Canadian employees are not happy on the job.
A new survey by Toronto-based human resources firm Towers Perrin reveals that workers feel highly negative about their work – and company performance is hurting as a result.
“Employers should not underestimate how strong employees’ emotions are for their work,” says Bruce Near, managing director for Towers Perrin in Canada.
“There appears to be a huge gap between employees’ current work experience and their ideal work experience. People have a fairly clear idea of what it would take to close this gap – and the good news for employers is that this goal is achievable.”
Working Today: Exploring Employees’ Emotional Connection To Their Jobs is said to be the first study to quantify the emotional nature of the work experience, using an emotion-based methodology. The study, part of a North America-wide survey of 1,100 employees and 300 senior human resources executives, revealed the workforce is equally angry, alienated and disconnected in Canada and the U.S.
However, the responses reveal that many senior executives don’t understand why workers are unhappy, and in turn are failing to correct the workplace malaise.
“Employers are over-estimating the impact of senior management and nervousness about the future, mistakenly believing they exert more of a negative influence on employees than is the case,” says Martine Ferland, managing partner for Towers Perrin’s Montreal office.
“Conversely, they are underestimating how important it is for employees to feel self-confidence in and from their work. Employers also under-estimated the importance of professional development opportunities, challenging work, rewards and recognition.”
According to the report, researchers reviewed corporate financial performance as measured by five-year total return to shareholders, and a clear link was found between positive employee emotion and financial performance.
The survey, conducted last September, also revealed that workers have a clear sense of their ideal work experience, and in most cases, their current job did not meet those standards.
“If a company could deliver on the elements of the work experience critical to strong positive employee emotion – employee confidence, competence, control and contribution – the research suggests that employees’ emotional investment in their work would shift dramatically,” says Near.
Adds Ferland: “The findings of this survey should serve as a wake-up call to employers. The current negative emotion is so strong, it is unlikely to pass when the economy bounces back and may result in a mini retention crisis if the economy improves and peoples’ job options increase.”
Towers Perrin and research firm Gang & Gang surveyed a randomly selected group of 1,100 employees from mid-sized to large companies across North America, including about 150 Canadians.
At the same time, 300 senior human resource executives (one-third of them Canadian) were surveyed about how employees at their company would describe their current work experience.
Web watch: www.towersperrin.com
