Monthly Archives: November 2014

Join Wednesday’s webinar on What Matters Most at Work

Posted on by
Reply

On this blog, we have started several discussions around the misunderstandings between employees and their bosses. What matters most at work? Our surveys show that, in most cases, companies do not understand what their employees want from them—including the importance of competitive compensation as a benefit. At the same time, employees have a lot to learn in terms of what their bosses need and expect from them.

In our webinar on Wednesday, December 3—What Matters Most at Work—we’ll be taking a deeper dive into this topic. Ed Cone, Oxford Economics’ Technology Practice Lead, will be discussing these issues with SAP’s David Swanson and IBM’s Sheila McGovern. Be sure to tune in—you can register here.

AI a potential threat to employees in Japan

Posted on by
Reply

Japan is in the news this week for its plans to invest heavily in robotics. The country currently uses approximately 300,000 robots, and plans to push that number up to one million by 2025.

The country hopes to address a growing national problem: a shrinking workforce population. (The country has other plans in the works, too, including one to boost women’s participation in the labor force.) Japan also hopes to reassert its dominance in robotics.

While Japan may see AI as part of the cure for its national labor force issues, employees may not be thrilled with this prospect. Our employee survey shows that 52% of workers in Japan say their position changing or becoming obsolete is a top job concern—that’s well ahead of the global total (40%).

Like most technologies, AI will significantly alter the nature of work across the world, and employees should be prepared to reevaluate how they fit in to the new workplace.

Do men and women value the same benefits and incentives at work?

Posted on by
Reply

We’ve talked at length about the differences between employees from different generations and parts of the world—but we haven’t yet revealed many of the differences between men and women in the workplace.

Our surveys show that men and women are aligned on many workplace issues, including leadership and learning. However, they do have slightly different priorities when it comes to job satisfaction and benefits.

Men and women at work November 24

A few of the key differences our surveys revealed:

  • Men tend to care more about company reputation. 32% of male respondents said a stronger company reputation/brand would increase loyalty and engagement at their current job (vs. 23% of women).
  • Women are more likely to prioritize education. Education benefits ranked as more important for women (44%) than men (40%).
  • Women are more interested in non-traditional benefits and incentives. Workplace amenities like fitness centers, daycares, and recreational facilities also ranked more important for women (41%) than men (36%).
  • Men rate the importance of quality of life slightly higher than women—but it’s important to both, with 47% of women agreeing compared to 51% of men. Women rate using more current technology higher than men do, with 53% of women agreeing compared to 47% of men.

While it is important for companies to address the varying wants and needs of diverse groups, it is also important to recognize commonalities. Men and women, for example, are equally likely to say competitive compensation and flexible work locations are important. Companies will need to understand these differences and similarities as they work to set policies that attract the best workers from all demographic groups.

Our Millennial Misunderstanding webinar is now available on-demand

Posted on by
Reply

You can now listen to last week’s webinar on The Millennial Misunderstanding, featuring data presentation from Oxford Economics’ technology practice lead Ed Cone as well as real-world insights from Deloitte’s Deborah Cole and SAP’s David Swanson. During the presentation, panelists discussed some of the common misconceptions about Millennials in the workplace and what companies can do to better meet the needs of their younger workers.

Want to participate in one of our live webinars and have a chance to ask questions in real time? Be sure to register for our next one on What Matters Most at Work. We’ll be talking about the benefits and incentives that are most important to employees-and what most companies actually offer.

Do high performers have different wants and needs?

Posted on by
Reply

With our survey data, we broke out data for high performers—employees who were ranked highly in their last performance review—from average and low performers. Karie Willyerd, the co-author of The 2020 Workplace:How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop, and Keep Tomorrow’s Employees Today and a valuable partner in this research project, recently published an article on what these high performers want at work.

How prepared are companies to meet the needs of their best workers? How satisfied are these employees today? According to Karie:

As you would expect, high performers as compared to low performers are more satisfied with their jobs and less likely to leave their jobs in the next six months. But in looking deeply into high performers specifically, you’ll see that the numbers aren’t as comforting as we’d hoped…one in five high performers are likely to leave in the next six months (versus one in four of employees overall who are likely to leave in the near term), and less than half are satisfied with their jobs.

You can read the full article at HBR—read it and join the discussion here.

Join today’s Millennial Misunderstanding webinar

Posted on by
Reply

Don’t forget: You can join us for a discussion on the Millennial misunderstanding–one the major themes of our research program-today at 10 am PT/1 pm ET.

During the webinar, Ed Cone will present the findings of our research and ask for insights from Deloitte’s Deborah Cole and SAP’s David Swanson. Do Millennials need to be managed differently than other workers? Do Millennials actually care less about competitive compensation? Are Millennials getting the training they need at work?

Interested? Register here.