Employee Confidence Index Slips to Its Lowest Level this Year

The number of U.S. workers expressing confidence in the economy and in their personal
employment situation continued its decline in November, according to a recent survey from Spherion Corporation (NYSE: SFN) of 3,014 working adults.

The Spherion Employee Confidence Index, a monthly gauge of overall worker confidence, decreased by 3.5 points to 52.9 in November, its lowest level seen this year. The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Spherion, reveals that fewer workers believe there are more jobs available and that the economy is getting stronger. Despite this, more than three-quarters of workers believe it is unlikely that they will lose their job in the next 12 months.

According to the survey, the percentage of workers who expressed confidence in their own job security increased two percentage points from 77 percent in October to 79 percent in November, while the percentage of workers who felt confident in the future of their current employer decreased four percentage points from October to 61 percent. Nearly one-third of workers, or 32 percent, reported that it was likely that they would seek new jobs in the next 12 months, a decrease of two percentage
points from last month.

"It appears that the volatile stock market, credit situation, housing slowdown and continued anxiety over fuel prices may be fueling apprehension among workers," says Roy Krause, president and chief executive officer of Spherion Corporation. "Though this month's Index decreased, data aggregated from specific survey questions indicate a clear majority of workers remain optimistic and confident about their own job security and the future of their current employer. Furthermore, the data shows that slightly fewer workers intend to seek new jobs in the next 12 months, which is could be good news for employers focused on retaining top performers. When considered along with a comparatively low 4.7 percent unemployment rate and continued job growth in industries such as professional services, healthcare and hospitality, we believe that the overall job market remains strong."

Confidence Levels Hit Lowest Level of the Year: The Spherion Employee Confidence Index dropped to its lowest level this year, decreasing 3.5 points to 52.9 in November. The Index, which measures workers' confidence in their personal employment situation and optimism in the macroeconomic environment, reveals that more workers were apprehensive about the economy, job market and the future of their current employers.

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Telecommuting Has Mostly Positive Consequences For Employees, Employers

Telecommuting is a win-win for employees and employers, resulting in higher morale and job satisfaction and lower employee stress and turnover. These were among the conclusions of psychologists who examined 20 years of research on flexible work arrangements.
The findings, based on a meta-analysis of 46 studies of telecommuting involving 12,833 employees, are reported in the current issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association (APA).

“Our results show that telecommuting has an overall beneficial effect because the arrangement provides employees with more control over how they do their work,” says lead author Ravi Gajendran. “Autonomy is a major factor in worker satisfaction and this rings true in our analysis. We found that telecommuters reported more job satisfaction, less motivation to leave the company, less stress, improved work-family balance, and higher performance ratings by supervisors.”

An estimated 45 million Americans telecommuted in 2006, up from 41 million in 2003, according to the magazine WorldatWork. The researchers defined telecommuting as “an alternative work arrangement in which employees perform tasks elsewhere that are normally done in a primary or central workplace, for at least some portion of their work schedule, using electronic media to interact with others inside and outside the organization.”

Gajendran and his fellow researcher David Harrison, from Pennsylvania State University, find that telecommuting has more positive than negative effects on employees and employers. “A work-at-home option gives telecommuters more freedom in their work arrangement and removes workers from direct, face-to-face supervision,” Gajendran says. In addition, the employees in their study reported that telecommuting was beneficial for managing the often conflicting demands of work and family.

Contrary to popular belief that face time at the office is essential for good work relationships, said Gajendran, telecommuters’ relationship with their managers and coworkers did not suffer from telecommuting with one exception. Employees who worked away from their offices for three or more days a week reported worsening of their relationships with coworkers. However, managers who oversaw telecommuters reported that the telecommuters’ performance was not negatively affected by working from home. And those who telecommuted reported that they did not believe their careers were likely to suffer from telecommuting.

The typical telecommuter examined in the analysis was a manager or a professional from the information technology or sales and marketing department of a firm. The average age of a telecommuter was 39; men and women were equally represented.

Women telecommuters may derive even greater benefits from telecommuting. The authors found that study samples with greater proportions of women found they received higher performance ratings from their supervisors and that their career prospects improved, rather than worsened.

“Telecommuting has a clear upside: small but favorable effects on perceived autonomy, work-family conflict, job satisfaction, performance, turnover intent and stress,” the authors write. “Contrary to expectations in both academic and practitioner literatures, telecommuting has no straightforward, damaging effects on the quality of workplace relationships or perceived career prospects.”

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