Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.Â
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. Sirota Survey Intelligence compared engagement levels in talent from diverse organizations (no mention was made of how many employees participated) from 2007 to 2009 and it remained fairly stable at 79% but anxiety and frustration changed dramatically. In 2009 perceived workload was perceived to have increased by 15% and perceived job security was down 7%. I guess that’s what talent today describe as being “asked to do more with less resources.”
2. In research on teams by Nathan Pettit at Cornell University, higher status groups work 30% harder when competing against lower status groups but not perform any better or worse when they competed against similarly ranked groups. This finding goes against convention wisdom that underdogs have the highest motivation to knock off top teams.
3. A recent study by Catalyst on 4,143 women and men who graduated from full-time MBA programs found that women were more likely than men to start in post-MBA jobs at a lower level and were, on average, paid $4,600 less than men in their first jobs. Maybe that is why so many women today have become entrepreneurial–at least they can control their own fate and salary to a large extent.
4. The U.S. Department of Labor Statistics expects the number of people 55 or older participating in the workforce to increase 43% to 12 million workers between 2008 and 2018 and that they will make up one quarter of the total workforce. Research by U.K based Saga Magazine predicts a 50% increase in the number of workers 50 and older who plan to continue working part-time beyond traditional retirement age in the next 10 years.Â
5. A study of hourly and professional workers by the Boston College Sloan Center on Aging & Work revealed that workers 53 and older are the most engaged and maintained their higher engagement throughout the recent economic slow down compared to Gen Xers or Millennials.
6. 79% of respondents from high-performing companies think about how to help improve their customer experience on a regular basis, compared to just 69 percent of low-performing companies, according to the Customer Focused Organizations Pulse Survey of 607 respondents conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp).
7. A recent study by ASTD of 1,247 high level learning HR and other business professional completed a survey on their succession planning processes. Only 45 percent of respondents indicated their organization has a formal process in place and most popular driver of succession planning is to identify and prepare future leaders (87 percent cited this as a driver). The second-most cited reason was to assure business continuity (74 percent).
8. In the recent 2010 SHRM Employee Job Satisfaction Survey, married female employees, compared with male employees were more likely to be very satisfied overall with their current job (45% and 39% respectively). The current economic climate did not appear to have affected overall satisfaction for married employees.
9. A 2010 survey of 895 senior leaders and human resources professionals by Right Management asked what contributes most to accelerated performance. Organizational culture and motivational “fit” was rated highest (31%) followed by interpersonal competence (26%), critical reasoning/judgment (21%), technical skills (12%) and experience (11%). It seems that “fitting in” and possessing social competence seem to be much more important than the experience and skills one brings to a job to ensure success.
10. Another Right Management survey of 700 employees found that almost 67% of the respondents had not taken all of their vacation by the end of 2009. With the Conference Board’s finding in a recently released survey of 5,000 U.S. households showing that only 45% of Americans are satisfied with their jobs perhaps some are taking their vacations while at work.
11. The Herman Group (Herman Trend Alert: 2010 Workforce/Workplace Forecast) reports that 54% of today’s employees are ready to jump as soon as the economy improves.  To be competitive in the future it seem important for organizations to be able to engage the right “high potential” as companies begin to hire again.
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)
