Workplace Strategies For The Economy Recovery1
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Workplace strategies for the economic recovery and solving the retention riddle featuring Roy G Krause (President & CEO SFN Group) and Brendan A. J. Courtney (President of the Mergis Group & Todays Office Professionals).
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Workplace Strategies For The Economy Recovery1
- 1. Sponsored By: Workplace Strategies for the Economic Recovery: Solving the Retention Riddle Presented By: Roy G. Krause President & CEO SFN Group Brendan A. J. Courtney President The Mergis Group & Todays Office Professionals March 24, 2010 The Webinar Will Begin Shortly If you cannot hear music, or the presenter to today's webinar, please use our toll-free call in number. Number: 888-469-1348 Pass code: 2940000
- 4. Emerging Workforce Study 1997 Benchmark Study Revolutionary Way of Tracking Worker Attitudes VALUES TRADITIONAL Worker EMERGENT Worker Career Management Company’s Responsibility Employee’s Responsibility Promotion Tenure Merit Retention Security Growth Management Style Paternalistic Peer Organization Chart Respect Ignore Changing Jobs Fear Advancement
- 5. Emerging Workforce Study Tracking Different Types of Workers Over Time Type of Worker 1997 1999 2003 2007 2009 A/F Emergent 20% 22% 31% 27% 22% 31% Traditional 34% 29% 21% 25% 28% 19% Migrating 46% 49% 48% 48% 50% 50%
- 7. Emerging Workforce Survey Emergent Employers TIME & FLEXIBILITY CAREER & EARNINGS GROWTH BONUSES & REWARDS WORKFORCE PLANNING FLEXIBLE WORKERS Tracking Highly Adaptive Companies – Emergent Employers Traditional Employers VALUES Ranked HIGH as a way to retain Expected as part of company culture Based on performance & contribution Integrated with strategic planning Vital part of integrated workforce Ranked LOW as a way to retain Reserved for select performers Applied ad hoc, tenure-based Tactical & sporadic Minimal, non-strategic use 13% 48% 14% 41% Percentages 2007 Percentages 2009
- 9. Key Workplace Strategies that Will Help Employers Prepare for the Turnaround Addressing Attraction, Cultivation & Retention of Workers Today & in the Future
- 10. Emerging Workforce Survey WORKPLACE STRATEGY 1 DEFINE ATTRACT CULTIVATE RETAIN WORKPLACE STRATEGY 5 UNDERSTAND WORKPLACE STRATEGY 6 ALIGN WORKPLACE STRATEGY 3 DEVELOP WORKPLACE STRATEGY 4 BALANCE WORKPLACE STRATEGY 2 TAILOR
- 12. Workplace Strategy Five: Understand What It Takes to Retain Your Top Athletes Emergent workers are today’s “top athletes” EMERGENT MIGRATING TRADITIONAL Education Highly educated: 45% have college/grad degree Educated: 28% have college degree Less educated: 47% received their high school education or less Gender M: 57% vs. F: 43% M: 57% vs. F: 43% M: 54% vs. F: 46% Average Age 44.0 40.5 42.4 Income 33% make above $100K 45% make between $35K & $99.9K annually 36% make less than $49.9K annually Managers 44% 39% 25% Career Goals 52% have a career goal they are working toward 40% have a career goal they are working toward 30% have a career goal they are working toward Professional certifications/ additional education 44% have or are pursuing 35% have or are pursuing 25% have or are pursuing Satisfaction with career progress 66% are highly satisfied 56% are highly satisfied 50% are highly satisfied Defines loyalty as level of contribution 81% agree 66% agree 39% agree
- 22. Two Significant Cultural Shifts Can Greatly Impact Ability to Attract, Cultivate, Retain
- 23. Emerging Workforce Survey Key Workplace Strategies, Cultural Shifts
- 30. Cultural Shift Two Employees’ Desire to Feel Connected to Employer
- 31. Cultural Shift Two Employees’ Desire to Feel Connected to Employers
- 32. Forging Ahead Your Challenges, Your Opportunities
- 33. Thank you & Questions 30+ Years of Experience 33 Offices Nationally Serving Fortune 500, Small & Mid-Sized Companies Specialized professional placement firm committed to helping companies hire the best talent for their business High-Touch Recruiting Services in Accounting & Finance, Engineering & Manufacturing, Sales & Marketing, Legal and Human Resources www.mergisgroup.com
Editor's Notes
- GOAL: Provide history of Study, highlight role of Harris Interactive and credibility of Study TIME: 1 minute Now, a little history on this Study which we believe is important to cover to frame up our discussion. Began working with Harris Interactive to track workforce trends back in 1997. As a recruiting and staffing company, we were one of the largest employers in the country, and we were experiencing new worker expectations and demands. Our own experiences led us to begin examining the workplace at large. Let me give you a very quick recap of what we found. Revisited and expanded on findings in 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007 & 2009, tracking continuing changes in workers’ attitudes, motivations and employer practices. Latest Study: Follows up & expands upon trends identified in previous Emerging Workforce Studies but also -Provides 360 degree view of workplace issues -Only nationally representative survey of both employers & employees 2800 people/statistically valid sample projected to entire U.S. adult population with 95% degree of certainty, plus or minus less than 2 percentage points of accuracy. That’s better than most polls you’ve ever seen. We also survey workers on a monthly basis to track changes in confidence levels as well. There is also a survey of a nationally representative sample of 300 employers that represent all types of companies, geographies and industries. All in all, we have interviewed more than 190,000 workers and hundreds of companies in the past 12 years and continue to do so each month. Rather than tracking history or past actions, we ask respondents to share their beliefs, attitudes and desires. And what this wide-ranging study revealed is that employees are quickly adapting to a changing work environment and becoming much more demanding and self-reliant, regardless of economic outlook. We believe all of this provides a very unique look at what’s happening and what will happen in the workplace. All of this information should help you make better and more strategic HR decisions that will positively impact your ability to recruit and retain talent.
