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. Research from George Washington University suggests that the annual cost of being obese is $4,879.00 for a woman and $2,646.00 for a man adding such things as sick days, lost productivity and even the need for extra gasoline. Two-thirds of American workers (and all Americans) are either overweight or obese. Large women earn less than slim ones but wages don’t differ for obese men. The yearly loss in productivity and health costs due to obesity among full time US employees is $73 billion (Journal of Occupational Environmental Medicine).
2. The Boston Consulting Group in 2010 asked HR executives about measures taken during the recession and whether they will be continued. The 2010 rankings included: 1) Improving leadership development; 2) Managing talent; 3) Enhancing employee engagement; 4) Measuring workforce performance; 5) Improving performance management and rewards. Managing work/life balance was rated number 4 in 2008 but slipped to #16 in the latest survey. Guess it’s back to work for talent now that losing their jobs might be slightly less of an issue.
3. A new survey by Kelton Research on 584 working Americans foundthat 56% of employed workers reported beyond compensation that being appreciated would be enough to keep them from moving to another company. The survey also revealed that 53% don’t understand how their role contributes to the company objectives and 68% report they haven’t received useful feedback from their supervisors.
4. A Bluepoint survey of of 200 CEOs revealed that “creativity” was the number one leadership quality that CEOs said they were seeking in those managing others. The CEOs also reported that they preferred internal experiences and developmental activities to external training (52% versus 27%).
5. When asked if it is HR professionals’ responsibility to regulate the food and beverages available to employees to encourage better eating at work, only 36 percent of 570 HR professionals said yes, according to a July 2010 poll by the Society for Human Resource Management. In January 2010, the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine published a study on pricing and availability intervention in vending machines at four bus garages. The researchers found that increasing the availability of healthful items by 50 percent and reducing their prices an average of 31 percent led to sales increases of 10 percent to 42 percent.
6. In another SHRM poll of 598 randomly selected HR professionals conducted in July 2010 on healthy food polices found: 1) Organizations in the Midwest (49 percent) were more likely than organizations in the West (29 percent) to have an informal or formal policy or practice promoting healthy food and drinks in the workplace; 2) Employers with 500 or more employees were more likely to offer healthy food and beverage options in workplace cafeterias than employers with fewer employees; and 3) Multinational operations were more likely to offer healthier vending machine options, provide point-of-purchase nutritional content on cafeteria menus, and offer healthier food and beverage options in the cafeteria than U.S. based-only organizations
7. A nationwide survey by Hewitt Associates of more than 1,450 large U.S companies shows that base salaries rose 2.4% in 2010 (higher than the 1.8% workers saw in 2009). Estimates for 2011 are higher with respondents’ projecting increases of 2.9% or higher for nonexempt workers and executives.
8. Sibson Consulting surveyed nearly 2,000 workers in late 2009 and found that 52% were “engaged” compared to 47% in 2007. About 27% reported being “disengaged” and 17% were labeled as “renegades” (those who know what to do but who do not want to do it).Â
9. A survey by Glassdoor.com on 2,418 adult workers in diverse industries in the second quarter of 2010 indicated that 27% of all employees said that their job satisfaction had worsened compared to a year earlier.
10. A survey by Reuters-Ispos of 12,000 people in 24 countries revealed that nearly 10% overall reported harassment at work. More than one quarter in India reported they had been sexually harassed by a supervisor followed by China (18%) and Saudi Arabia (16%). Employees in Sweden and France reported the lowest levels of harassment at 3% (approximately 5% for Belgium, Germany, Poland the the UK with 8% of the respondents in the U.S. being a victim of harassment).
11. According to research from executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles and Stanford University, over 50% of US and Canadian companies could not name a successor in their organization’s chief executive officer. The research on 140 CEOs nd directors at large and mid-cap companies found that 39% of the respondents have no viable internal candidates, only 50% have any written documentation detailing skills required for the next CEO, only 19% have well established benchmarks to measure internal candidate skills and only 50% of companies provide onboarding or transition support for newly named CEOs. Additionally, boards spend only 2 hours a year on average discussion CEO succession planning.
12. Research from Boston Consulting Group and the World Federation of People Management Associations in their Creating People Advantage 2010 Report found that 60% of high performing companies filled top executive positions internally compared to 13% of low performing companies. It seems as if the development of internal leadership talent pools might be a critical success factor for organizations.
13. There is a 50% drop in risk of developing memory problems among older adults who walk 6 to 9 miles (10 to 15 km) a week according to a new study in Neurology 2010. Maybe leaders should all walk to their next meetings.
 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)
