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Annual Employee Engagement Survey Reveals Significant Gap Between Employee Commitment, Perceived Company Loyalty

Middle Managers, Company Values, Transparent Communication Play Critical Role in Employee Engagement

Washington, D.C. (December 1, 2010) – Amid uncertain economic times, U.S. employees expressed continued optimism about the direction of their companies and loyalty to their employers, according to the second annual employee engagement survey conducted by APCO Worldwide and Gagen MacDonald.

The survey results, however, indicate employees continue to believe their employers are not nearly as committed to them. There also is a widening gap between the perceived performance of CEOs and immediate supervisors, with employees expressing far more confidence in the performance of and communication from middle managers.

"The large gap between employee and employer connection we've seen in the last two years is alarming," said Kirk Stewart, an executive vice president at APCO Worldwide. "It's clear from the survey results that to close this gap, CEOs and their executive teams need to have clearly defined company values aligned with their business strategy and support, live and regularly communicate those values personally."

"There is a real opportunity for visionary leaders to build meaningful relationships with their employees by being more transparent about the company direction, the decisions they make and the implications of those decisions – otherwise, they risk losing a reservoir of employee goodwill," said Maril MacDonald, CEO of Gagen MacDonald. "But the single most important thing senior managers can do is nurture and support their middle managers, who appear to be the glue holding many organizations together during these unsettling times."

Slight Erosion in Employee Confidence, Employee and Employer Connection; Connection Gap Remains Large

The survey was conducted among a cross-section of more than 500 U.S full-time workers employed for at least one year at companies with 100 or more employees. Based on the results, the research team created three indices that can be used to track employee engagement over time:

  • Employee Confidence Index, which measures employee optimism about the direction of his or her company (81.4 compared to 84.3 in 2009)
  • Employee Connection Index, which measures employee loyalty to his or her company (83.5 compared to 86.7 in 2009)
  • Employer Connection Index, which measures how loyal an employee believes the company is to him or her (63.3 compared to 65.9 in 2009)

While the Employee Confidence and Employee Connection Indices are very positive, the Employer Connection Index is lower than ideal, leaving significant room for improvement. The difference between the Employee Connection Index and the Employer Connection Index results in a connection gap of 20.2 points, nearly the same as the 20.8-point gap recorded in 2009.

According to the survey results, three factors best explain this gap – the degree to which the executive team supports and lives the company values; authentic, open and honest communication from the executive team; and employees receiving consistent information from all the leaders in the company.

More results below


Morale and Job Satisfaction Remain High; Immediate Supervisors Continue to Outperform CEOs

Other highlights of the employee engagement survey include:

  • Direction of the Company – Employees are slightly less positive about the current direction of their companies (77 percent said right direction compared to 81 percent in 2009), but report things are better than a year ago (33 percent said better compared to 27 percent in 2009).
  • Morale – Employees report morale is equally as positive compared to a year ago (57 percent said it's positive compared to 59 percent in 2009), yet 24 percent believe it is better than a year ago compared to 20 percent in 2009 who said it was better.
  • Job Satisfaction – Employees remain very satisfied with their current jobs (77 percent are satisfied compared to 78 percent in 2009) and 87 percent of employees said they plan to be in their current job six months from now, compared to 88 percent in the 2009 study.
  • Job Performance – Employees rate the current performance of their immediate supervisor (73 percent said it was good) significantly higher than their CEO (62 percent said it was good). This performance gap between immediate supervisors and CEOs has widened in the last year.
  • Communication – Employees also rate the quality (51 percent said it was excellent) and frequency (56 percent said it was excellent) of the communication they received from their immediate supervisors significantly higher than the quality (42 percent said it was excellent) and frequency (37 percent said it was excellent) of the communication they received from their CEOs. The largest communication improvement opportunity is for executive teams to more clearly explain the direction of their companies.

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About the Survey

This survey of 503 full-time U.S. employees was fielded by telephone from October 1- 8, 2010. It was conducted by APCO Insight®, APCO's independent opinion research division. The sample included individuals who were employed full time, had been employed at their company for at least one year and worked at a company that had more than 100 employees. The sampling error for the survey is ± 4.4 percentage points at the 95-percent confidence interval. For more information about the survey, please contact Elizabeth Wolf at ewolf@apcoworldwide.com or 202.778.1470.

About APCO Worldwide

Founded in 1984, APCO Worldwide is an award-winning, independently owned global communication consultancy with offices in major cities throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., APCO clients include corporations and governments; industry associations and nonprofit organizations; and seven of the top 10 companies on Fortune's Global 500. APCO Insight, our opinion research division, deploys a full suite of sophisticated qualitative and quantitative research methodologies geared toward producing actionable outcomes for our clients. APCO Online, our online communication and social media division, creates sophisticated, results-oriented online campaigns to shape the real-world environment in which our clients operate, improving their bottom line and enhancing their reputation. For more information, please visit www.apcoworldwide.com.

About Gagen MacDonald

Gagen MacDonald, formed in 1998 and based in Chicago, is a strategy execution firm dedicated to helping companies navigate change and drive business performance. An independently owned, certified Women's Business Enterprise, the firm is an award-winning leader in its field, recognized among many of the Fortune 500 for its expertise in change leadership and alignment, employee engagement and communication, strategic planning, building organizational capability and research and measurement. The firm counsels many of the world's largest corporations and global brands across a variety of industry segments. For more information, please visit gagenmacdonald.com.

Contact:
Elizabeth Wolf
202.778.1470
ewolf@apcoworldwide.com

Peter Debreceny
Gagen MacDonald
312.673.7324
p.debreceny@gagenmac.com