- GOAL: Present realities we face in the workforce, get acceptance from the audience, set agenda TIME: 1 Minute Speaker Tip: Know the current unemployment rate for the market in which you are presenting; if you are unfamiliar with these metrics, review the background notes below. Let’s start off our presentation by looking at where we are today. And it’s quite a interesting situation. As we talk about this Study, we find ourselves in quite a precarious situation. Whether or not we want to acknowledge it, we are facing some very serious issues with regard to the overall economic climate. For example, Wall Street and its equivalents worldwide have nearly collapsed. Worse, due to widespread and significant losses in retirement portfolios and real estates holdings, many older American workers’ retirement plans have been altered or abandoned entirely. As the first decade of the 21st Century came to a close, the economy appears to have undergone another swift, profound and possibly permanent change, catching most of us off guard and unprepared. So how will the “Great Recession” impact the workforce now, over the next decade and beyond? Will the attitudes of the workforce be permanently altered by the recession? What will the next generation of knowledge workers value most in choosing their careers? While we don’t know all the answers to these questions, our study does begin to shed some light on these uncertainties and provide some crucial insight into the minds of workers’ today. Would you all agree with this picture I’ve painted of the situation with today’s workforce? To that end, we’ll discuss a few things today: Provide an in-depth understanding of changing workforce trends Identify & breakdown different segments of workers Examine what the most innovative companies are doing to attract & retain talent Discuss practical and realistic steps to become or maintain position as ‘Employer of Choice’ Background information on chart: Unemployment Rate – Be sure to be aware prior to the presentation, the specific market unemployment rate (i.e. Dallas, Texas) Dow Jones Index - In the U.S. there are three major indicators, or indexes, of market movements. These three are the Nasdaq Composite, Dow Jones Industrial Average (the “Dow”), and the Standard & Poor’s 500. As a collective, these market indexes are referred to as the Security Market Indicator Series (SMIS). They provide a basic signal of how specific markets perform during the day. Of these three, the DJIA is the most widely publicized and most-watched indicator for stock market performance. The difference in the two year averages in the above chart is reflective of the recession’s impact on the stock market. Consumer Confidence Index - The U.S. Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) is an indicator designed to measure consumer confidence, which is defined as the degree of optimism on the state of the economy that consumers are expressing through their activities of savings and spending. Global consumer confidence is not measured. Country by country analysis indicates huge variance around the globe. In an interconnected global economy, tracking international consumer confidence is a lead indicator of economic trends. In the United States consumer confidence is issued monthly by The Conference Board, an independent economic research organization, and is based on 5,000 households. Such measurement is indicative of consumption component level of the gross domestic product. The Federal Reserve looks at the CCI when determining interest rate changes, and it also affects stock market prices. Spherion Employee Confidence Index - Employee Confidence Index that measures employees’ overall confidence in the economy, their employer and their ability to find other employment. The Employee Confidence Index is calculated from the results of four components that reflect these aspects of employee confidence. For each component item a ‘score’ is calculated by taking the difference of the percentage of positive responses and the percentage of negative responses. These four scores are then averaged to indicate an overall level of employee confidence, with each score ranking on a scale from 0 (no confidence) to 100 (complete confidence). A reading above 50 indicates a positive confidence level. Harris Interactive Poll - Begun in 1963, The Harris Poll weekly column is one of the longest running; most respected proprietary surveys conducted by Harris Interactive measuring public opinion and is highly regarded throughout the world. The nationally representative polls, conducted both by telephone and online, measure, and trend, the knowledge, opinions, behaviors and motivation of the general public. New survey data on a wide variety of subjects including politics, the economy, healthcare, foreign affairs, science and technology, sports and entertainment, and lifestyles are published weekly. This reference above is the result of their poll asking – do you feel that the country is on the wrong or right track?
