Survey: HR underestimates workplace morale
September 21, 2009 by Sam NarisiPosted in: In This Week's E-Newsletter, Latest News & Views, Retention
HR understands the economy’s taken a toll on employee morale. But it’s not as bad as you’d think, according to this recent survey.
About 63% of HR pros say their company’s employees feel insecure due to the recession, according to a poll by Linkedin. But when the question was posed to the rank-and-file, only 34% of employees said they feel insecure.
Similarly, just 11% of HR pros said their employees feel appreciated by the organization, while 37% said they do feel appreciated, despite recent salary freezes, loss of benefits and other cost-cutting measures.
Of course, companies would like those numbers to be higher. But it’s nice to know HR managers are doing a better job than many of them think.
September 23rd, 2009 at 10:32 am
Greetings Folks:
How many people responded to this survey? What were people actually asked? Are these results global, American, Canadian, North American or do we have any way of ascertaining this?
My experience and those of many of my colleagues is polar opposite from what you are describing. The numbers just don’t match what we have been seeing at all, through internal and external surveys, exit interviews of candidates who have decided to leave on their own as well as day to day conversations, town halls, notes to the CEO, suggestion boxes etc. etc. etc. This also doesn’t seem to be the opinion of the HR community of which I am apart of in big city Canada. HR who has been involved in the salary freezes, loss of benefits, restructuring, increased job load of employees, retooling and all the other changes that have been happening over the past few years due to globalization not just a poor economic climate are not saying this to us. (The company has over 20 000 employees, our latest survey on this topic had an 89% participation rate and was targeted to all levels of the organization.)
It also doesn’t jive with what our survey results have stated regarding what the “rank and file” think HR actually does. What exactly do the ” rank and file” state that HR is doing to make them feel appreciated, as it is stated that HR managers are doing a better job than many of them think?
We are finding definite issues with employee engagement, loyalty in addition to employees feeling valued and appreciated.
I appreciate the information. I am not questioning the value of Senior HR (or HR in general) nor am I questioning the validity of the survey. I would just like to understand the context as it is not at all our experience. Understanding where this information was gleaned and how the results were determined based on what target group, industry, geographic location, and numbers of participants in this survey group may help us to understand why our experiences seem to be so different.
Thanks in advance and for the though provoking article.
Kyii
HR, Director