Last fall, Mercer published the results from its What’s Working™ global survey of 30,000 employees, which revealed an overall rise in employees’ intent to leave their current jobs as the economy continues to improve.
Since the initial report was published, Mercer has been sharing a series of key findings from the global survey through its blog, M/Think. While all of the posts have been highly informative, one in particular caught the attention of Peer Group US – The Great Divide. Here, Mercer presents data to support a common workplace reality, namely, that one’s view of an organization as an employer is highly linked to that individual’s position within the organization.
More specifically, the infographic shows that while 82 percent of senior managers feel that they have “sufficient opportunity for growth and development” within their organizations, only 47 percent of non-management employees report feeling this way.
Similarities emerge when asked about the fairness of the promotion process at their organization. While 78 percent of senior managers believe that promotions are awarded to the most highly qualified employees, a mere 35 percent of non-managers agree with this perspective. And, while 84 percent of senior managers feel confident that they can achieve long-term career goals at their present organization, less than half (48 percent) of non-management employees feel this way.
This is not surprising given that those who are at the senior level within their organizations are most likely to have benefitted from the promotions process at their organizations and thus, reap the rewards that come with a senior role such as being more informed about their organization’s direction and their place within the organization than their lower-level counterparts.
Beyond this, the research points to the importance of ensuring that when an organization conducts an employer brand exercise – whether to review an existing brand model or to start from scratch by identifying the EVP – it’s absolutely necessary that the perspectives of all employees are accounted for by the research activities. While senior management is extremely helpful in shaping the project scope and identifying major topics for consideration, they alone cannot provide a complete picture of what it’s like to work at your organization and what barriers to retention and engagement may exist.