- GOAL: Explain the two main types of workers uncovered in first Study. TIME: 1 minute Before we get into the meat of the presentation, it’s important to define two groups of workers you’ll be hearing a lot about today. In our 1997 study, Spherion coined a new term--the Emergent Worker. We didn’t set out in the initial study to identify traditional & emerging workers. We set out to understand what motivated people to work, and we ended up identifying a broad spectrum of workplace values, drivers & expectations, with two groups having quite different values. We called the groups Traditional & Emergent Workers. The emergent worker was distinguished by a set of workplace values & expectations that varied drastically from what managers had encountered with traditional workers. Let’s take a moment to walk through a few of those values [refer to chart but don’t read it]. Back in 1997, Spherion predicted that the emergent worker mindset represented a paradigm shift in employee expectations that would have important long-term implications on how employers structure the workforce & how they recruit, develop & retain top talent. As you’ll see, we’ve found a continuing shift in attitudes & values—even as the economy weakened & many would have expected a retrenchment in attitudes. As business leaders, you need to understand these shifting priorities because they are not just surface issues. They are deeply held beliefs & affect how people work. The implications can be pervasive for any organization.
- GOAL: Share changing percentages of emergent workforce over past decade TIME: 45 seconds - 1 minute We know from 1997 up through 2003 that the emergent worker grew at a rate of about 55% and represented about 31% of the workforce. Migrating workers didn’t really change much during that period and continued to make up nearly half of the workforce. The traditional worker steadily declined, but still represented a fairly healthy 21%. And let me take a moment to explain migrating workers, this group of employees sits in the middle of the two camps, some much closer to emergent and some closer to traditional, but all exhibit traits that put them on the road to emergent. Interestingly, accounting/finance workers are significantly more emergent than overall workforce, and one of the most emergent among all professions. So, where did we see this going over time? Based on trends we saw in the previous years and help projecting future trends with the help of Harris Interactive, we expected the trend we saw in previous years to continue and emergent workers to become an even greater part of the workforce – the majority in fact – while traditional workers dwindled away. But certain factors changed over the past few years and we actually saw the number of emergent workers decline slightly.
- GOAL: Explain two major factors for change: Economic landscape and changing attitude on loyalty, stability TIME: 1 - 1:30 minutes As we poured over the data (and we looked through every page twice!), we found two very specific factors that contributed to the unexpected changes. The factors are: current economic conditions and changing ideas about stability and loyalty. According to a recent American Psychological Association study, more than 8 out of 10 Americans are significantly more stressed about their personal finances and the economy than ever before. Half of the respondents in the survey said they are increasingly stressed about their ability to provide for their family's basic needs. More than half, 56 percent, expressed concerns about job stability. This has translated into less productivity at work, because of anxieties about salary, heavy workload and job security,” as reported on CNN . We’re also know that older workers tend to be more loyal to their employers, and given the large numbers of Baby Boomers in the workforce today. This was a sizeable shift from previous years when loyalty and stability were essentially thought to be pipe dreams since many workers faced layoffs and significant changes in the employee-employer relationship. Our statistics reflect these changes, indicating that more workers now believe loyalty is based on staying with an employer for a long period of time versus contributing/performing at a very high level and always acting for the good of the company. At the same time, more also believe they will have more success by staying with their current employer instead of venturing out into a new job. Much of the growth of migrating and emergent workers spawned from the fact that there had been mass layoffs and most people were personally touched by it (either themselves or a friend/family member had been affected). And understandably, that fueled those emergent beliefs we’ve been discussing. In our 2012 study, we believe we’ll begin to see a resurgence of Emergent workers on the heels of massive layoffs and restructuring, and with any luck a thriving economic environment. This combination will likely spawn a whole new set of workers who take their careers into their own hands, don’t expect loyalty to be tied to tenure and will do what it takes to put their career into overdrive. Interesting results, but not all that surprising when you consider where we are today.
