Not enough companies are using tools like an employee engagement survey to ensure their employees feel connected. 

In fact, a recent survey revealed that 56 per cent of surveyed HR managers concede their organization's employee engagement falls short on driving bottom-line business objectives.

A recent Right Management global survey polled more than 1,800 human resources managers to gauge the effectiveness of their employee engagement efforts.

"Employee engagement should be a mindset, not a program that starts and stops when morale is bad,” said Scott Ahlstrand, Right Management's Global Practice Leader for Employee Engagement. 

“Unfortunately, many large organizations don't have a true pulse on the value of their engagement. They need to effectively turn engagement data into meaningful intelligence at the department and individual manager level to help employees recognize their contributions to the business."

A fully integrated employee engagement survey can help you gauge how your employees feel, so you can take any corrective steps before you have a major issue.

"Successful companies have engaged employees that understand how they contribute to that success," added Ahlstrand.

If you have any questions about employee engagement surveys, please don’t hesitate to contact us any time.

Do bosses who refuse to apologize see worse results on employment engagement surveys? Does accountability lead to engagement?

According to the global Leadership Pulse Survey, almost half (43 per cent) of employees say that their managers rarely or never apologize. At the same time, only 19 per cent of employees responded that their bosses always or often say they're sorry.

"The lack of employee engagement is a huge issue among U.S. workers and our research found that employees who register low levels of trust at work, are also the most likely group to report low engagement,” said Andrew Graham, CEO of Forum Corp.

"When managers aren't transparent in their actions – and that includes accepting responsibility for errors, being truthful with their employees and acknowledging hard work – that tends to breed mistrust among employees."

Their data also shows that:

• 96% of employees say it's extremely important for employees to have a manager they can trust
• 56% of managers say it's extremely important for employees to trust their managers
• 37% of employees say that they trust managers less today, compared to past years
• 78% of managers say they refrain from asking for forgiveness for fear of appearing incompetent, while 22% are afraid of looking weak

If you have any questions about what an employee engagement survey can do for your company, please contact us any time.

If you took an employee satisfaction survey of the entire world, what would it look like?

Monster.com asked a little over 8,000 people in Canada, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, the UK and the US about their job satisfaction. Surprisingly, 22 per cent of American respondents said they love their job so much that they would work for free.

Here’s how Americans answered: “Which of the following best describes how much you love your current job?                                                                                

• 22%: Love it – Would do it for free
• 31%: Like it a lot – You enjoy what you do, but you could like it more
• 31%: Like it – You like it well enough for now
• 10%: Don’t love it at all – but it is a necessary evil
•  6%: Don’t like it – You think you could do better

By contrast, only one in ten Brits (11 per cent) love their jobs so much they would do them for free. Elsewhere, 18 per cent of respondents from India would work for free.

“What is striking about the findings is that the strength of a country’s labor market doesn’t necessarily correlate with workforce contentment. While workers in challenged markets may have had fewer opportunities to advance in terms of promotions or salary during the recent downturn, it has not necessarily affected their happiness, “said Chris Moessner, Vice President for Public Affairs, GfK.

If you have any questions about what a 360 employee satisfaction survey could do for your company, please contact us any time.

Grapevine’s Employee Survey software makes life easier for HR professionals across the world. Now, a new joint offering with Akira Wavelength Workforce Manager will take that a step further.

Last week, we officially announced an exciting new marketing partnership with Akira Systems, which will be available immediately to our clients.

“Partnering with Akira further shows our commitment to providing organizations of all sizes, HR applications that are easy to use, flexible and fully customizable to meet any needs,” said Wesley Houston, Director, Operations of Grapevine.

The combined Grapevine and Akira Wavelength offering creates cost-saving talent management solutions, such as:

• Complementary product and service portfolios across HRIS technology and HR processes
• Specific solutions for employee surveys and evaluation, employee management and payroll services

Akira’s Wavelength platform is a Workforce Management (WFM) solution, which extends beyond traditional HRIS, Scheduling, Time and Attendance systems by engaging the workforce through a workflow centric approach. 

“In partnership with Grapevine, the Wavelength platform will start helping more companies save time and money faster,” said Ashraf Ghadban, CEO of Akira.

“Building on the success of the Wavelength platform at Western University and other distinguished organizations, our singular focus remains the same: to help companies better manage all aspects of their workforce and enable enhanced communications and self service.”

If you have any questions about what this partnership means, or what 360 employee surveys can do for you, please don’t hesitate to contact us any time. 

A 360 employee satisfaction survey is the most thorough way to gauge how your employees feel, for better or for worse.

The Department of Homeland Security has struggled with employee satisfaction over the years, and the findings from their latest annual employee survey proved these problems remain.

Homeland Security’s job-satisfaction score this year is 57 points, four points lower than the 2012 number. They rank as second lowest among all executive-branch departments. Only Housing and Urban Development, with a score of 56, fared worse.

“While the results are concerning, it is when times are the most difficult that we are able to rise to the occasion and tackle these pressing issues to find the most collaborative and creative solutions,” said U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director, Katherine Archuleta. 

The most concerning thing is that these results could have been even worse. This survey was administered prior to the recent government shutdown.

“Amidst uncertain times, agency managers can use the 2013 FEVS results as an important management tool to learn from their employees and improve satisfaction and engagement through shared best practices across and between agency partners.”

376,577 federal employees provided their candid opinions on all aspects of their employment – their work experiences, their supervisors, and their agency.

If you have any questions about what a employee satisfaction survey can do for you, please don’t hesitate to contact us any time.