Monday, April 03, 2006

Candidates Join, Stay Based on Relationships


SHRM's April-June '06 edition of Staffing Management magazine showed up on my doorstep last Friday (click the link to read online, if you are a member). Although I dropped it in the gutter while retrieving it from the mailbox, it managed to dry out and is now legible.

Good info on page 20 of the hardcopy titled "Candidates Join, Stay Based on Relationships."

Are relationships in the workplace important? According to Metlife's Employee Benefits Trend Survey, employees report that their top consideration when deciding whether to join and/or remain with an employer is:


..."the quality of coworker and/or customer relationships."

This consideration was cited by 58% of employees overall and 62% of women. Young baby boomers, age 41 to 50 (61%....my category), and pre-retirees, age 61 to 69 (67%), are most likely to cite relationships as a deciding factor.

Number two on the list of most important recruitment/retention criterion:

"Work/Life Balance."

Rounding out the top three:

"Working for a organization whose
purpose / mission I agree with."

Which criteria ranked as the least important by the 2005-06 survey respondents?

"The opportunity for financial growth and advancement."

I'm sure this list is correct, I just think it's ironic that we tend to hear about the $$ issues more than anything. Putting $$ at the bottom of the list on an anonymous survey is much easier because employees don't have to worry about whether it will actually impact their bottomline.

I think it's oftentimes a different story when push comes to shove and employees are facing their Performance Evaluation results. It seems to me that $$ then becomes a primary concern.

Am I wrong? What do you think?

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