- GOAL: Explain major differences between emergent and traditional employers TIME: 1 – 1:30 minutes Fades into % of Emerging, Traditional Employers Since the inception of the Emerging Workforce® Study in 1997, Spherion has maintained the belief that there would be significant implications if the workforce continued to change but employers did not. In the latest Studies, Spherion has now examined how many employers have adapted to workforce changes by becoming emergent themselves, how many are migrating towards that goal and the number of companies that are still entrenched in traditional practices. These characteristics are extremely important to review and examine as you think about what you may want to change or implement at your own company. When we compared those traits among a nationally valid sample of US employers, we found that less than 15% were actually emergent – and most of those were at the low end of the scale. The rest are either traditional or doing some things right and making their way to become emergent. There is good news here for all of us. No matter where you fit on the scale, most companies are not considered emergent. That means if you are emergent, you don’t have a lot of c ompetition – yet . And if you aren’t emergent, you can make big gains in the battle for talent by taking steps to become an employer of choice – leaving your competition behind. Emergent employers can be broadly defined by their utilization of two key workforce strategies—they have adopted emergent management practices to effectively compete for employed talent, and they have become masterful at maintaining flexibility in their cost and workforce structures by leveraging a contingent workforce. Here’s a more detailed view of emergent employer characteristics: Acknowledge the importance of work/life balance in retaining employees and therefore offer comprehensive work/life balance programs Practices promoting career and financial growth more prevalent and highly encouraged Workers are rewarded for performance and contributions Regularly survey employees to determine retention drivers Utilize an integrated hiring strategy to leverage “supplied” versus “employed” talent As a general rule, traditional employers anticipate significantly higher turnover at their organizations as compared to emergent employers, but have not implemented practices to curb expected short-term employee loss, nor to influence long-term recruitment strategies. Traditional companies : Less likely to offer, or don’t plan to offer work/life balance programs such as flextime or telecommuting Programs to support career and financial growth, such as training/development classes, are offered but not clearly communicated nor encouraged within the organization Workforce planning falls near the bottom of their priority list Use of contingent workers is ad hoc and not part of a strategic, integrated hiring plan AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION: I am sure you’ve been thinking about your own company as I have been going through the list. Where do you think your company fits?
- GOAL: Present realities we face in the workforce, paint dreary picture, get acceptance from the audience, set agenda TIME: 2 minutes + The economic meltdown of 2008 was undeniably a game-changer. It is an event that will have lasting influences on our financial, housing, and yes, our labor, markets. Workers’ opinions about their career and the workplace have continued to evolve, perhaps now at a more rapid pace. For employers, although the fundamentals of the talent game – to attract, cultivate and retain workers – remain unaltered, the rules of the game surely have not. How employers attract, cultivate and retain talent in an era where social media, e-recruiting, and employer branding are gaining in popularity, while the supply of qualified workers will continue to dwindle, becomes ever more difficult to ascertain. The 2009 Emerging Workforce Study has revealed one fact with clarity – alongside broad adjustments in government regulation, lending, borrowing, taxes and even our nation’s global standing… key workplace strategies are too being rebuilt for a new time.
- GOAL: Briefly Explain Workplace Strategies, Cultural Shifts TIME: 15 seconds 2009 research findings have been organized into 6 key workplace strategies that address ways to help clients attract, cultivate and retain talent.
- GOAL: Give Backdrop of Future Shortage of Knowledge-Workers, Introduce Strategy Five – Retain Top Performers TIME: 1:30 seconds Speaker Tip: The goal of this slide is to set the stage for why it is important to retain your top talent in particular, because of the projected shortage of highly-skilled labor. While the retention of all workers is clearly important, there is an even more pertinent need to retain today’s educated workers. Jobs requiring only a GED or high school degree are disappearing. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in 1991, fewer than 50% of U.S. jobs required highly-skilled workers. By 2015, the BLS estimates that 76% of U.S. jobs will demand highly-skilled employees. DEFINITION OF HIGHLY-SKILLED/LOWER-SKILLED: Although there is not a precise definition for "highly skilled workers," a rough category includes those jobs for which a specific advanced degree is required, or jobs requiring copious on-site training and paying more than, say, $35,000 per year at the time of hiring. By contrast, low skilled workers jobs do not usually require very much specific training and can be performed by many people without the need for advanced degrees or years of experience. Such jobs tend to produce and pay relatively little. When it comes time for rebounding, and it will, employers will need to have their star talent in place to drive renewal and growth. Furthermore, top talent can often find work no matter the state of the economy. Employers appear to recognize this and many are even more concerned about losing them during this recession than they were prior to the recession. Source: HCI/Workscape, March 2009 Emerging workers, it turns out, are some of the most educated, most driven and successful (both in income and career advancement) workers the labor market has to offer. The Study has been tracking these emerging workers for 12 years and as a result, has clear visibility into what they need to remain loyal. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION: To what extent will a skilled talent shortage impact your company? What skill sets does your organization rely on or require the most? EXAMPLES OF SHORTAGE OF HIGHLY-SKILLED WORKERS: Manufacturing Industry Unquestionably, technological advances and increased globalization have reduced the number of lower-skill jobs. The decline in lower skilled jobs has made room for the expansion of a much-needed, higher-skilled manufacturing workforce. Today’s manufacturing jobs require technological skills and the ability to respond to an increasingly complex work environment. The manufacturing industry has not escaped the effects of demographic shifts, including the retirement of the Baby Boomer generation. In fact, the sector has a projected need for 10 million new skilled workers by 2020. Manufacturers are desperately seeking workers who can tackle new technologies and support rising product intricacies. EXAMPLE: Technology Industry Employers are beginning to understand that in the IT sector, computers may store essential programs and data, but only people understand the business processes, customer requirements, value propositions, service levels and other intangibles that make the enterprise succeed. U.S. companies, of all industries and sizes, are seeing valuable returns on their IT investments, in the form of greater efficiency and more competitive operations. This movement is helping to fuel the demand for IT staff particularly in the areas of software architecture, product design, project management and IT consulting.
