“42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.”Â
Steven Wright
Another addition of leadership and talent management “facts” from all over the world.
Some intuitive and some not….what do you think?
1. Research on interviews with 151,284 U.S. employees using the Gallup Employee Engagement Index suggests that only  about 30% of talent at all levels were “engaged” in their jobs in 2012 (up 10% from 2009). Gallup suggests that “increasing the number of engaged leaders and managers in the U.S. workforce is more likely to inject hope and stability into their teams.”
2. Recent 2013 findings by Hotels.com, which looked at the amount of paid and public holiday time around the world, reveal that Canada is near the bottom of global rankings with a mere 15 days, beaten only by Mexico at 13. On the opposite end of the spectrum was Russia which came out on top with a staggering average of 40 days of paid leave. The U.S. ranks close to the bottom (25 out of 30 countries) with the global average being 28 days.
3. Research by Dr. Diane Bonfiglio at Ashland University suggests that positivity in the workplace can lead to more productivity. Two experiments tested whether optimism enabled participants to try longer to complete a challenging task. Her findings suggest that employees who were more optimistic about their job and work place demonstrated significantly greater persistence even when the activities were very difficult.
4. Coronary prone Type A employees who are under chronic stress are two times more likely to be at increased risk of stroke based on a recent study. People who had experienced a major life change during the previous 12 months were four times more likely to suffer a stroke than those who had not, the authors found. The “toxic” component and heart disease risk factor of Type A behavior appears to be expressed hostility and anger.
5. ZZZZZZ News–Employees who get vigorous exercise during the week are twice as likely to get a good night’s sleep (6 hours and 51 minutes, average on weeknights) compared to non-exercisers. Also, about six in ten of non-exercisers (61%) say they rarely or never have a good night’s sleep on work nights.
6. Overall spending on training rose 12 percent in 2012 and many organizations added training staff, according to Bersin by Deloitte. However, the firm’s Corporate Learning Factbook 2013: Benchmarks, Trends, and Analysis of the U.S. Training Market reveals that use of blogs, wikis, and communities of practice (defined as a group of people who share an interest in a common topic and interact within the group) tripled from 2007 to 2012. Blogs jumped from 6 percent to 22 percent use, wikis from 7 percent to 24 percent, and communities of practice from 11 percent to 33 percent.
7. New research by Tammy Ericon Associates Research Insights (2013) on members of the generation born AFTER 1995 show that: 1) 56% are already saving for a specific purchase in the future; 2) Only 9% agree that a nice car is an important status symbol; 3) 37% report that they learn more OUTSIDE school than inside the classroom; and 4) The #1 thing they wish they were learning in school is job search strategies and skills.
8. Listen Up: Good listening skills are more important than verbal skills to influence others. Although the gift of gab is important, new research by Saniel Ames of Columbia University with 274 MBA students demonstrated that listening skills apparently help people obtain information and build trust which can directly increase influence.
9. Person-to-person networking proves to be the single most effective way of finding a new job (46%) versus internet/job borad (25%) or agency/recruiter (14%), according to a study of more than 46,000 individuals who received outplacement services from Right Management.
10. When are you most productive during the day and the least? A new trending study by LondonOffices.com says that, quite precisely, 2:55 p.m. is the most unproductive time of day at work. Conversely, it finds 10:26 a.m. is the best time to get work done. The study also claims that workers start mentally checking out about 18 minutes before the end of the workday. (Assuming your workday ends at 5.) What’s even more interesting is that, despite our brains turning off around 4:42 p.m., three-quarters of the study’s subjects said they actually stay about 10 minutes late.
Back to research some new talent development facts….Be well….
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)
