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Managing Employee Happiness
The document presents a first-ever study on workforce happiness, emphasizing its importance for employee retention and company growth. The Global Workforce Happiness Index ranks countries based on employee satisfaction and loyalty, revealing that many employers have room for improvement in retaining talent. Recommendations for employers include benchmarking happiness scores against industry peers and addressing gaps to enhance employee engagement and satisfaction.
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Managing Employee Happiness
- 1. A FIRST-EVER STUDYOF THE COUNTRIES AND INDUSTRIES WITH THE MOST SATISFIED, LOYAL WORKERS Managing Employee Happiness
- 2. HOW DOES YOURCOMPANY COMPARE TO ITS PEERS? Take a data-driven approach to attracting and retaining top talent.
- 3. WORKER HAPPINESS ASA BAROMETER OF ENTERPRISE HEALTH It’s as important to forecasting future growth as financial metrics (e.g. cost of capital) or sales metrics (e.g. rate of new customer acquisition). Closing the Happiness Gap Why measure workforce happiness? What is the Global Workforce Happiness Index?
- 4. MOST EMPLOYERS HAVEA LONG WAY TO GO 28% 28 percent of employees in the US and Canada have considered leaving their employer & moving to a competitor within the last 12 months Nearly half of US employees are confident they can find a job that matches their compensation level within six months of beginning a search. In the tech industry, confidence is significantly higher; two thirds say they could find a better job in 60 days. In 2018, 49 million more employees will be leaving their current employers compared to 2012 – representing 192 million employees worldwide turning over.
- 5. GLOBAL WORFORCE HAPPINESSINDEX The index offers a country-by-country barometer of the workplace health of that market’s talent pool and an excellent benchmark by which individual employers can map their own employees’ sense of satisfaction and loyalty. The index is calculated based on three factors Their stated sense of job loyalty Likelihood of recommending their current employer Employee satisfaction at their current job
- 6. GLOBAL WORKFORCE HAPPINESSINDEX TOP 10 COUNTRIES Country Score Rank Belgium 33,41 1 Norway 32,32 2 Costa Rica 31,98 3 Denmark 31,53 4 South Africa 31,51 5 Austria 30,40 6 Switzerland 30,35 7 Greece 30,31 8 Czech Republic 30,00 9 Russia 29,93 10 Sweden 29,68 11 Finland 29,66 12 Mexico 29,13 13 Netherlands 28,83 14 Germany 28,63 15 Canada 28,49 16 Chile 28,39 17 France 28,28 18 Argentina 28,08 19 Australia 27,61 20
- 7. WORKFORCE HAPPINESS BYCOUNTRY The Global Workforce Happiness Quadrant helps visualize the challenges and opportunities by region. First let’s focus on the implications of each quadrant.
- 9. WORKFORCE HAPPINESS BYINDUSTRY 1. Health Care Services 2. Media and Advertising 3. Tourism 4. Engineering and Manufacturing 5. Retail BOTTOM 5 1. Legal Services 2. Aerospace and Defence 3. Educational and Scientific Institutions 4. Insurance 5. Technology Hardware & Equipment TOP 5 Universum also examines happiness – a score that combines worker satisfaction, loyalty and willingness to recommend an employer – by industry. Companies can examine their own workers’ happiness scores related to the industry average. A positive gap means your company is more likely to retain employees. A negative gap requires immediate attention. .
- 10. WHAT EMPLOYEES LOOKFOR IN AN EMPLOYER l A creative and dynamic work environment l Attractive/exciting products and services l Competitive base salary l High future earnings l Innovation • These attributes are attractive and associated with you by your target group, but not true internally • ATTRACTIVE: Which attributes do you perceive as the most attractive? • CREDIBLE: Which of the following do you associate with your chosen employer(s)? • TRUE: Which of the following do you associate with each employer?
