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January 17, 2006
"I'm Not Paid Enough to Fully Engage In My Job. But That's Only Half the Point."
Salary and benefits are only half the reason so many businesses should be concerned about their workers' willingness to fulfill their responsibilities and more. Here's a rundown of where workers stand on willingness and responsibilities.
So there you are, in the moderately sized office or large building wherein you're employed. And you're just sitting in your cubicle. You're passing the time, really, because you'd rather be doing something other than your work. Emotionally, what's in it for you? You're not even focusing on your work-related responsibilities, so why would you be willing to go above and beyond the requirements of your job description? You're not alone.
A recent study by human-resources consultant Towers Perrin, after surveying more than 85,000 workers at large and midsize companies in 16 countries, concluded that only 14 percent of workers are fully engaged on the job. This means workers topping out at 14 percent are willing to "go the extra mile for their employers, doing more than their job description requires," a recent Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article (via the Northwest Herald) noted.
An additional 62 percent are moderately engaged while the remaining 24 percent are disengaged.
In the United States, 21 percent of workers are fully engaged on the job and willing to go the extra mile for their companies, down slightly from 22 percent in 2003. The highest levels of employee engagement — a measure of people's willingness and ability to give discretionary effort at work — are in Brazil (31 percent) and in Mexico (40 percent). (You think we're lazy? apathetic? not "fully engaged" in the U.S.? … In Japan, a mere two percent are engaged.)
Engagement levels vary from industry to industry.
Engagement levels might be lacking in the U.S. because of "the way workers perceive that they are being treated." Amanda Randall, leader of the organization research practice in Towers Perrin's Chicago office, said that motivated employees responded to recent cost cutting by working more hours and doing more with less to help out. Now some of their efforts are not being rewarded.
"They are feeling a little bit resentful that there has been this lip service to pay-for-performance," Randall told the Pittsburgh paper. Pay-for-performance is used widely enough to result in less engaged workers generally being paid less than highly engaged ones.
So the logical question, then, is this: If employees are paid more, are they more loyal to their employer company and, even further, more willing to go well beyond their required duties?
Towers Perrin's HR Services business' survey showed that pay and benefits are "more significant factors in attracting employees" than they are in raising engagement levels of employees already on the payroll. Three-quarters of the HR managers surveyed by online recruiting service Monster said compensation was one of the top three reasons behind employee loyalty. Some companies enable employees to own company stock. Moreover, of course, the age-old consideration of salary does play a major part.
"Employees in the U.S. feel they've hung in during the tough years," Julie Gebauer, managing director and leader of the HR firm's Workforce Effectiveness practice, told Business & Legal Reports online. "They don't think they've seen enough in terms of pay raises, incentives or other rewards for their contributions — despite hearing lots of talk about 'pay for performance.' And this view appears to be intensifying as the economy regains steam."
As such, a majority of firms — nearly 70 percent — have begun conducting regular employee-satisfaction surveys, according to a recent study by Monster. However, only 32 percent of those surveyed said they've made workplace changes based on the results, noted a recent Inc.com article.
Business owners are also increasingly trying to create a workplace that promotes a work-life balance by "instituting policies that encourage and support a satisfying personal life," the Monster study said. In addition, in general, employees remain frustrated and skeptical about both "their senior leadership and how well their company is delivering on their 'employment deal' (defined as the implied working contract between employer and employee)," according to Business & Legal Reports.
"Our research underscores that an effective employment proposition goes well beyond pay and benefits," Towers Perrin's Gebauer said. "Elements like career opportunities, fairness and work/life balance are often more important than pay and benefits when people are making decisions about whether to stay with or leave a company." This means that employees' skepticism and frustration could lead to increased turnover.
Towers Perrin's Randall explained to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "engagement requires a worker's heart as well as mind. It involves not just an emotional attachment to the company, but also a rational way to channel those emotions in order to elevate a company's performance."
In addition to salary and employees owning company stock, Fortune magazine's 2006 list of the nation's "100 Best Companies to Work For" sites the following examples of various noted companies' ways in which they go above and behind to please and engage their employees, as well as the evidence of what would be considered workers' loyalty (or engagement): good communication between employees — including hallway high-fives; lack of an "us vs. them" management philosophy; a shared altruistic goal; monthly breakfast meetings with CEO/employee Q&As; personal gestures of thanks from the company president; bimonthly summer farmer's market; and even on-site car detailing and dentistry.
Oddly enough, nonprofit organizations' employees are more committed than employees of for-profit concerns. Randall again explained, this is likely because nonprofits actually believe in their employer's mission.
References
Study: Workers focused on other things
by Len Boselovic
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dec 18, 2005
How Engaged Are Your Employees?