- GOAL: Highlight key points about emergent, migrating and traditional workers TIME: 1 – 1:30 minutes The truth is that emergent workers are representative of the entire U.S. workforce – from a young IT worker to a more mature executive – and everything in between. However, there are some important differences in characteristics as you can see on the slide here. Overall, emergent workers tend to be more highly educated, a little bit older than the other groups and also paid more. Nearly half are managers as well. So when you think about this group, think of them as your “A” players in your organization – the ones who are constantly innovating, evolving and excelling. These are the people who tend to be creative and will work very hard to be successful. However, as you will, these workers are also very interested and have a very high tendency to use work/life balance options. The result, emergent workers will actually work more hours per week than their counterparts, they are more likely to have a career plan and 7 out of 10 are extremely or very satisfied with their career progress. These workers are getting what they need from a personal and professional standpoint – and are high performers. Now, we certainly are not saying that you as an employer should have a negative view of migrating or traditional workers or try to push them out of your organization. Rather, as we noted at the top of the presentation, it’s important to remember that these workers also have a very vital place in your workforce. Understanding all groups of workers and how they fit in your organization is key.
- GOAL: Illustrate point that emergent workers are also most difficult to retain TIME: 30 seconds Here lies the kicker–this highly-skilled, sought-after group of workers is also the most difficult to retain given their no-fear perspective on job change. The same tenacity that makes these workers successful is also why they demand a work environment supportive and instrumental to achieving their professional and personal goals. If that support doesn’t exist at their current employer today, they’ll be searching for it elsewhere tomorrow. These two elements are particularly important to traditional employees (85% for benefits and 80% for financial compensation), along with supervisor relationship (66% vs. 62% overall). Emerging workers are more likely than other segments to say that growth and earnings potential (70% vs. 66% overall), management climate (70% vs. 65% overall), culture and work environment (68% vs. 63% overall) and training and development (53% vs. 49% overall) are very or extremely important.
- GOAL: Review retention drivers for Emergent workers TIME: 30 seconds A good news, bad news scenario exists when it comes to companies’ efforts in retaining top performers. The good news is that Emergent workers are generally more satisfied than workers’ overall when it comes to key retention drivers. The bad news is that the same areas of least satisfaction for Emergent workers are also the most important to their retention - financial compensation, benefits, and growth potential. This top echelon of workers has clearly conveyed what they require to keep their contributions high, their job satisfaction intact and their skin in the game. What’s the reward for meeting their expectations? A talented group of workers who don’t just drive productivity, they demand it; who not only fosters innovation, but delivers it in spades; and who not only supports the company’s mission, but makes it their own.
- GOAL: Highlight point that employers don’t tie retention and recruitment; retention disconnect still remains TIME: 1 minute Let’s take a look at where we stand today. Now, looking at these statistics, you’ll see that while a lot of companies are concerned about cost containment, ensuring they keep the talent they have is less of a priority. And, we see that employers continue to believe that retention will not be as big of an issue our numbers indicated. The truth is employers and employees vehemently disagree on what drives retention. Differences in opinion can be good, except when it results in financial and competitive losses. Aligning employee priorities with employer-driven initiatives continues to be a struggle for many companies. In fact, the Emerging Workforce Study has tracked this same level of disconnect when it comes to retention over the past five years. The latest findings illustrate little movement in the top drivers of retention for employers or employees – leaving the vast disconnect unresolved.