- 11. 2015 | YoungProfessionals 12 Long-term aspirations | Top 3 career goals across markets Top 3 career goals GlobalAverage Brazil Russia UK SouthAfrica France Turkey Colombia Ukraine Mexico Poland Indonesia India Canada To have work/life balance 54% 62% 39% 60% 57% 59% 43% 63% 38% 60% 49% 59% 50% 62% To be secure or stable in my job 42% 50% 61% 49% 39% 26% 33% 44% 62% 41% 64% 33% 33% 48% To be competitively or intellectually challenged 35% 32% 44% 49% 49% 43% 18% 34% 47% 34% 28% 28% 29% 48% To be entrepreneurial or creative/innovative 33% 29% 19% 28% 29% 28% 49% 42% 19% 44% 23% 48% 35% 24% To be dedicated to a cause or to feel that I am serving a greater good 30% 33% 27% 42% 34% 32% 21% 28% 23% 24% 23% 31% 28% 48% To be a leader or manager of people 30% 27% 24% 23% 30% 35% 43% 33% 23% 36% 19% 35% 32% 24% To have an international career 27% 23% 18% 17% 22% 32% 45% 28% 23% 28% 13% 29% 38% 14% To be autonomous or independent 22% 15% 26% 14% 16% 26% 17% 22% 29% 25% 19% 9% 20% 17% To be a technical or functional expert 19% 20% 38% 11% 23% 17% 22% 4% 33% 6% 57% 20% 26% 11%
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- 13. Benchmark your employeesagainst their country Happiness Index and Industry Insider Ranking. First, find out how your organization compares to those within your industry and country. How large is the gap? Does it affect your ability to recruit and retain employees? BENCHMARK
- 14. It’s critical fororganizations not simply to determine scores for their organization or divisions, but how those scores compare to like-organizations – something we call the Happiness Gap. Measuring the Happiness Gap of your employees, country-by-country, serves as an early warning system for your organization: Use it to drill down and understand the variables that cause your employees to feel differently from their peers inside other organizations and what your company can do to close that gap. ANALYZE FINDINGS
- 15. Once an employerfigures out which factors can be controlled, decide which of these are recruiting drivers vs. retention drivers. Does your organization distinguish between the two states? SEPARATE ATTRACTION FROM RETENTION
- 16. A segment ofyour employee group may be satisfied with work, but also willing to make a change. How can you ensure your high-value, high-performing talent continues to stay engaged and committed at work? Developing plans to motivate high-value subsets of your employees is absolutely critical. Employers must map out their so-called Happiness Gap by region, gender and role, and then take surgical action to determine how best to satisfy and retain your most valuable segments. Certain subsets of your organization require extra attention due to their importance to your organization’s ability to innovate and grow. ADDRESS RESTLESS EMPLOYEES
- 17. Tracking employee happinessis a barometer of your organization’s overall heath – as important to forecasting future growth as traditional financial metrics such as cost of capital. Treating talent-as- an-asset requires a massive shift for many organizations. But taking a data-driven approach to employee satisfaction and engagement is an excellent place to begin. EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT = STRATEGIC ASSET
- 18. Universum is theglobal leader in employer branding, delivering a full range of services in research, strategic consulting and brand activation. We give employers the means and the tools to better understand, attract and retain talent. For more information, go to www.universumglobal.com
Editor's Notes
- #2 Welcome to the happiness index webinar! My name is Jonna Sjövall and I work as a Vice president for our emea region. Today we will talk about our happiness index, that consist of several parameters. To start with: Employer branding is vital also when recruiting and retaining experienced hires (not only graduates) because how you are perceived defines what you are. People will make assumptions based on their perceptions of you as a workplace. Talent attraction occurs when potential employees believe that your organization can provide them what they need to be happy. Talent acquisition occurs when you prove those people that you can provide them with what they are looking for to be happy. The question is, what makes professionals happy around the world? Let’s investigate.
- #3 Tracking employee happiness is a barometer of your organization’s overall health – as important to forecasting future innovation and growth as traditional financial metrics. Moreover, the high cost of recruiting and hiring means employers must pay close attention to employee satisfaction and loyalty as a way a) to position the organization as an attractive place to work and b) to reduce turnover and get the most out of their employees. On the point, it’s imperative to find out how your company compares to its peers regarding employee happiness in addition to traditional engagement surveys: (What tools do you use? What research do you conduct? Or do you even measure it? ) Without understanding how your organization benchmarks against its recruitment competitors and benchmark companies, you can be in a position of weakness without even knowing about it. This is where research can come in handy.
- #4 Every year, Universum conducts a survey to determine what professionals want out of their career. More than 250,000 working professionals from 55 markets were surveyed this year. So we created the happiness index. What is it? It’s a scoring system that combines worker satisfaction, a worker’s willingness to recommend their current employer (traditional NPS), and their likelihood of switching jobs in the near future (loyalty) . Altogether, it is a measure of a worker’s happiness in their job and career. Why measure workforce happiness? Your ability to retain top talent depends not simply on your employees’ level of satisfaction or engagement, but how it compares to peers in other organizations. A negative gap may signal your employees are ripe for poaching. Close the gap. One can use the Happiness Index to measure how your organization compares to talent competitors; then analyze the specific drivers that push open that gap. It’s important to be able to answer these two questions: Which drivers can you control? How quickly can you close the gap in order to be a more attractive workplace?
