Event review

Citation

Pritchard, K. (2008), "Event review", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 7 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2008.37207cac.001

Event review

Article Type: Resources From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 7, Issue 3.

Putting it in perspective report 2007 roundtable, UK, January 10, 2008

Kate Pritchard is based at ORC International.

In January, ORC International held a roundtable to announce the findings of the “Putting it in perspective report 2007”, a comprehensive benchmarking database that compares data collected from almost 300 employee surveys and represents the views and opinions of over 1.5 million employees in the UK. Beyond announcing a range of detailed statistics, the event provided a platform for a lively debate around trends in employee opinion during 2007 and discussion of the key drivers in employee engagement and the differences between different industry sectors.

Rory MacNeill, global managing director of employee research at ORC International, began proceedings with an introduction to the history of the ORC benchmarking database, one of the largest employee research databases in the UK and the basis of the Putting it in perspective report. He also provided insight on employee engagement, explaining the ORC measurement model of Say, Stay and Strive.

Following this, Kate Pritchard, head of employee research at ORC, presented current trends in employee opinion. The panel also included Keiron Lynch, communications consultant at Friends Provident and Stuart Branch, organization development director at Boots, both of whom offered illustrations and comment and personal insight.

Key report findings

According to ORC’s statistics, the big story for 2007 is that while worker satisfaction in the UK remains steady at 68 percent, public sector workers are the least engaged employees. Although differences between industries are less marked than in 2006, retail remains the top-performing sector for satisfaction while housing associations score the lowest. Other findings show that organizational pride is markedly low in local and central government, the best management is found in financial services and while charity workers are the happiest with pay, central government employees are the least happy in this respect.

Also discussed was this year’s “hot topic” change management. ORC’s report reveals that UK employers are not managing organizational change effectively in the eyes of their employees and are perceived to be getting worse at this. The percentage of employees who feel that their organization manages change effectively continues to fall and now stands at 30 percent. In times of change other factors of engagement are also taking a hit organizational pride is most affected, dropping to 20 percent lower than the norm, while overall satisfaction is 16 percent lower and intention to stay 10 percent lower.