- GOAL: Show the very real differences between employers and employees and call special attention to benefits and financial compensation TIME: 1 - 2 minutes Speaker Tip – If anyone questions the fact that earlier we said, “an employer who helps employees meet their family obligations through work/life balance programs” ranked second by employees, and that here “time and flexibility “ rank fifth. The explanation is this – these are two separate questions that did not offer the same response categories, one addresses what characteristics are attractive about employers whereas the other question asks respondents to rank a number of retention factors. As you can see, Employers and employees wholeheartedly disagree on what drives retention . Disconnect is dramatic . Employers and employees have different ideas about what drives retention. While employees are most likely to say that benefits (76%) and financial compensation (75%) are very or extremely important, employers are most likely to respond that supervisor relationship and management climate (both 84%) are very or extremely important. In fact, while financial compensation is ranked #2, in terms of the percentage of employees who believe it is very important, it is ranked #5 among employers. And while employers are most likely to say supervisor relationship is most important, this comes in 7 th place among employees. These findings are in keeping with the results from previous waves of Emerging Workforce research (2005 Employer Survey and 2007 Employee Survey), indicating that this gap in understanding between employers and employees has not closed over time, and adding additional evidence that more open communication is needed between employers and their employees.
- GOAL: Paint more dreary picture of situation by adding in low satisfaction numbers on retention benefits TIME: 1 minute Unfortunately, the news gets worse. Not only are employees and employers completely off when it comes to retention drivers, workers’ satisfaction with those drivers shows that there is even more trouble for us. Look at these numbers…. For all factors with the exception of supervisor relationship, less than 40% of workers are satisfied with what they are currently receiving from their employers. Some numbers (training and growth and earnings potential) drop into the 20’s. That means we have a lot of work to do to change perceptions among employees. There is good news here, though. Employees are telling us what we want and if we follow this to a degree that makes sense for us, there is a lot of opportunity to establish ourselves our maintain our position as an employer of choice.
- GOAL: Show the very real differences between employers and employees and call special attention to benefits and financial compensation TIME: 1 - 2 minutes And it appears we have a greater disconnect among accounting/finance workers and their employers. As we look at accounting and finance workers, and the retention drivers they specifically identify, there are a couple of interesting things to note here. First, we see that time and flexibility jumped up significantly for this group, ranking third and the most important behind the basics of pay and benefits. As we touched on earlier, the key takeaway for companies is this – employers of accounting/finance workers appear to be doing a pretty good job at providing work/life balance programs and options and a/f workers are some of the most satisfied workers with their ability to maintain a balance between work and home life. However, if those options are taken away from them, it would be considered a deal breaker for many of them and they’ll choose to go somewhere else that allows them to maintain that flexibility.
- GOAL: Introduce Accounting/Finance Workers’ Retention Drivers, How They Differ TIME: 1-2 minutes Here is the good news. Accounting/Finance workers are generally more satisfied with most of their retention drivers, when compared to workers overall. As you can see, their satisfaction levels are particularly high when it comes to their supervisors, time and flexibility, and management climate. One item to note here is to once again remind you that accounting/finance professionals are highly career oriented. Their growth and earnings potential is important to them yet they are the least satisfied with this area of their workplace. In fact, one alarming statistic we found is that accounting/finance workers ranked their growth potential if they were to leaver their current employer as higher than their growth potential at their current employer. That does not bode well for companies looking to retain their accounting workforce.
- GOAL: Quickly reiterate point that retention efforts are falling short and lead into turnover discussion TIME: 30 seconds As the last few slides have shown, employers are truly falling short on their efforts to retain employees. We specifically asked employees how they felt about those efforts and the results weren’t pretty, but they speak for themselves. Only 13% of workers say their companies are doing more now to retain them than in the past few years. More importantly, One-third (yes, one third) of workers say their employers are actually doing less. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION: Here’s an easy question: What are the implications of all of this? (audience participation) Turnover. Remember earlier we discussed the implications of not taking into account the impact turnover can have on cost containment efforts. Yet, employers believe only 14% of their workforce will leave in the next 12 months, when in reality between 25 - 30% of employees reported that they would like to leave their jobs for new opportunities. And, while employers continue to maintain the status quo and stand by idly, the cost of turnover continues to add up as employees stream out the door.
- GOAL: Cover the retention mindset of emergent employers TIME: 30 seconds When it comes to retention, emergent employers outpace traditional employers in two key areas—they dedicate greater time and resources toward retention efforts, and they are more closely aligned with their employees regarding the importance of key retention drivers. They survey their own employees often to ensure retention efforts are matching up to those expectations of workers They also have a much better understood and embraced corporate culture that is celebrated and promoted in the company. And, more importantly, many survey their workforce regularly to make sure they understand the changing needs and priorities of their workforce. Overall, emergent employers are far more likely to utilize key retention programs at their organization, such as offering more work/life balance options, training and development programs, surveying employees on retention drivers and offering bonuses to top performers. Most importantly, emergent employers don’t appear to be throwing resources behind retention programs hoping a few will work. Instead, these organizations seem much more in sync with what their employees believe are important retention drivers, particularly compared to traditional organizations and U.S. employers overall. .