- #5 MOST EMPLOYERS HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO WITH MEASURING AND MANAGING EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION AND RETENTION Consider the following statistics: 28 percent of employees in the US and Canada have considered leaving their employer & moving to a competitor within the last 12 Nearly half of US employees are confident they can find a job that matches their compensation level within six months of beginning a search. In the tech industry, confidence is significantly higher; two thirds say they could find a better job in 60 days. In 2018, 49 million more employees will be leaving their current employers compared to 2012 – representing 192 million employees worldwide turning over. To complicate matters, a company’s workforce isn’t a homogeneous group requiring a single blanket solution. Global companies must resist the impulse to oversimplify or apply large-scale fixes to complex, local problems.
- #6 “More and more companies are deploying analytics solutions to help predict retention and correlate factors such as compensation, travel schedule, manager and demographics to understand why certain people are less engaged than others”. Only when an organization has honed in on the challenges facing a particular segment (whether defined by region, gender, role, or some other subset/combination), can it apply a prescription that will impact performance. This type of meticulous analysis and optimization is critical as a business tool – and it’s a function of viewing talent management as a strategic business asset rather than as an HR function.
- #7 Universum’s study is the biggest and first of its kind, surveying more than 250,000 professionals in 55 markets. The Global Workforce Happiness Index is calculated based on (a) employee satisfaction at their current job, (b) likelihood of recommending their current employer, and (c) their stated sense of job loyalty. Essentially, the index offers a country-by-country barometer of the workplace health of that market’s talent pool and an excellent benchmark by which individual employers can map their own employees’ sense of satisfaction and loyalty. Here we present the findings by country, however the real potential of this research is in the granular findings. For example, how happy are workers within the automotive industry in China, and how do your own employees compare to this benchmark? The idea is that by using a data-driven diagnosis of the problems at a local level, talent managers can create localized, high-impact prescriptions.
- #8 SO let’s check some results! To repeat: the scoring system combines worker satisfaction, a worker’s willingness to recommend their current employer (traditional NPS), and their likelihood of switching jobs in the near future (loyalty). This diagram shows the top 10 countries that have the happiest employees in the world. When considering the top countries for worker happiness, it’s important to remember that this research targets intellectuals with work experience, who are not as likely to be affected by economic downturns. Struggling economies (like Greece) also create fewer career opportunities, which results in higher loyalty scores. It is very interesting that the top 5 countries are a versatile group: two Nordic countries, but also one European, one SOUTH American and one African country. There are also differences between the three parameters: Costa Rica has the highest satisfaction score followed by Mexico and the Nordic countries Finland, Norway and Denmark all on the same level. The lowest satisfaction is found in Japan. Costa Rica and Mexico also bring the top scores in NPS (recommending their employer) followed by Norway, Colombia and Denmark. The lowest NPS is also represented by Japan. The most loyal employees are found in Belgium, South Africa, Norway, Russia and Greece. The least loyal in Indonesia. In the bottom 10 markets for happiness we’ll find for example Japan, several African countries (Morocco, Nigeria, Algeria) but also India and Indonesia. Some very interesting findings. Of course the findings are more relevant to you, the more we zoom in on certain markets and/or industries.
- #9 At Universum we have developed a Global Workforce Happiness Quadrant that helps visualize the challenges and opportunities by region. First let’s focus on the implications of each quadrant. STRANDED: These employees are dissatisfied in their current jobs, but are unmotivated or unwilling to make a change. This is often due to macro-economic influences, such as high unemployment and low opportunity to advance in a chosen field, but stranded employees also exist within regions with high employment prospects. SEEKER: These employees are dissatisfied at work and looking for a change. Seekers are motivated to change and may already have one foot out the door. Seekers are less likely to recommend your company as an employer to those in their network, meaning post-departure seekers are unlikely to recommend colleagues or return in the future. RESTLESS: employees require immediate attention. These are workers who are satisfied at work and even likely to recommend a company as a place of employment, but are also open to changing jobs. They usually want something new. FULFILLED: Employees in this category are satisfied, feel positive about your company as a place of work and are not interested in changing jobs. These are your stable, loyal employees; however employers should never assume fulfilled employees will stay this way. Let’s then move on to see some results.
- #10 The quadrant shows the average index score for each country. Interesting is that Japan, that scored quite low in the total happiness index has a mix of stranded employees and those seeking for something new. However the African countires scoring low in the total index suach as Morocco and Nigeria, have a much bigger part of seekers than Japan. Colombian employees ae very restless and interestingly, the top 1 scoring country Belgium vs the no 3 Costa Rica are both in the upper right quadrant but have very different scores. The Belgian employees are much more loyal and less interested in changing employer than the Cota Rican ones, and the Costa Rican ones are significantly more satisfied but more open to lookm for smth new anyway. Why does the country score matter for organizations? It’s important that companies understand where different segments of their own workforce lie on this quadrant, and how those segments compare to local markets.