Business & Legal Reports, Dec. 15, 2005
Companies Struggle to Find Employees
by Angus Loten
Inc.com, Jan. 11, 2006
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42 CommentsI learned back in the '80s that an employer's loyalty to the employee extends only to the end of the current pay period, and that employers will deliberately deceive employees to induce them to choose paths that are counter to their interests. I retain my sanity by trying to be fiercely loyal to my customers. Truly fair compensation would certainly help (our firm has had no raises in six years), but being treated as human beings is also badly needed.
January 17, 2006 1:54 PMIt has become increasingly clear that "Corporate America" has zero loyalty towards its employee base. The increasingly rapid rate of job exportation, plus frequently asking the domestic employee to train the foreign replacement has led to a feeling of "when is it going to be my turn???"
Maybe if the board members and management were threatened with foreign replacement, things might be different. So far, the only loyalty is to the stockholder who is increasingly moving away from the ordinary employee towards investor blocks who don't care anything about the employee base only the quarterly return.
HMM... the guy who is cutting 30,000 jobs makes how much money?
The problem exists even in small businesses; I have seen it in every industry. For example, a company I personally know of, in 5 years, has increased the GM's pay by 30%, and the company sales have declined 25%, everyone else has had total of 0 to 3% increase (for the 5 yrs) and a reduction in benefits all without explanation- No wonder employees are dissatisfied!
January 17, 2006 2:38 PMYour comments regarding outsourcing and CEO pay
escalations is right in line with todays poor attitude and will eventually work to destroy larger companies, as the average person in the country beyond the US doesn't/can't possibly communicate properly, and the workers feeding the info will not be willing to help them suceed.
It's only a matter of time.
January 17, 2006 2:57 PMAnd to that I reply, "What came first, the chicken or the egg?"
It's sad that any company in which I work so Dilbertgently (diligently) has no loyalty to me as an employee. In turn, I am loyal to only my paycheck, and in using the job as a stepping stone for a better resume and a better job; nothing more. If companies think they are saving money by creating turnover, let them enjoy the mediocrity of continuously training new people. By their lack of loyalty as an employer, they did me a favor. Just say GOOD RIDDANCE.
January 18, 2006 12:00 AMPart of the reason for this is that most people have given up hope of either having anything for retirement or even getting a home these days. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The middle class almost no longer exists. I know there is a need for a free market, but it is getting out of hand. Homelessness is increasing dramatically. There really needs to be affordable housing so that people can have a place to live when they either become disabled or retire.
People these days just don't care anymore. They don't see a future anymore and just see a paycheck that will keep them from being homeless for another month or so. Most people are so borderline of being homeless these days and have to have another working person in the house besides themselves, I understand the crappy attitudes.
January 18, 2006 8:31 PMI am a 60-year-old "outsourced" technical worker. I love (or loved) my career. I poured myself into my projects and saw a great deal of success. Unfortunately, that left little time for office politics and THAT is what determines succeses now. Now I am out of work and my career is at an end. I am "too old". So all of my project successes added up to zero. Bad math.
January 19, 2006 2:58 PMI believe what has happened is that...
We have forgotten that all these workers are PEOPLE too, and that most people have their own dreams, desires and needs. The global markets are turning into a global market, period. Which means we as Americans are fightng for individual rights, whereas the other countries are just trying to get their country on the market map...hence we are forced to look at labor (PEOPLE) as nothing more than a cost!
Apathy will run amuck...all for a buck !
February 21, 2006 4:27 PMWhen I ran my own family business, I treated my employees with respect and asked for it in return. Since the sale of my business, I have been with several large("world class") enterprises with top-heavy, disengaged, self-centered management types, and my feelings are that you get in return what you give. And this is corporate America's problem today -- total disengagement from what drives excellence and fosters growth.
February 21, 2006 5:03 PMThe unfortunate thing about all this is that our nation has become a nation of whiners instead of doers. No corporation has the right to mistreat their employees in any way, including underpaying them for their talent. But if an employee is being so treated, they do have other options, which include quitting and seeking employment elsewhere. They agreed to work for a wage/salary to perform certain tasks, and if they perceive down the road that they are worth more, they need to ask for a raise. But to deliberately sluff-off is basically dishonest.
I'm not siding with the employers here, I'm just saying that it's time the workers in this country get a backbone and quit relying on the unions or anyone else to do the talking for them.
February 21, 2006 5:45 PMI recently gave up a job as a part-time merchandiser for a national greeting card company. After a year and a half of waiting for the new merit raise system to kick in, I got a 28 cent raise. I guess they let me know what they thought of me.
It was a job that suited me perfectly and had lots of flexibility. I did an excellent job and won 2 awards while there. But $120.00 per week does not keep up with today's cost of living.
My immediate supervisor always appreciated me, but the high-ups never seemed to have a clue. It made me sad to leave because I was willing to stay forever.