- GOAL: Briefly Explain Cultural Shifts TIME: 30 seconds For most companies, successful adoption and utilization of social media requires a radical mindset change about how they approach their business, and their workforce planning efforts. Changes in the process by which workers find jobs, and in their expectations of the job search experience, are fueling the need for companies to build effective and relevant social media strategies into their workforce planning efforts. Social media efforts can be highly-influential in conveying a company’s brand and mission, attracting and recruiting talent, as well as engaging its current workforce. However, many organizations are not leveraging these outlets productively, or strategically. At the same time, employees are seeking a greater connection to their organization’s mission and alignment of their personal values with those of their employer. As a result, a company’s clarity and commitment to its mission directly impacts its ability to attract, satisfy and retain workers. The true nature of an organization’s management style, leadership and company culture used to be safely concealed behind plaster and mortar, only to be shared among workers at the water cooler. Before accepting a job offer, candidates could only make veiled attempts to determine – are you what you say you are? Today, technology-savvy candidates have clear visibility into a company’s culture, values and mission, and whether or not it has a reputation for following through on them. Via chat rooms, social networking sites and other online communities, a company’s reputation is out there for all to see.
- GOAL: Establish relevance of social media today TIME: 30 seconds Speaker Tip: Start by asking the audience a series of questions and ask them to keep their hands up. How many of you are on Facebook? LinkedIn? Twitter? Take a look around and you can see we’ve answered just who is using social networks! Why Spherion is an Expert: In June of 2008, Spherion’s corporate brand profile launched on Facebook. Today, Spherion has a total of 5 corporate brand profiles for each of their specialty divisions, as well as nearly 25 individual group pages for local offices located across the United States and Canada. In August of 2009, CareerBuilder and Spherion co-created a Google-like map to help drive traffic from Spherion’s corporate brand profile to their localized Spherion Facebook groups. While the Spherion corporate profile provides a wealth of information and community discussion, they recognized the importance of connecting job seekers with a local office and representative. In collaboration with their engagement campaign, Spherion launched an internal promotional campaign to all our registered applicants to announce and showcase Spherion’s Facebook presence. In less than one week’s time, Spherion nearly tripled its fan base to 8,000 active fans within their community. Spherion also continues to receive a plethora of job applications via the CareerBuilder job feed on Facebook. While the number of applications doesn’t begin to compete with real job boards’ performance and capability, Spherion continues to place an average of nearly 10% of our Facebook applicants into temp, temp-to-hire and permanent positions. In 2010, Spherion has a keen focus on the integration of our social media efforts. Each of their business units will not only have a presence on Facebook, but each of their business unit Presidents will utilize Twitter as a powerful communication vehicle. Who is really using social networks? The answer is simple…. EVERYONE! Today 122 million Americans, or 64% of the total online population, use social networks, according to the research firm comScore, Inc. In fact, Forrester Research projects that social media marketing spends will increase nearly 60% in 2009 to $716 million! Social marketing eliminates the middlemen, providing brands with the unique opportunity to have a direct relationship with their customers.
- GOAL: Convey changing mindset, methods of today’s job seekers TIME: 30 seconds For most companies, successful adoption and utilization of social media requires a radical mindset change about how they approach their business, and their workforce planning efforts. Changes in the process by which workers find jobs, and in their expectations of the job search experience, are fueling the need for companies to build effective and relevant social media strategies into their workforce planning efforts. The old model of attracting talent focused primarily on active job seekers, showed scant concern for the job seeker experience and rarely required the business to market itself as a place to work. However, things have certainly changed. Suddenly, the supply of talent on which companies based their traditional recruiting efforts, has diversified to include not only active job seekers, but passive candidates, retired workers, overseas talent and even free agents. Increased transparency into an organization’s culture via chat rooms, blogs and mini-blogs means organizations need to control their online reputation, or it will control you.
- GOAL: Paint picture that most companies are behind the social media curve TIME: 30 seconds Social media efforts can be highly-influential in conveying a company’s brand and mission, attracting and recruiting talent, as well as engaging its current workforce. A recent 2008 Cone Business Study reflected that 93% of online Americans believe a company should have a presence in social media. However, many organizations are not leveraging these outlets productively, or strategically. In fact, less than one-quarter of companies have a formal social media strategy in place, and of those, only one-third say they’ve been successful or very successful, according to this year’s Emerging Workforce Study. And, of companies that have created a social media strategy, only 22 percent engage in social networking to recruit new talent. However, many organizations are not leveraging these outlets productively, or strategically. In fact, less than one-fourth of companies have a formal social media strategy in place, and of those, only one-third say they’ve been successful or very successful, according to this year’s Emerging Workforce Study.
