UK employee confidence has declined 1.8 percent since June, according to a quarterly measure of worker opinions from Kenexa, the global provider of talent management and retention solutions.
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 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 September 2009, the global employee confidence index score was 97.9. Brazil (105.3), China (102.8) and India (100.2) had the highest levels of employee confidence, while Germany (96.7), Japan (95.6) and Spain (93.3) had the lowest levels. The United Kingdom employee confidence index score was 97.2. The UK score had risen 4.6 percent in the second quarter.
The largest declines in the 2009 third quarter employee confidence levels compared to the second quarter were registered in France, followed by Spain and Germany.
Anne Herman, research consultant at the Kenexa Research Institute stated that: “Globally there was approximately a one point decline in the third quarter 2009, compared to a five point improvement in the second quarter. China and India sustained and built very slightly on the improvements seen in the second quarter of 2009, while Japan reversed a second quarter downward trend.”
Herman continued: “While the second quarter of 2009 showed a global economy rebounding strongly, the third quarter employee confidence scores indicate that recovery is not going to be a straight line of positively improving results. Nine of the 12 studied countries show third quarter declines compared to second quarter of 2009. The positive news is that none of the countries completely lost the gains made in the second quarter, but the new data suggests that the amount of improvement seen in the second quarter was not sustainable in this economic environment. This is a bit like three steps forward and one step back.”
Kenexa has been monitoring employee confidence since June 2008. The resultant data is available by country, industry, gender, age and job type.
