[May 24, 2016] |
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Part Science, Part Art: Workforce Institute at Kronos Survey Reveals the 25 Essential Elements of a Highly Engaging Workplace Culture
The
Workforce Institute at Kronos
Incorporated and WorkplaceTrends.com
today released the third and final study in The Employee Engagement
Lifecycle Series1, which examines the 25 Essential Elements
of a Highly Engaging Workplace Culture.
This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160524005934/en/
Workplaces are a complex ecosystem of people, programs, policies, and
priorities, each with their own impact on the happiness - or unhappiness
- of employees. Since every organization has its own formula for
success, employers can achieve good chemistry when they understand the
elements that matter most to their particular workforce. The periodic
table of essential elements for engaging workplaces is categorized
into five core groups: People & Relationships; Leadership; Benefits &
Perks; Work-Life Balance; and Learning & Development.
For The Employee Engagement Lifecycle Series, three different survey
groups - HR professionals (601 respondents); people managers (604
respondents); and full-time, non-managing employees (602 respondents) -
responded to an online questionnaire about various aspects of workplace
culture and employee engagement. Data points below were pulled from
these survey responses.
Periodic Table of Elements for a Highly
Engaging Workplace Culture
Group 1 - People & Relationships:
-
Culture Trumps Performance (CtP) - Nearly 60 percent of HR
professionals say they would fire a high performer who did not fit
into the company culture or get along with their team.
-
Appreciation (Ap) - As Kronos (News - Alert) revealed in its previous "Do
You Feel Appreciated at Work?" survey, 55 percent of employees say
receiving a simple "Thank you" from their manager gives them a high
sense of satisfaction at work.
-
Friendships (F) - When asked how important friendships at work
were to impacting their performance, 64 percent of employees say they
were important or very important.
-
Boomerangs (Bm) - As the first
installment of this series explored, nearly half of HR
professionals claim their organization once had a policy against
rehiring former employees, even if the employee left in good standing.
However, as the war for talent has heated up, 76 percent say they are
now more accepting of hiring so called "boomerang employees" than in
the past.
Group 2 - Leadership:
-
Leadership (Ld) - HR professionals and managers both say that
the most important aspect of their workplace culture is having
managers and executives who lead by example.
-
Innovation (In) - Everyone agrees that innovation is a
critical component of a successful organization, but there is a
disconnect when it comes to how employers encourage innovation. While
63 percent of managers and 62 percent of HR professionals say their
organizations encourage employees to bring new ideas to the table,
only 40 percent of employees agree - and a full 39 percent of
employees say their organizations "aren't innovative."
-
Active Feedback (Af) - Nearly half of both HR professionals and
people managers actively seek feedback from employees to preserve and
strengthen their workplace culture.
-
Empathetic Managers (Em) - Nearly one-quarter of employees say
a flexible manager is an important part of supporting their work-life
balance.
-
Customer-First (CuF) - More than 40 percent of both HR
professionals and people managers say they look to their customers and
the market to seek insights for innovation.
-
Mentoring (M) - Millennial employees say mentorships are
important, as 20 percent claim having a mentor or sponsor was a useful
aspect of their employer's onboarding strategy.
Group 3 - Benefits & Perks:
-
Pay and Benefits (Pb) - Nearly a quarter of employees say that,
excluding pay, better benefits elsewhere is the top reason they would
leave their current company. And 36 percent of managers say that
paying employees more is an important strategy for retaining top
talent.
-
Rewards and Recognition (R2) - HR
professionals (45 percent) say offering more rewards and recognition
to top-performing employees is an important strategy for retention.
-
Wellness (FiT) - Wellness programs are an increasingly
popular piece of retention, with 23 percent of HR professionals and 25
percent of managers citing the importance of health programs.
Group 4 - Work-Life Balance:
-
Flexibility (Fx) - Flexibility emerged often as a
critical component of any desirable employer, with 24 percent of HR
professionals and 35 percent of managers recognizing that proiding
employees with more flexibility is an effective strategy for retention.
Additionally, 26 percent of employees, 27 percent of HR
professionals, and 30 percent of managers say flexible scheduling
contributes to improving work-life balance.
-
Me Time (Me) - A whopping 83 percent of employees say their
workload does not prevent them from engaging in personal activities at
home or in the office, a sign that employers and employees recognize
the importance of maintaining meaningful personal connections in and
out of the office.
-
Generational Awareness (Ga) - More than 40 percent of HR
professionals claim they change how they promote the company and its
culture when recruiting candidates across different generations,
highlighting different aspects based on what they feel will appeal to
the candidate.
-
Time Off (To) - Almost one-third of employees say time
off - whether paid or unpaid - is the best way their employer can
support their work-life balance.
-
Work-Life Balance (Wl) - Work-life balance was the third most
important aspect of workplace culture cited by employees (40 percent),
behind only pay (50 percent) and co-workers who respect and support
each other (42 percent).
Group 5 - Learning & Development:
-
Retention (Re) - A pleasantly surprising 86 percent of HR
professionals and 79 percent of managers are confident in their
ability to retain current talent, while 44 percent of employees say
they have no intention of leaving their current workplace.
