Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of Singapore’s economy, contributing 47% of the country’s GDP and generating 62% of available jobs. According to official records, there are about 126,000 SMEs in Singapore and most of the owners are so preoccupied in their daily operations to think of anything else. Many of them face…
Category: Statistics and Research
High Performers Get Fed Up
High performers have been disproportionately affected by organizations’ responses to the recession. The 2009–2010 U.S. Strategic Rewards Survey by Watson Wyatt and WorldatWork found that employee engagement levels for all workers at the surveyed companies have dropped 9% since last year — but the number was nearly 25% for top performers. The number of people…
Want To Have Good Emotional Health? Be a Farmer!
Despite ranking last in pay among 11 job categories measured by Gallup, farmers, fishermen, and forestry workers ranked first in emotional health, which measures “positive daily experiences such as smiling and being treated with respect.” Source: Gallup
Unhappy Middle Managers
Although most executives surveyed by McKinsey find their jobs to be as meaningful as before the crisis, these feelings appear to be weaker among middle managers, who may feel more squeezed than their senior and C-level counterparts. Indeed, 27% of middle managers (compared with 18% of all executives) say they find their current roles less…
What Services Customers Really Want
Asked what dimensions of customer service they would most like to see companies measure, the highest number of U.S. consumers surveyed — 65% — said “knowledgeable employees,” which most defined as able to “answer my questions without putting me on hold, searching for someone, or transferring me.” 62% said “treats me like a valued customer”…
Who’s Reading Your Email?
According to a new Proofpoint study of 220 leaders at American companies with over 1,000 employees, 38% employ staff to read or otherwise analyze the content of outgoing email, compared to 29% last year. Why the big increase in surveillance? 34% said their businesses had been affected by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing information,…
Cautious Growth for Most Companies
Executives surveyed by McKinsey in late July expect their companies to remain financially cautious over the next 12 months, yet they also indicated they are actively seeking growth — and doing so in more ways than they were just six months earlier. Among specific actions companies might take in response to the crisis but haven’t…
Changing Nature of Consumer Decisions
Consumer-driven marketing is increasingly important as customers seize control of the process and actively “pull” information helpful to them. McKinsey research found that during the phase when consumers are considering a purchase, 2/3 of the touch points (that is, moments when customers learned more about a product) were actually driven by the consumer rather than…
America’s Most Prestigious Jobs
Firefighters hold the most prestigious job in America, according to a Harris Poll survey of 1,010 U.S. adults. 62% say firefighters have “very great prestige,” with scientists (57%) and doctors (56%) following closely behind. The least prestigious? Real estate agents (5%), accountants (11%), and stockbrokers (13%). Business executives are held in higher esteem this year…
Good Salary News Ahead
U.S. workers can look forward to a rebound in merit pay raises in 2010. A median merit increase of 3% is projected — up from 2% in 2009 — according to the Watson Wyatt survey of 235 large U.S. companies. And a survey of nearly 900 companies found that 90% planned pay raises in 2010,…
CEOs’ Views on Learning Measurement
ASTD’s most recent T&D (August) has a most insightful article featuring how CEOs view measurements of learning. Altogether 96 executives were surveyed and some interesting (some dismaying) results were obtained. Firstly on a scale of 1 to 4 (4 being very satisfied) for their satisfaction of current measurement of learning, the average score was 2.5…
Prizes for Innovation Rise
Cash prizes are becoming a more popular way for organizations to encourage innovation. A McKinsey study of prizes worth more than $100,000 suggests that the aggregate value of such large awards has more than tripled over the past decade, to $375 million. Moreover, the role of prizes is changing: nearly 80% of those announced since…
Everyone A Leader 