Economic Crisis Impacts Employee Engagement
Mark D. Hirshfeld, F. Leigh Branham, Greg Harris
Quantum Workplace, December 2008
Results of a national comparative survey of US companies between 2007 and 2008 indicate that 66 percent of the firms in the study saw decreases in their employee engagement, according to Quantum Workplace, a market research company that surveys employee engagement.
Best known as the research firm behind "Best Places to Work" programs in more than 40 metro areas, Quantum Workplace surveys more than 1.5 million employees among 5,000 companies nationwide. The surveys are conducted at different times of the year, but at the same time of the year in each location.
In their December study the authors found that by an almost two-to-one margin (134 to 76), more employers had lower overall employee engagement scores in the fall of 2008 than in the fall of 2007. They write that this strongly suggests that external circumstances regarding the economy may be influencing employees' attitudes about their jobs and workplaces.
Lessons Learned
To explore the issue further, Quantum Workplace conducted an analysis of the 210 companies; both those that had higher engagement scores and those whose scores had dropped off. Their analysis uncovered five key differentiators that reveal how some employers are growing and where others may be losing their hold.
The following five lessons were responsible for a disproportionate share of the variation among winners and losers:
