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ENGAGE TREND REPORT 09.21.09
Engagement at the Top
Employee engagement is falling faster among top executives than any other group.
Only 13% of senior executives (VP-level or higher) say they are "willing to go above and beyond what is expected of them" - a decline from 29% two years ago. In a December survey of 79,000 members of the Corporate Executive Board, 20% of all respondents said they were disengaged vs. 10% two years ago.
Companies tend to think that in the downturn, senior leaders are grateful just to have a job. In fact, valued players are increasingly likely to be looking around. Among high-potential employees, one out of four plans on quitting in the next 12 months.
"Executive engagement has been under pressure from ever-increasing demand and activism from shareholders, negative attention on executive pay and pay differentiation, and the pace of change, both within companies as well as the industries and geographies in which they operate," says Ray Baumruk of Hewitt Associates.
"As with employees at other levels, key drivers of engagement for executives are opportunities within the organization, the work they do, quality of life, total rewards and the people they work with," Baumruk says. "For upper-level employees however, factors such as status, the ability to influence decisions and outcomes, alignment of personal and company values, and staff support are additional drivers of engagement"
In a contrasting view, the CEB study reported that compensation-based incentives are three times as likely to improve engagement among senior executives as among the workforce as a whole.
Either way, companies that ignore critical concerns and dismiss fear and disengagement among their ranks are not going to be in a position to maximize and retain valuable human capital as business improves and hiring expands.
Companies that have done their best to keep senior management engaged during the downturn will be the quickest to prosper and retain these valued employees when the tide turns.
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