More than eight in 10 employers (88%) are committed to engaging with their staff/having successful relationships with their staff, according to research issued today (Monday 22 November) by IRS Employment Review, published by LexisNexis.
Improving internal communications tops the list of policy changes already made by 78% of employers. Almost two-thirds (63%) of organisations believe that the manager-staff relationship has the most significant effect on employee satisfaction and commitment. This compares with less than one in 20 (4%) who believe that union consultation is crucial. Employee earnings is seen as an important issue by four in 10 respondents.
How far should an organisation go to improve staff engagement, and how can it measure the impact on profits were questions raised in the survey in the latest edition (811) of IRS Employment Review (www.iresmploymentreview.com
Other key findings
More than half (52%) of the surveyís respondents say employees are generally happy and loyal to the organisation and more than one in 10 (13%) report that management has an exceptionally good relationship with staff.
Overall, more than four in 10 (43%) say that their employment relationship has improved over the past 12 months, while less than a fifth (17%) say it has worsened and just over a third (36%) say it has stayed the same.
One in five of the panel have had problems with staff dissatisfaction but have taken action to improve the situation, while less than one in five (14%) admit they are concerned about the state of the employment relationship.
Almost half of respondents (42%) have undergone some major change during the past year, mainly related to restructuring, a change in ownership and/or a redundancy programme.
Of those undergoing change, more than half (58%) report that relations have improved over the past year, while just under a quarter reveal that the employment relationship has worsened overall.
Almost nine in 10 employers measure staff engagement by monitoring absenteeism (89%), followed by exit interviews (84%). Other common techniques are retention rate monitoring, employee appraisals, team briefings and employee attitude surveys. Interactive communication methods such as focus groups, union consultation, joint consultative committees and confidential feedback systems are used less often.
Around one-third of the IRS panel specifically measures engagement levels.
Employee attitude surveys are used regularly (annually and even monthly) by almost half (42) the organisations surveyed.
Almost two-thirds (63%) of organisations believe ìrelationships with managersî affect employees ìa lotî.
ìRelationships with colleaguesî was cited by 60% of respondents, followed by ìquality of line managementî (57%) and ìrecognition of contributionî (56%). Other key issues are ìworking cultureî, ìjob securityî, ìinternal communicationsî and ìworkloadî. Further down the list is ìpayî. Organisational issues such as ìbusiness successî, ìquality of services or productsî and ìvalues and ethicsî are also important.
Over half the organisations revealed different influencers for older workers, for whom pensions, job security, working environment and work-life balance are key priorities.
IRS Employment Review managing editor, Mark Crail:
ìGood staff relationships are more than about having a happy workforce. Engaged employees are the ones who always do that little bit more, go that little bit further, to make their organisation a success - and employers will only get people to do that by genuinely involving people in decisions.
ìA point made clear from the research is that employers are not relying on improved working conditions to enhance employee commitment. The initiatives used for keeping staff onside tend to focus on keeping staff informed, improving training and development and - to some extent - listening to staff opinion. When employers adopt these practices, they find their staff are responsive and flexible - ideal circumstances to keep an organisation competitive.î
It pays to talk: employers want relationships with their staff to succeed
More than eight in 10 employers (88%) are committed to engaging with their staff/having successful relationships with their staff
