UK employee confidence increased 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter 2009 and showed an increase of 5.3 percent since the first quarter, according to a quarterly measure of worker opinions from Kenexa (NASDAQ:KNXA), a global provider of business solutions for human resources.
Employee confidence has been found to relate to multiple economic and business performance outcomes at the individual, organisational, industry and country levels as well as being predictive of consumer confidence.
A high level of employee confidence is achieved when employees perceive their organisation as being effectively managed and competitively positioned, and believe they have a promising future with their organisation, as well as job security and skills that are attractive to other employers. Employee confidence influences individual behaviour and has implications for organisational performance and economic conditions.
Kenexa’s quarterly study, which measures the degree of confidence employees have in their employers’ marketplace competiveness and their own careers, involves over 15,500 employees in 12 countries (Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain, the UK and the United States).
In December 2009, the global employee confidence index score was 98.0, a very slight improvement from the third quarter (97.9). Brazil (107.5), China (105.6) and India (101.3) reported the highest levels of employee confidence, while France (94.9), Japan (94.0) and Spain (92.4) reported the lowest levels. The United Kingdom’s employee confidence index score was 99.8 (an increase from 97.2 in the third quarter).
For the year ending 31 December 2009, the 12 largest economies reported an increase in employee confidence index scores, with the exception of Japan, which reported a slight decrease for the year. The global employee confidence index score for the fourth quarter of 2009 increased approximately 4 points, from 93.8 in the first quarter. Countries that reported the most improvement in employee confidence index scores throughout 2009 were China (15.8 point increase), Italy (8.1) and Brazil (7.1).
Anne Herman, research consultant at the Kenexa Research Institute, said: “Employee confidence fluctuated throughout 2009, with the majority of the countries reporting both increases and decreases. India and China were the only two surveyed countries that had an increase in scores, quarter over quarter.”
She continued: “We enter 2010 on a positive note. Our studies have linked employee confidence to higher country-level GDP and stronger organisation performance, among other metrics. Therefore, this indicates that as employee confidence increases, GDP and organisation performance should both improve, indicating that we appear to be in a state of resurgence.”
Kenexa’s quarterly Employee Confidence Index was started in June 2008 and was normalised for each country to equal 100. Subsequent scores are reported in percents above or below that starting point. The resultant data is available by country, industry, age, gender and job type.