- GOAL: Continued illustration of companies’ lack of strategy, efforts in social networking TIME: 30 seconds Nearly half of companies (44%) today are using social networking outlets, but these efforts are largely limited to LinkedIn (23%), followed by: Corporate Blog (16%) Company Facebook Profile (14%) Viral Video Marketing/Recruitment (7%) Corporate MySpace Profile (6%) Second Life Presence (1%) The combination of increased transparency into an organization’s culture via chat rooms, blogs and mini-blogs and growing expectations of the job search experience among candidates, means companies must take control of their online reputation, or it will control the company. One of the most effective and available venues to communicate and engage its workers in the brand, and the mission, is social networking. Yet of the 44% businesses using social networking, only 20% of those use it to motivate and retain existing employees.
- GOAL: Emergent companies ahead of the social media curve TIME: 15 seconds These findings speak for themselves – emergent companies are more than twice as likely to utilize most social media efforts. In addition to sourcing talent in the right places, emergent companies look at their “employer brand” as well. How they are viewed by candidates is extremely important in today’s job market. -Is an employer known for “churn and burn,” a history of poor performance, layoffs or bad management? -Is this company recognized as an employer of choice or “best place to work?” These are questions that candidates are asking – and they will likely turn down an employer who doesn’t fit the bill.
- GOAL: Introduce Corporate Mission, Growing Importance to Worker Satisfaction TIME: 30 seconds Employees are seeking a greater connection to their organization’s mission and alignment of their personal values with those of their employer. As a result, a company’s clarity and commitment to its mission directly impacts its ability to attract, satisfy and retain workers. It appears also that a company’s core mission and values have taken on greater meaning in the minds of employees, potential candidates, consumers and shareholders. Corporate missions have made a comeback, with more and more people researching whether or not a company’s ethics and values match up to theirs. While some leaders may chalk corporate missions and brand reputation up as “nice to haves” when it comes to attracting talent, Spherion’s Emerging Workforce Study has uncovered evidence that suggests otherwise. Whether or not a company has a clear mission, and if it is followed-through upon can have dramatic impact on ability to attract, engage and retain talent.
- GOAL: Convey dramatic impact of clear, followed-through mission on all aspects of job satisfaction TIME: 30 seconds A company’s core values and mission have a dramatic influence on employees sitting inside its walls. Employees today yearn to be connected to their employer and to something broader and bigger than what may be found in their job description. In fact, 75% of workers agree that their job means more to them than just a way to earn a living. Yet, many companies are falling short in translating company information and vision into something meaningful and relevant to its workers. Its workforce may be going through the motions, showing up for work and earning a paycheck, but are they truly engaged? Clarity and commitment to a company mission, it turns out, has the power to change the role of employees from spectators to active participants. When an organization clarifies, communicates, and commits to a mission, the result is a highly engaged, highly productive workforce that adopts that mission as their own and is more satisfied in every aspect of their job. Employees who work at organizations with a clear mission and that follow through on that mission are significantly more satisfied with all aspects of their job compared to employees at organizations who do not have a clear mission:
- GOAL: Continue to illustrate impact of corporate mission on ability to attract workers TIME: 15 seconds Not only does a clear, followed-through upon mission greatly impact worker satisfaction (as you can see by the chart) it can significantly influence an organization’s ability to attract and recruit workers. For a referral program to be successful, an organization must be referral-worthy in the minds of its employees. Employees at organizations who have a clear mission and follow through on that mission are much more likely to refer a friend to work at their current employer (52%) than those who work for an organization with no clear mission (31%).
- GOAL: Wrap Up, Tee-Up Future Discussions to Delve Deeper into Findings TIME: 45 seconds We’ve covered a lot of ground today – how employees look at their employers, what they say drives them to stay or go and then what the most innovative companies are doing to win the intensifying battle for talent. But, we’ve only scratched the surface. We have much more data and insight into each of these workplace strategies and cultural shifts, and can address issues specific to your challenges. I look forward to the opportunity to share more insights from our 2009 Emerging Workforce Study in the near future.
- GOAL: Short intro to Spherion TIME: 30 seconds Before we jump into some of the most recent findings, I’d like to take a moment to briefly introduce you to Spherion. I know you are all familiar with Spherion, but are all of you familiar with our range of services? As a leader in the recruiting and staffing industry, Spherion provides integrated solutions that address the evolving needs and priorities of 3 key stakeholders: candidates, individual client users and entire customer enterprises. NOTE: Customize this information based on the audience, their particular engagement with Spherion and knowledge about our company. Additionally: Founded in 1946 6th largest recruiting and staffing company in North America. Network of more than 700 offices and 300,000 employees. And we partner with businesses nationwide, including 90% of Fortune 100 companies.