Our latest data reviewing how HR managers in Turkey see the workplace in contrast to the UK and USA

1. HR Reflections February 2011 survey

2. Background to the study In February 2011, ORC International launched its 3rd HR Reflections survey, which was sent out to a large number of HR managers, internal communications consultants and employee engagement specialists The purpose of the survey was to understand their views on a range of organisational and HR issues, the current economic climate, and their predictions for 2011 There were over 700 respondents from the following countries: 364 from USA 309 from UK 30 from Turkey This presentation provides some key findings from our survey. (Please note that Turkish results should be treated with caution due to the small base size)

3. Executive summary: key messages for Turkey Respondents from Turkey are more likely than those from the UK and US to think that the recession is over. Respondents in Turkey have been less affected by the recession than those in other countries. Respondents from Turkey are more likely to feel positive about 2011 and are more likely to be focused on growth. There is concern amongst Turkish respondents about retaining the best staff and recruiting key talent. Top challenges amongst Turkish respondents currently are the management of change, strong and visible leadership and line management skills. These respondents cite their main focus going forward as leadership development, organisational development and talent attraction.

4. The recession We asked our HR contacts what their view was on the recession at the moment A significant proportion of organisations in the UK feel that the recession is going to get worse, and US organisations remain cautious, but nearly half of respondents from Turkey feel the recession is already over.

5. How has the recession affected Turkish organisations? We asked our HR contacts how their organisation been affected by the recession in terms of….. It is positive to see that Turkish respondents did not feel that overall, the recession had a significant negative impact, although a third felt that the recession adversely affected their organisational performance.

6. Outlook for 2011 We asked our HR contacts how they felt about the outlook for their organisation in the next 12 months. Again it can be seen that respondents from Turkey are the most positive in their outlook, with half of them feeling positive, compared to less than a third from the UK.

7. Focus for 2011 We asked our HR contacts what their focus would be for the next 12 months It is encouraging that across all 3 countries, the main focus is on growth. This is far more pronounced in Turkey than in other countries, here 77% of respondents are focusing on growth.

8. Staff levels We asked our HR contacts whether their organisations would be increasing, maintaining or reducing staff levels in the next 12 months. The majority of our respondents from Turkey were planning to increase staff levels but less than a third from UK or US were planning to do so, with 38% from the UK actually planning to reduce staff levels.

9. Employee retention (1) We asked our HR contacts in Turkey how they would describe their position in terms of employee retention Whilst staff turnover is generally low in Turkey, a significant proportion are concerned they are not retaining the best staff. Turkish data only

10. Employee Retention (2) We asked our HR contacts how they would describe their position in terms of employee retention Respondents from the US appear to be least concerned about their current staff turnover. Respondents from Turkey are more concerned than others that turnover is increasing and key staff are not being retained.

11. Losing talent We asked our contacts if losing talent was currently a key concern Respondents from Turkey are most likely to say that their employees are becoming more mobile and there is a danger of losing key talent. Respondents from America are least concerned.

12. Recruitment We asked our HR contacts how easy it was currently to recruit staff Respondents from Turkey are far more likely than others to feel that it is difficult to recruit the best talent. Few respondents from Turkey feel that there are lots of good candidates to choose from.US and UK respondents are in a similar situation, the majority of respondents feel that there are a lot of people out there but that it can be difficult finding the right candidates.

13. Employee engagement We asked our HR contacts if their focus on employee engagement was likely to increase, reduce or remain the same in 2011. The majority of respondents in the UK and Turkey intend to put a greater focus on employee engagement in 2011. Very few respondents intend to place less focus on employee engagement.

14. Engagement and wellbeing We asked our HR contacts how they thought they were doing in terms of employee engagement and supporting health and wellbeing Respondents from Turkey are more likely than others to say that employee engagement and supporting well being can be difficult, although a similar proportion feel that they are good at supporting engagement and wellbeing. Respondents from US are most likely to feel that they can support wellbeing, but don’t always engage staff.

15. Top challenges We asked our HR contacts in Turkey what their top challenges were currently Respondents from the UK and Turkey agreed that the top 3 challenges were management of change, strong visible leadership and line management skills.In the US, the top 3 challenges are visible leadership, reward & recognition and downward communications. Turkish respondents only: the chart lists the number of times each challenge was chosen

16. Areas for focus We asked our HR contacts in Turkey, the extent to which they would be focusing on the following over the next 1-2 years Leadership development, organisational development and talent attraction are the main areas of focus for Turkish organisations. The main focus in the UK and US are employee engagement and internal communications respectively. % Turkish respondents responding to some extent/to a great extent