As unemployment rates drop across the world, talent attraction and retention has become a strategic priority in many organizations. In our latest Global Talent Trends 2019 report, 97% of C-Suite executives said they expect to see competition for talent increase this year.
For decades, leaders and managers have searched for ways to increase employee commitment by developing compelling employee value propositions (EVPs). Considering the expense associated with turnover, this makes sense. Researchers have estimated that turnover costs range from 90 to 200 percent of an exiting employee’s salary. When turnover increases, the social fabric of an organization weakens, intangible knowledge and skills are lost, operational effectiveness decreases, accident rates rise, customer service and quality suffer, and customer satisfaction declines. All of these consequences can derail performance.
So what’s the best way to develop a compelling EVP? To answer this question, we analyzed our global normative database, focusing on employee attitudes about seven critical aspects of their organization’s value proposition: reward for performance, compensation, benefits, career development, support for wellness, sense of belonging, and meaningful work.
We wanted to understand the extent to which employees’ satisfaction with each offering is related to five important outcome measures: their level of motivation, overall satisfaction, advocacy (i.e., willingness to recommend the organization as a place to work), commitment, and intention to stay. Using meta-analytic techniques, we analyzed data from over five million employees working in 149 organizations and 172 countries.
Meta-analytic correlations (see table below) reveal four main findings.
Correlation, of course, does not prove causation. But taking into account the amount of data that was analyzed, as well as the size of the relationships that emerged, these results raise critical questions for anyone seeking to build a high-commitment work environment.
To answer these four questions, data is required. By assessing the extent to which your workforce is satisfied with the various elements that make up their total rewards—and then evaluating the relationship between satisfaction levels and workplace behaviors and performance outcomes—you can determine the unique mix of EVP offerings that will attract, motivate, and retain your employees.
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