We have all had at least one job where theory and execution did not quite match up to each other.
Whether you worked at a cafe that was understaffed or led a team of untrained salesmen, you likely remember how it felt to miss the mark in what would be considered the ideal outcome in your boss's eyes.
When it comes to human resources, it may or may not come as a surprise that many staff managers and hiring professionals often overshoot the perceived satisfaction of their employees.
A recent study called Mind the Gap – Knowing What Employees Want Is Key, published by the Watercooler, reveals just how much the opinion of staff differs from the view of their human resource managers.
Author of the study and vice president of compensation at Kenexa, Lena M. Bottos explained that results of Kenexa's annual Compensation Outlook Survey, which measures HR perception of a range of categories relating to human capital, reported different results to that of surveys of similar subject that targeted the views of staff and visitors.
The employee data collected via Salary.com and World Norms from Kenexa’s Employee Engagement database revealed that the degree of dissimilarity between the HR data and the employee results is significant in almost all categories.
Two particular statistics that showed stark contrasts relate to salary and projected turnover.
Over 70 per cent of HR professionals believe that employees are competitively compensated, while just 63 per cent of World Norms and 48 per cent of Salary.com respondents felt they were given a fair salary package.
Showing even greater disconnect, 83 per cent of HR professionals think staff will stay with the company for another year, compared to just 57 per cent of World Norms visitors and 41 per cent of Salary.com respondents.
These figures highlight the importance of finding out directly from your employees what they really think, rather than relying on perception alone.
Implementing satisfaction questionnaires or employee surveys could go a long way toward opening the lines of communication between management and staff.
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