57% of employees 'happy' in their current role

What a difference a year makes: Survey shows mood amongst employers changed as downturn forced cost cutting and strategy change yet only 57% of employees are ‘happy or very happy’ in their current role

Clarian Human Resources' First "Great New Zealand Employment Survey®" both supports and challenges common perceptions regarding the New Zealand workplace.

AUCKLAND, Tuesday 20 April 2010 – Clarian Human Resources, a leading provider of outsourced human resources services in New Zealand, says there was affirmation that more than a third of employers changed their strategy extensively as a result of the recession. Clarian’s inaugural “Great New Zealand Employment Survey” released this week shows, amongst many surprising findings, that organisations have retracted their activities and moved to look internally for ways to improve business, create more opportunity for client retention and to downsize their head count. At the same time employees feel they had not been informed of changes and challenges as much as they had hoped, or as much as employers felt they had done.

The Great New Zealand Employment Survey was conducted voluntarily by employers and employees over the months of October and November 2009, with a response rate of 292 employers and 203 employees. The survey represents a broad cross section of the workforce and employers in the country; 63% of all
respondents coming from the Auckland area, and Wellington and Christchurch accounting for 11% and 8%
respectively. Information was received from businesses with fewer than 20 employees to those with more than 1000 and manufacturing represented 12% of the respondents, followed by Government /Defence at 10%.

According to Clare Parkes, Director for Clarian Human Resources the reason it conducted the survey was; “With a dearth of information on the overall state of employment practices in New Zealand, we found that business leaders and HR professionals had no opportunity to benchmark and understand how they measured up in the New Zealand market. While a number of other surveys cover topics such as remuneration, recruitment and internal engagement, there lacked a survey that covered all aspects of the employment relationship, with a particular emphasis on the current economic environment and from both the employer’s and employee’s point of view.

“With recent announcements from the government on expectations of the unemployed, the survey reveals that companies are looking primarily to develop from within, and certainly do not see apprenticeships and other workforce training schemes as a way of developing capability in their organisation” says Clare Parkes. “This could lead to a stalemate whereby the industry is not willing or incapable of the providing opportunities outlined as being a pre-requisite to certain benefits, or companies will start to look at their social responsibilities and provide opportunities for development of this untapped workforce.”

The Great New Zealand Employment Survey gives valuable information on current and emerging trends in people related activities as well as providing insights into the impact of the current economic climate in the follow four areas:

1. People Strategy - Leaders need to reconnect with their teams and reboot morale.
The survey examined the impact the economic climate had on both the organisation and people strategies and found that, for employers, stabilising the organisation following restructure and change through more effective and comprehensive communication will be essential; particularly where significant change has occurred in the senior leadership teams.
Key findings:
• 65% of employers reported they had increased communications during the last 12 months; conversely, 60% of employees reported they had experienced a decrease or no change in communications in the last 12 months.
• Only 16% of employer respondents have downsized as a result of the economic downturn; could this be a potenial reflection of the paternal and avoidance culture that can be found in New Zealand?
• Employers and employees differ significantly in their views on whether pay and benefits are significant in retaining talent.
• 40% of employers reported that changing the leadership structure had been a key focus of reorganisations over the last 12 months, at the CEO and direct report level. What has this done to the culture: created an unstable or re-energised environment?
• The majority of employer respondents reported that they are focused on improving processes in the coming 12 months. Will this internal focus be enough to maintain or grow their market share?

2. Attraction and Selection – It’s important to identify critical skills needed for business success, source and develop these skills from within and across all levels of staff.
Most employers indicated they expected their primary recruitment focus would be on internal development and selection in the coming period, and that there is a need to drive higher levels of productivity from existing teams.
Key findings:
• 65% of employers are currently recruiting and 46% expect their sourcing activities to increase in 2010; 67% of those who are recruiting are looking to replace voluntary leavers.
• Employees feel welcomed but lack the information, guidance, resources and equipment to do their job when starting a new role.
• Employee turnover is not a priority or concern for employers in 2010, whilst 49% of employees are currently looking for another job.
• 30% of employees are reviewing job vacancies between 1-5 times each week and are looking for a successful, stable employer who pays well.
• Employees feel working as a contractor assists them in finding future employment.

3. Leadership and performance - This is the year for bosses to effectively manage poor performance and have more courageous discussions with employees.
A competitive advantage may be gained by undertaking learning and development interventions for all staff, with particular attention on management skills, facilitating a development path for employees, and providing clear expectations of performance. Both employers and employees reported that poor performance continues to be managed poorly with employees indicating that ineffective leadership was a barrier to better performance.
Key findings:
• Both employers and employees report that poor performance continues to be poorly managed; employees indicate that internal conflict and ineffective leadership are key barriers to better performance.
• 25% of employees felt their leadership teams had not set performance expectations for the organisation; conversely, employers felt they had and that they had been communicated well.
• 73% of employees and 89% of employers confirmed they have formal performance reviews ranging from informal, on the job feedback to formal, twice a year meetings.
• More than half of the employees that responded indicate that organisations are not providing a structured career path.
• 18% of employers indicated that developing leadership capability in their organisation is their highest priority; yet 7% of employers indicated they will not be undertaking any activities that improve their leadership and management capability.

4. Engagement and retention - Understanding the core root to attrition rates and engagement levels in your organisation and paying particular attention to the cost and effort required to achieve 100% productivity from new hires will assist employers in the recovery period.
Review how your employees are rewarded and developing programmes that will retain the core skills required in your business will be key. Organisations will be competing to attract the best staff and employers need to position themselves to retain their key people for the long term.
Key findings:
• 80% of employers are already focusing on retaining existing staff.
• 34% of employers report that their staff turnover in the last 12 months has been between 11-20% and they report their turnover is likely to increase in 2010
• Only 57% of responding employees report that they are either ‘happy or very happy’ in their current role.
• 53% of leavers have less than 2 years service and 35% of employees would leave in the next 12 months if they had a choice.
• Opinions about the workplace vary between employees and employers; the quality of communication being the key difference.
• Having a great physical environment, a fun place to work and having great people around them, is more important to employees than employers believe.
For a summary report of the survey you can download a pdf at http://www.clarian.co.nz/gr8nzemptsurvey.html

ENDS

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