More Talent Management Facts #15

“Statistics are like bikinis.  What they  reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal  is vital.”

Aaron Levenstein

Another addition of leadership and talent  management “facts” from all over the world.   Some intuitive and some not….what do you  think?

1. The 2010 SHRM Employee Job Satisfaction Survey revealed that job satisfaction among  older employees remained about the same  through the recession but 19% of those  workers in both the Millennial generation and  Generation X reported being dissatisfied  compared to only 11% for both groups in 2008.   It should be fun figuring out how to engage  younger talent today given that only 28% of  organizations have plans to hire 2010  graduates compared to 52% in 2007.

2. In a 2010 survey by Workscape, 65% of  employers polled reported that they were  considering pay increases to increase  retention while 46% will consider increasing  or improving benefits.  Only 10% of  organizations actually cut pay in 2009 but  39% froze pay increases and compensation.

3.  Data from 24,436 IBM employees in 75  countries explored the point at which 25% of  talent reported the work got in the way of  family and personal life.  For those working  on a regular office schedule, the breaking  point came in at 38 hours per week.  But,  given a flexible schedule and telecommuting  employees worked 57 hours per week before  they reported work/life balance conflict.  It  appeared that telecommuting was only  beneficial for reducing work/life inbalance  when flextime was also available.

4. A recent 2010 Newsweek pool asked leaders  to rank attributes in talent in order of  importance.  Of 9 character traits, “looks“  came in third below experience (No.1) and  confidence (No. 2) but above where a  candidate went to school (No. 4).  Economist  Daniel Hamermesh’s research confirms that  over a career, a good-looking man will make some $250,000.00 more than his least- attractive counterpart.

5. Fifty seven percent of corporate managers  asked by a different Newsweek poll of 202 corporate HR hiring managers said landing a  job is much harder for unattractive  candidates. About 60% of overweight women and  men reported they have experienced employment  discrimination and 50% of the hiring managers  encouraged candidates to spend as much money  on their looks as on their resumes  http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/19/poll-how– much-is-beauty-worth-at-work.html

6. In a 2010 SHRM survey of 819 professionals  (Organizations Response to Health Care  Reform), 64% of companies reported they were  “highly likely” or “Likely” to pass along  increased health care coverage costs to  employees in 2011 (23% were unsure and only  12% were “unlikely” or “highly unlikely”).

7. In the 2010 Employee Job Satisfaction Survey (SHRM) of 606 members, the top contributors to job satisfaction for employees  included: job security (1), benefits (2),  opportunity to use skills/abilities (3)  the  work itself (4) tying with organizational job  security and pay (5).

8. The average number of people who  supervisors trade gossip with is 7.4 compared  to only 3.9 that non-supervisors trade gossip  with (Joe Labianca, University of Kentucky).   Positive gossip at work is actually more  prevalent than negative according to his  research (72% of those analyzed found a blend  of positive and negative, 21% were  predominantly positive and 7% were  predominantly negative).

9.  A recent Catalyst study on mentoring  reported that 83% of women were as likely to get mentoring compared to men but 72% of the  women studies do not believe that mentoring  provides the same benefits as their male counterparts.  Men had a higher number of  executives who served as actual mentors  relative to women (78% versus 69%) and only  11% of males had female mentors versus women  (36% had female mentors).   www.catalyst.org/publication/413/mentoring– sponsorship.

10.  A 2010 pool conducted by the Kessler  Foundation and National Organization on  Disabilities found that among all working age  people with disabilities only 21% said they were  employed full or part time compared with 59%  of working age people without. Among those  with disabilities described themselves as  unemployed, 73% reported their disability was  the cause.

11. The excellent 2010 Zogby/Workplace  Bullying Institute study showed that although 34.5% of respondents had experienced workplace bullying at some point in their  career, fewer than 9% were currently  experiencing it — a drop from the nearly 13%  who reported be bullied in 2007.

12. The staffing firm Randstad has created an  index of employee satisfaction and other  work-related attitudes and behavior across 26  countries. While Japan, according to it, has  the lowest satisfaction, with only 41% of its  workers calling themselves either very  satisfied or satisfied with their employer,  Denmark tops the charts at 83%. (Note that  there is other research that shows the Danes  are the happiest people in the world.) US  workers, while not as satisfied as their near  neighbors the Canadians (78%) still came in  at 70%. Worldwide, some 68% of employees are  satisfied with their employer

13. A survey late in 2010 by the Conference  Board  found that only 45% of American  workers were satisfied with their jobs. That  marked a record low in the 22 years the  Conference Board has been asking (contrast  it with 49% in 2008 and 61% in 1987.) Only  51% of all talent were satisfied with their  bosses (down from 55% in 2008 and 60% in  1987).

Back to research some new talent development  facts….Be well….
[tags]talent management, succession planning, leadership development, succession planning, micromanage, performance review, engagement performance appraisal, overweight, obesity, wellness, coaching, executive coaching, executive development, surveys, kenneth nowack, Envisia, Envisia Learning, leadership development, ken nowack, Nowack [/tags]

Ken Nowack

Kenneth Nowack, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist (PSY13758) and President & Chief Research Officer/Co-Founder of Envisia Learning, is a member of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. Ken also serves as the Associate Editor of Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research. His recent book Clueless: Coaching People Who Just Don’t Get It is available for free for a limited time by signing up for free blog updates (Learn more at our website)