- #11 In addition to rankings by country, Universum also examines happiness by industry. Companies can examine their own workers’ happiness scores related to the industry average. A positive gap means your company is more likely to retain employees. A negative gap requires immediate attention. It is very interesting that legal services such as law firms, are topping the industry index even though the industry is often associated with long working hours and a tough working climate. There are big differences in the world’s biggest economies: In Canada, the most happy employees work in the real estate business, in US within the energy sector. In India, Australia and Brazil within Aerospace and Defence, in China in legal services and in Germany in the automobile industry. The bottom industries are versatile.
- #12 The 93,000 professionals chosen from these countries listed the characteristics of their ideal employers. Universum then identified which of those characteristics 10,800 professionals associate with their current employers. What Professionals Want but Aren't Getting Universum's survey identified what traits experienced hires find attractive but usually lack in their employers: A creative and dynamic work environment – how the work is done together Attractive or exciting products and services – it matters Competitive base salary and High future earnings, important factors and probably something no one is 100% satisfied with Innovation – more and more important Opportunities for international travel or relocation – global citizens. If you align your brand with these traits and then actually deliver on them, your organization will most likely excel in talent acquisition. Universum focused on the following 11 markets: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Russia, UK and USA.
- #13 The key ingredient to reaching and retaining experienced hires it to appeal to what they want out of their careers. This does not just mean providing a higher salary and better benefits. You need to provide the elements of work that are less tangible but help employees feel fulfilled. Looking at young professionals specifically, the top three things that all employees want are to have work/life balance to be secure or stable in my job and to be competitively or intellectually challenged. Yet it’s important of course to look at the career aspirations of talent market-to-market, male-to-female, within a specific target group… When you delve into the findings you’ll notice stark differences. For example, in countries like Turkey, Indonesia, India and France ‘to be secure or stable in my job’ doesn’t feature in the top three whereas it’s very important for professionals in Russia, Ukraine and Poland. Again, the real potential of this research is in the granular findings.
- #15 BENCHMARK YOUR EMPLOYEES AGAINST THEIR COUNTRY HAPPINESS INDEX AND INDUSTRY INSIDER RANKING. First, find out how your organization compares to those within your industry and country. How large is the gap? Does it affect your ability to recruit and retain employees?
- #16 Dig deeper. Some portion of your organization’s score is driven by macro-economic conditions – issues largely outside of your control. High unemployment will push talent into the stranded category in the quadrant. Excellent government-sponsored benefits for work-life balance will help pull up your overall score. That’s why it’s critical for organizations not simply to determine scores for their organization or divisions, but how those scores compare to like-organizations – something we call the Happiness Gap. Measuring the Happiness Gap of your employees, country-by-country, serves as an early warning system for your organization; use it to drill down and understand the variables that cause your employees to feel differently from their peers inside other organizations and what your company can do to close that gap. Remember: your talent competitors are those organizations that are vying for the same talent you are. Talent competitors are not necessarily your direct competitors.
- #17 Separate “attraction drivers” from “retention drivers”. Once an employer figures out which factors can be controlled, decide which of these are recruiting drivers vs. retention drivers. When considering retention, usually both confidence in senior leadership and personal development opportunities become critical according to research from Towers Watson. Amazon offers an interesting case study – and an extreme example – of the danger of not tracking the gap between the two. An article in the New York Times chronicled Amazon’s “bruising” workplace culture; one in which professionals are pushed to the breaking point to support Amazon’s global ambitions. Or as the New York Times reported, Amazon “is conducting a little-known experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers, redrawing the boundaries of what is acceptable”. The implication is that Amazon leadership isn’t aware of – or sensitive about – the gap between what motivates someone to seek out work at Amazon versus the reality of what it’s like to work there.
- #18 Address “restless” employees. A segment of your employee group may be satisfied with work, but also willing to make a change. How can you ensure your high-value, high-performing talent continues to stay engaged and committed at work? Understanding the findings comparing your company specific results with peers and looking at different breakdowns will help you understand this further. Developing plans to motivate high-value subsets of your employees is absolutely critical. In other words, employers must take surgical action to determine how best to satisfy and retain your most valuable segments. This is not to say that only those segments deserve attention, but rather that certain subsets of your organization require extra attention due to their importance to your organization’s ability to innovate and grow.
- #19 View employee engagement and happiness as a strategic asset. Too many still view employee satisfaction and engagement as an HR-led, nice-to-have activity, rather than a business-critical, competitive asset. Tracking employee happiness is a barometer of your organization’s overall heath – as important to forecasting future growth as traditional financial metrics such as cost of capital. Treating talent-as-an-asset requires a massive shift for many organizations. But taking a data-driven approach to employee satisfaction and engagement is an excellent place to begin.