In this edition, answers@work provides surprising summaries of the employee survey results from our new employee survey, On Board, Imagine - our existing employee engagement survey, and eXIT, our exit interview service. This newsletter will provide employers summaries of our database, reflecting the responses from employees regarding key retention issues. Here are some of the key findings.

Executive Summary Using “On Board,” new employees rate employers very high in almost every category of retention issues. They begin their work-life cycle extremely loyal to their new employer with high hopes of staying on indefinitely. This loyalty only declines slightly over the first three to six months of employment. The two areas new employees rate employers the lowest are in competitiveness of pay and failure to contact them prior to starting work to learn about any of their employment, professional or personal needs that would enhance their effectiveness.

Results from the “Imagine” engagement survey show existing employees rate employers lower overall than new employees. It is dissatisfaction with pay that drives down the results, but surprisingly it is not the amount of pay that gets the lowest scores. Employees are unhappy with the lack of pay for performance than they are with the fairness of their wage. Some dissatisfaction with dental, retirement, then medical respectively, is evident when compared to other questions” results. There is also good news. Existing employees do rate employers high in providing equal treatment (e.g. nationality, gender, age, etc.), and protection of employees’ safety also receives high marks. What is it that employees rate the highest overall? If you guessed the teamwork and relationships with their coworkers, you are right, and by a significant amount over other ratings.

What about results from “eXIT,” our exit interview survey. It turns out employers do not score well in staying close enough to employees to recognize they may be seeking other employment. Moreover, it appears not enough is being done to keep the good ones once they announce their resignation. Our system automatically excludes employees with mediocre or less performance evaluations (when assessing these results). Interestingly, the second most significant issue affecting turnover is the cost of living and housing within a reasonable commute of the employer. Like Imagine results, highest scores came from relationships with coworkers, especially teamwork.

How do employers respond to the above example results? That is tough to answer. Our findings clearly vary by industry and employer. Some industries and some employers see successes, while others do not. Each employer will need to establish its own database of results to identify where to focus. We remain surprised that leadership and opportunities for development did not surface as greater frontrunners affecting turnover, although results in these areas definitely show a need for improvement. Mediocre results also are apparent in rewards and recognition and management communication. answers @work provides reasonably priced survey services and consulting to establish what retention issues face individual employers and to assist with designing programs to improve results in each of these areas.

• Loyalty – “I want to work for this company as long as I can”
• Relationships – “The people I work with are friendly and helpful” and other related questions
• Growth Opportunities – “In my current position I have the opportunity to learn and grow” and other related questions
• Leadership – several questions with best score related to “My supervisor is effective” to least favorable score for the question “My supervisor spends enough time with me”
• Recognition –“I am respected by coworkers” and other questions
• Job Responsibilities – “My job responsibilities are what I expected” and several other questions. Scores begin to drop more significantly here.
• My coworkers participated in my selection process” and several other related questions
• Orientation – “I made friends during the company orientation” and other related questions. A real opportunity missed here
• Attraction to the Organization – “Good pay attracted me to this organization” and several other issues
• New Employee Support – “I was contacted before I began work to find out what needs I had” and other questions

Again, results vary significantly by employer, and within the companies by manager. Employers will want to assess their results by issue and by organizational unit to fully understand where opportunities exist for impacting new employee retention.

• Relationships – “My coworkers and I work together to get the job done” and other related questions
• Legal Issues – “My leader treats employees equally regardless of age, sex…..”
• Organization Issues – Questions in this category address several issues including safety, competitiveness of the organization, communication, etc.
• Customer Satisfaction – “I am proud of our organization’s emphasis on customer satisfaction” and other related questions
• Leadership Issues – many topics are addressed in this retention category including communications, coaching skills, trust, etc.
• Job Related Issues – “We have enough staff on our team” and several other questions
• Personal Growth Opportunities – “I am supported here in my efforts to advance my career, job knowledge, and/or education”
• Rewards and Recognition – “This organization rewards and recognizes good performance” and other related questions. Another opportunity missed
• Market Competitiveness – This category measures responses to pay and specific benefits

Again, results vary significantly by employer and manager. Interestingly, the question receiving the lowest overall score in our engagement survey is “We have enough staff on our team.” Our HR experience combined with research on those issues affecting employee stress resulted in including this question. More and more researchers are seeing emphasis on economy of staffing having a negative impact on the workforce resulting in turnover, employee workers’ compensation claims and lower engagement/satisfaction scores.

• Legal Issues – “I think the organization treats employees equally related to age, sex…..”
• Customer Satisfaction – “I was proud of our organization’s emphasis on satisfying our customers”
• Relationships – “I believed my coworkers and I worked together to get the job done” and other related questions
• Organization Issues – Questions in this category address several issues including safety, competitiveness of the organization, communication, etc.
• Job Related Issues – “In this job I was allowed to perform assignments I could do effectively” and several other questions
• Leadership Issues – many topics are addressed in this retention category including communication’s skills and practices, coaching skills, trust, etc.
• Market Competitiveness – This category measures responses to pay and specific benefits
• Rewards and Recognition – “My leader regularly recognized and expressed appreciation when I performed well” and other related questions
• Personal Growth Opportunities – “While working here I was supported in my efforts to advance my career, knowledge, and/or education”
• Personal Reasons for Leaving – “My reasons for leaving the organization are personal circumstances such as my spouse relocating, needing to take care of a family member….”
• Community Living Costs – “Housing and living costs within acceptable commute of my work location were reasonable”
• Resignation Recovery – “When I notified my manager that I was leaving, efforts were made to keep me in the organization

While it was not surprising that most employers have yet to discover the effective techniques that make up a “resignation recovery program” for keeping higher performing employees, it is unfortunate to see such low scores by departing employees regarding pay for performance. In contemporary times, employees seem to expect better pay with performance and are more likely to raise productivity if they will be rewarded financially.