Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The majority of workers do not feel their work and life has meaning. - Free-Press-Release.com

The majority of people are not thriving in the workplace according to the latest poll by Performancepoint, LLC. In fact, 65% of those surveyed were not thriving. They do not feel like their work is meaningful and some of them do not feel their life is meaningful. The last two years of economic turmoil has a great deal to do with the current malaise in which many people find themselves. Many who answered the poll elaborated on why they answered in the manner that they did.
“I have been unemployed for 11 months and I am worthless!”
“As a business development manager, I am finding the current economy and the impact it has had on corporate spending to be impacting the fulfillment I have through my job. How can sales people, who are judged by the deal, learn to be satisfied with the process it takes to get to the win – especially when the wins are few and far between?”
“I said "sort of" because the economy has sort of "curbed" my pioneering spirit. Although I feel more purposeful treading new ground, I simply can't afford to make mistakes right now.”
“I am in a professional rut.”
“I said 'no'...relative to the 90's, I am making less than half what I averaged for that decade. I have great energy, tremendous desire to learn and apply that knowledge, but the opportunities seem to be so limited and the constraints so abundant. I have hope for better days to come. Checking the unemployment stats I am not alone.”
The stress and anxiety workers feel is significant. Tied to this stress is the impact on our organizations, our relationships, and at home. People who are not thriving are struggling. People under this type of pressure tend to:
• Sleep poorly
• Have higher blood pressure
• Suffer from depression
Even if we do not look at the significant risk factors and only look at the everyday work challenges these individuals face, we find that these same individuals:
• See job responsibilities and assignments as tasks to get done with less regard for the impact
• Strive for the path of least resistance versus working toward maximum results
• Exhibit self oriented behavior versus an interest in their customers and team Procrastinate
These behaviors reduce creativity and collaboration in the workplace--a significant price to pay personally and professionally. While current circumstances may concern some, other results from the poll were even more striking. When it comes to what position you occupy in a company where you sit matters:
• Only 18% of the C-level population said they were fulfilled
• 22% of Management felt they were thriving
• 35% of Associates responded as thriving
The reason executives and managers may be less fulfilled than the rest of the work population could be because they feel responsible and may be struggling with how to improve the lot of their associates. The executives and managers have a great deal of weight on their shoulders.
Additional survey findings include:
• Enterprise (multi-national) organizations had the largest amount of employees that felt they were thriving at 50%.
• Large businesses (national firms) had the largest number of associates not thriving at 46%. Medium and small firms had the smallest number of employees not thriving at 11% and 15% respectively; however they had the largest “sort of” groups at 67% and 63% respectively
• Administrative and support were unanimously not thriving at 100%
• Consulting was the industry with the most thriving population at 50%
• 31% of females were thriving
• 38% of males were thriving
• Most thriving age group was 25-34 year olds
• Least thriving age group was 55 and over
Regardless of how the numbers were broken down one thing is clear…satisfaction is at an all time low. Individuals are struggling personally and professionally through a difficult period of time including executives. The good news…there is a great deal of room for improvement.
About Performancepoint, LLC:
Performancepoint is a client-driven management consulting firm specializing in Employee Engagement.
Our mission is to increase the productivity and tenure of (key) employees in a manner that creates healthier organizations both on and off of the balance sheet.
Our solutions typically fall into these categories:
• Organizational Engagement Process
• Engagement Leadership
• Sales and Service Team Engagement
• Personal Engagement Strategies
Challenges Our Clients Face:
• Need to increase prospecting, referral generation, revenue generation, or customer retention
• Missed deadlines, delayed projects, new key business objectives to be rolled out – need to improve accountability and ownership across the organization
• Leadership needs development and/or not as effective as needed – increase productivity and /or reduce turnover in key areas or with key employees
• Productivity is lower than it should be – need to improve employee engagement especially during poor economic conditions, lay-offs, mergers, change in stock value, etc.

The majority of workers do not feel their work and life has meaning. - Free-Press-Release.com

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