The Kenexa Research Institute Launches its Employee Confidence Indexô

Kenexa, a global provider of talent management and retention solutions, today announced that the Kenexa Research Institute has released its Kenexa Employee Confidence Indexô (ECI), a quarterly measure of worker opinions and component of the forthcoming Kenexa Composite.

Employee confidence has been found to relate to multiple economic and business performance outcomes at the individual, organizational, industry and country levels as well as being predictive of both consumer confidence and unemployment levels.

A high level of employee confidence is achieved when employees perceive their organization as being effectively managed and competitively positioned, and believe they have a promising future with their organization, job security and skills that are attractive to other employers. Employee confidence influences individual behavior and has implications for organizational performance and economic conditions.

In December 2008, the global ECI score was 98.4. Brazil (104.9), the United Kingdom (100.1), France (99.9), China (99.8) and Germany (99.7) had the highest levels of employee confidence, while Canada (97.5), Russia (97.4) and Japan (93.3) had the lowest levels. The United Statesí employee confidence index score was 98.7.

Jeffrey Saltzman, principal at Kenexa, stated, ìCompared to June 2008, employees in Brazil are the most positive. According to the OECD, Brazil was the only country to be rated a ëdownturní rather than ëstrong slowdowní in December 2008. Employees in Canada were relatively upbeat until the Canadian dollar started falling against the U.S. dollar, losing 12% of its value in October alone, the largest drop since 1950. Employees in Japan recorded the lowest level of year-end confidence possibly due to an 8.1% decline in November industrial output, the largest decline ever recorded in Japan.î

In the U.S., employee confidence varied by industry. The service, healthcare, accounting and legal industries had the highest levels of employee confidence. Mining, hotel and business services showed a decline in employee confidence since June 2008.

Within the U.S., 32% of employees feel that their economic well-being will continue to decline over the next six months and 73% are expressing at least some worry about their personal financial well-being, while 40% are worrying about it to a great or very great extent. Employees within the U.S. were not alone in their concerns; workers in every country surveyed expressed significant amounts of concern as well.

Saltzman continued, ìIt is somewhat alarming to see the rather large percentage of employees expressing either a very great deal or great deal of concern with respect to their current financial situations. The U.S., while at almost 40%, is second only to France with 52% of the employee population expressing these high levels of concern.î