February 21, 2006 5:46 PMAfter twenty four years of working for the same corporation, I find it hard to see the difference between my cost to work for them and my salary I take home.
Benefits are wonderful and considered a plus to working for any company. As each year passes, I pay more of my share of health insurance and receive less in return. They cap our pay rasises to 2.5% and raise our health insurance 12%.
At the same time, we are told the company has to cut everywhere possible so we can increase our year-over-year NBT...which is millions.
Wonder why more people are asking "where's mine?"
February 21, 2006 6:00 PMOver the last few years, a change has been made in renumeration as in commissioned sales reps. Managers that were at one time straight salary based, with a percentage payed based on their sales teams total sales, have been given the oportunity to take a lesser salary and in turn take clients as sales reps would. They get all the benifits of the sale and become competition to the sales rep. They have an advantage over the rep as they decide who will get any new business that comes through e-mails, faxes, etc.
You get the drift???????????
February 21, 2006 7:46 PMIf you as a corporation want my engagement, give me the AUTHORITY to do my job responsibilities and EMPOWER me to do what it takes to get the job done by not second-guessing my best effort.
I landed two major production contracts for the small company that I work for that had NO production business. I then spent 2 years fighting uphill against management every step of the way to do what the customer wants in the way the customer wants. This has cost the company both time and money because first we do it "The Boss's Way," then we do it some counterintuitive kludge of "The Boss's Way" and what the customer wants, and then finally, upon pain of losing the customer, we finally do it the way they wanted it done the first time.
I don't find fighting with management to be useful or engaging. I just want to do the job right the first time. If you as a corporation want my engagement, let me do it...and then compensate me for my success.
February 22, 2006 8:55 AMOnce upon a time, corporate america used color and
ethnic differences to keep the blue-collar workers
seperate. Today it's a class war that has eliminated the working middle class. You're either rich or poor.
I can't add because you've said everything I've felt over forty years of being Gunga Dhin for nearly a dozen companies. Now that I'm at the end of it, all I have to show are a lot of memories and very few 'attaboys.
February 22, 2006 4:54 PMIt is certainly correct that employers, generally, have no loyalty.
I was hired by a company several years ago to implement approx. five million dollars in capital improvements that had been inadequately funded and had become a political issue for the facilities management. After researching alternatives and completing the projects under budget(working 90 hours per week), I was promoted.
Two months later, I was diagnosed with diabetes and terminated.
February 22, 2006 8:16 PMEmployees are frustrated. I have seen it in over 47 years of professional endeavors in Fortune 500 corporations. A lot of the frustration comes from the incompetance of management who forgot the basic definition of their skill, which is: One who must get his job done through others, while doing whatever it takes to remove all obstacles in the way to insure their success.
Simple, but true.
I am a mechanical engineer for a large entertainment corporation and am currently in the field outside the U.S. on an installation.
Once again this year, I have taken no vacation days (as a matter of fact, I am losing them because I am at my limit of accrual), I have observed no holidays, I have only been home with my family for one week, and I have already worked 2080 hours as of the last week of August.
There will be no compensation days when I do get home because the job number will be closed. The only recognition I have ever received (I have done this several times for this company) was a bonus equal to one week's pay.
When you work on an installation for this company, you typically work 6 days a week and a minimum of 12 hours a day. When you work on an installation in another country, you work during U.S. holidays and during the holidays of the country you are in. When you work on an installation, you are always trying to keep the job on schedule so there is no time to be sick or take a vacation day.
I continue to do this work because at least I enjoy what I do and I am close to retirement. If I had any other choice, I would be out of here in a heart beat!
There is a lot of frustration coming through these comments. I am sure that anywhere in the range from cynicism to disappointment there is a lot of truth, hard-learned lessons, and shattered lives.
Is easy to point the finger and blame somebody, also is right to do so; however I don't see anybody that found the root cause.
If I were to give it a try, I would say that the degradation of the moral values of the people everywhere at every level is the main reason for most of these issues. The cause of this would be the lack of moral value of the education system.
During harder times, such as The Depression, poor people would still go to church, send their kids to school, and teach them basic moral values: not to steal, not to lie, work hard, do the best job that you can, etc.
On the other hand, business families would teach their kids -- who would one day take over the family business -- the need for respect, appreciation and responsibility for their employees.
The values of these generations are lost in these Enron times. Employees are there for their paycheck -- "I only work here" is the catch phrase -- and the corporations' morals reduce to a fat bottom line no mater how is achieved.
Someone once said that "The laws are like a fence for regular people -- the big dog jumps over the fence and the small dogs crawls under it."
Not to forget, though, that we are all PEOPLE and not DOGS.
September 14, 2006 10:17 AM
