Work environment and other key factors that impact retention

Bradley Savoy November 4, 2007

We just completed our webinar series in which we shared results from our Employer Brand Index study. I’ll share with you one snapshot of the results of the retention results portion of the index. The chart you see represents impressions of over 11,100 new hires at 90 days of tenure.

We asked respondents to give us their level of satisfaction from the top two box view – satisfied or very satisfied across these multiple categories and measures related to retention. In this example at 90 days, what are they most happy with, and least satisfied with.

Based on the view of the respondents, the work environment is the highest rated category to impact overall retention. As a sub measure within this category, the #1 ranked area was related to peer groups. The specific question asked was for the respondent to rate their work environment and the manner in which they were treated by their peer group.
- 84% of respondents were satisfied/very satisfied with work environment related to peers.
- 76% were satisfied/very satisfied with work environment related to management.

This speaks to a lag in management perception, and further data to support management interaction with various levels in their department. What we’ve found is that in general there are fundamental perceptions of trust amongst peers versus management, but for organizations that have more open door, accessible management, this perception can be more positive. As managers make themselves more accessible to all levels of employees, their scores improve.

Interestingly at 90 days of tenure, education and training as well as compensation are the lowest performing measures based on the views of the respondents. In general, most organizations provide a level of initial training to employees, but that is not always the case across multiple industries/companies.

What seems to be impacting these results is quality. Respondents cited that the quality of the initial education is lacking, describing programs that simply consist of ways to find information and navigate the structure of the company, rather than training on effectively acting in the role they were hired into. This is not to negate experienced hires, but merely to point out that based on respondent views, regardless of their level of experience, that they are seeking more in depth training early on in their tenure.

Finally, compensation acts as a lagging indicator across all measures, with only 42% satisfied or very satisfied. What’s interesting here is that the respondents are new hires, and one would expect that they would be satisfied with compensation as a new entrance into the company. However, this can speak to the difficulties candidates are seeing in the slowing job market, and in some cases their willingness to accept positions that they feel may not be providing them with competitive pay.

Posted in Human Resources Analytics, Hodes QTrac, HR Metrics, HR Analytics, HR Benchmarking