"TNS/Conference Board Report on Employee Engagement and Commitment"
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TNS/Conference Board, Sept. 2005
According to a report from the Conference Board and TNS, businesses will soon be tested by a more polarized, diverse and increasingly disengaged workforce. The study concludes that employers will face two distinct challenges in the near future: "finding ways to attract, retain and motivate high quality employees regardless of age, ethnicity, gender or occupation; and developing workforce management practices that balance the corporate bottom line with the needs and expectations of a diverse, global workforce." The report questions whether today's managers are equipped to handle these challenges.
The study cites U.S. Labor Department forecasts showing that employment will be polarized with the majority of jobs at the top and bottom levels of the pay and skill scales and few in the middle. In addition, the workforce will become older and more female with greater ethnic diversity.
The Conference Board/TNS survey, however, found that the greatest challenge facing business is an increasingly disengaged workforce. Forty percent of respondents reported feeling disconnected from their employers and a quarter said that they only show up to collect a paycheck. What's more, this trend appears to be hitting all levels of the workforce. A mere 26 percent of higher-paid respondents reported feeling motivated at work. Thirty-four percent reported feeling "detached." The numbers were 20 percent motivated and 48 percent detached for lower-paid workers.
The researchers recommend greater attention be paid to leadership development with an emphasis paid to recognizing some of the nuances of tomorrow's more diverse workforce.