-
Career Development (Cd) - More than 40 percent of HR
professionals say funding career development courses is an important
strategy to retain employees.
-
Onboarding (On) - Most organizations claim to have a formal
onboarding strategy, with 67 percent of HR professionals saying they
use components such as an employee manual, on-the-job training, and
online courses as part of onboarding. Yet only 13 percent of employees
agree that their companies have a formal onboarding strategy -
exposing a major disconnect.
-
Travel Opportunities (OOO) - A quarter of HR professionals and
21 percent of managers say offering employees the opportunity to
travel was a strategy used to retain employees.
-
Work Exchanges (Ex) - Nearly one-third of HR
professionals and 25 percent of managers say offering rotational
programs, whereby employees can "try out" different roles within a
company for a determined length of time, is an effective strategy for
retaining workers.
-
Younger Professional Programming (Yp2)
- HR professionals and people managers agree that younger
generations, Millennials and Gen Zers, are the hardest to retain.
Developing employment programming designed with this group in mind and
actively seeking their input in these programs can help keep younger
workers engaged.
-
Internal Promotions (Ip) - One-third of HR professionals and 31
percent of managers say that hiring more internally is a strategy they
use to retain employees.
Supporting Quotes
-
Joyce Maroney, director, The Workforce Institute at Kronos
"You
need the right formula for your organization to create employee
engagement. Good chemistry with employees starts at the top with
senior leadership identifying the elements of workplace culture that
will support their strategy. Just as important is ensuring this
formula is well understood and executed by people managers throughout
the organization. If managers cannot deliver on the promises made by
leadership and HR, mission statements, values, and perks will come off
as nothing more than hot air. While this periodic table of essential
workplace elements is in no way exhaustive, it is a reminder that our
workplaces are a complex equation of people, programs, and policies
that each have a daily impact on employee happiness and engagement."
-
Dan Schawbel, founder, WorkplaceTrends.com, partner and research
director, Future Workplace LLC, and New York Times Bestselling Author
of "Promote Yourself"
"In my ongoing work looking at how
generational differences impact the workplace, I found it interesting,
albeit not necessarily surprising, that Millennials and their younger
co-workers in Gen Z were viewed as being the most difficult to retain.
Employers really need to look at what they can do to engage these
populations without alienating their older workers. Development
opportunities and mentoring programs are ways to satisfy and involve
all workers across the organization - all while transferring knowledge
to help younger workers succeed."
Supporting Resources
About The Workforce Institute at Kronos
The Workforce Institute provides research and education on critical
workplace issues facing organizations around the globe. By bringing
together thought leaders, The Workforce Institute is uniquely positioned
to empower organizations with the knowledge and information they need to
manage their workforce effectively and provide a voice for employees on
important workplace issues. A hallmark of The Workforce Institute's
research is balancing the needs and desires of diverse employee
populations with the needs of organizations. For additional information,
visit www.workforceinstitute.org.
About Kronos Incorporated
Kronos is the global leader in delivering workforce management solutions
in the cloud. Tens of thousands of organizations in more than 100
countries - including more than half of the Fortune 1000® -
use Kronos to control labor costs, minimize compliance risk, and improve
workforce productivity. Learn more about Kronos industry-specific time
and attendance, scheduling, absence management, HR and payroll, hiring,
and labor analytics applications at www.kronos.com.
Kronos: Workforce Innovation That Works™.
About WorkplaceTrends.com
WorkplaceTrends.com, launched by Dan Schawbel, Future Workplace partner
and research director, is largest curator of HR research in the world,
with over 160 sources of primary and secondary research on the topic of
the future of work. All WorkplaceTrends.com research is summarized in an
easy to read abstract and categorized in areas highly relevant to HR
professionals, such as recruiting, employee benefits, diversity &
inclusion, innovation, learning & development, management & leadership,
and economic trends. In addition, WorkplaceTrends. com offers podcast
interviews with HR executives, CEOs, and futurists, as well as case
studies, high quality infographics, and other tools that an HR team can
put to use immediately.
Footnote 1: Survey Methodology
Research findings are based on a survey fielded in the U.S. between
July 14 and July 22, 2015. For this survey, 1,807 respondents were asked
about their thoughts regarding various aspects of corporate culture and
employee engagement. The study surveyed three separate groups: HR
professionals (601 surveys); people managers (604 surveys); and
full-time, non-managing employees (602 surveys). The survey was
completed through Lightspeed GMI's Global Test Market double opted-in
panelists who have registered to participate in online surveys. All
sample surveys may be subject to multiple sources of error (i.e.
sampling error, coverage error, measurement error, etc.).
© 2016 Kronos Incorporated. All rights reserved. Kronos and the Kronos
logo are registered trademarks and Workforce Innovation That Works is a
trademark of Kronos Incorporated or a related company. See a complete
list of Kronos
trademarks. All other trademarks, if any, are property of their
respective owners.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160524005934/en/
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