with ‘Engaged’ Employees
See Higher Shareholder Return
Wayne, PA, (April 11, 2011) — New research is revealing a portrait of the American worker that offers clues to success for employees, for employers, and for the unemployed who want to find their way back into the workforce.
The findings come from a nationwide survey of over 1,000 working adults conducted in February and March 2011 by the research firm Ipsos on behalf of Kenexa, a global provider of business solutions for human resources, and from the most recent Kenexa Research Institute WorkTrends Annual Report.
“This is provocative research,” said Rudy Karsan, Kenexa’s CEO, “and it says loud and clear that the employees who will see success in our recovering economy are the ones who think of the organizations where they work as ‘We,’ not ‘They’.”
Karsan is co-author (with Kevin Kruse) of the recently published New York Times bestseller entitled WE: How to Increase Performance and Profits Through Full Engagement.
“We have year after year of global research, based on input from tens of millions of employees that confirms that a precise understanding of the concept ‘engagement’ and the willingness to pursue that concept with concrete steps will mean new levels of success for employer and employee,” said Karsan.
The 2008 Kenexa Research Institute WorkTrends Report, for example, concluded that the top 25% of corporations as measured by employee engagement saw 5-year total shareholder return (TSR) of 18%. The bottom 25% of corporations as measured by employee engagement saw an approximately 4% negative 5-year TSR for the same period.
(Kenexa bases its measurement of “engagement” on four components: “satisfaction,” “advocacy,” “retention,” and “pride”.)
The February/March 2011 poll conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Kenexa provides a fascinating snapshot of the views and attitudes of currently working Americans.
Among those findings:
--A full 60% of American workers believe they are paid fairly. Just over a third think they are underpaid (37%). How many say they are overpaid? Just 2%.
--Out of 7 factors impacting job security, one quarter of all surveyed workers (26%) chose “their own performance” as having the most impact, tied with the U.S. economy (also 26%).
--Americans are not looking to the federal government when it comes to providing job security. Only 10% think “the federal government is the factor that affects their job security the most.”
“The individuals who are in the workplace today think ‘there is no one else who’s going to look out for me; I need to do it myself,’” said Karsan. “This is a healthy, mature, and realistic way to approach the workplace.”
--Americans don’t agree with the character “Peter,” the liberated slacker in the movie Office Space, who tells the HR consultants: “in a given week, I probably do about fifteen minutes of real, actual work.” In contrast, 77% of Americans say they are productive for at least 6 hours during an average day.
But not all is roses in the workplace.
The survey found that 25% of workers reported being bullied by a supervisor. “This is a subject that is getting increasing attention, from the playground to the office,” noted Karsan. Women are slightly more likely to say they have been bullied than men (28% versus 22%).
“This latest poll talked only to employed Americans,” said Karsan. “So what can the millions of Americans who are desperately trying to join those ranks draw from this research?” said Karsan.
“I believe the key lies with the attitude that both working Americans and those wanting work need to assume and communicate, and that is the attitude that I am going to think of my current or future employer as ‘We,’ not ‘They,’” said Karsan.
“This is a critical difference between people who are having good careers—and good lives generally—and those who aren’t,” said Karsan.
The February/March 2011 poll said that 72% of working Americans refer to the organizations where they work as “We.” Only 20% refer to their organization as “They.”
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Kenexa® provides business solutions for human resources. The company helps global organizations multiply business success by identifying the best individuals for every job and fostering optimal work environments for every organization. For more than 20 years, Kenexa has studied human behavior and team dynamics in the workplace, and has developed the software solutions, business processes and expert consulting that helps organizations achieve positive business outcomes through HR. Headquartered in Wayne, PA, with 19 offices worldwide, Kenexa is the only company that offers a comprehensive suite of unified products and services that support the entire employee lifecycle from pre-hire to exit. Follow Kenexa (http://www.kenexa.com) on Twitter: @kenexa.
For additional information about the survey after April 2nd, please visit:
http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx?id=5170
These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted February 24-28 and March 3-7, 2011. For the survey, a nationally representative sample of 1,044 randomly-selected employed adults aged 18 and over residing in the U.S. was interviewed by telephone via Ipsos’ U.S. Telephone Express omnibus. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate within ±3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire population of employed adults in the U.S. been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/gender composition reflects that of the actual U.S. population of employed adults according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Ipsos is a leading global survey-based market research company that helps interpret, simulate, and anticipate the needs and responses of consumers, customers, and citizens around the world.
Kenexa’s founder and CEO, Rudy Karsan, is available for interviews about the survey described here or his new bestseller WE: How To Increase Performance and Profits Through Full Engagement (Wiley Publishing 2011).
CONTACT:
Wallace Sanders
(202) 360-8736
wallacesanders@mindspring.com