American workers’ confidence fell significantly in the second quarter of 2017 following five consecutive quarters of increase, according to a survey by HRO Today Magazine and Yoh, an international talent and outsourcing company.
Worker Confidence Index fell from 107.6 in the first quarter of 2017 to 99.7 in the second quarter.
"Employers cannot look only at balance sheets as the way to gauge the health of a company," said Andy Roane, Vice President of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) for Yoh.
"Employee confidence is a key indicator and precursor to the future success of a company, and those who make talent a priority with strategies designed to meet employee expectations will be positioned for growth over the long term."
The index measures workers’ perception of the four key drivers of worker confidence: perceived likelihood of job loss, perceived likelihood of a promotion, perceived likelihood of a raise, and perceived overall trust in company leadership.
The largest decrease was from perceived likelihood of a promotion, which fell by 21.4 points quarter-on-quarter. Talent development is a big preference among employees, said HR Dive; those without development opportunities often can't envision being promoted
Perceived likelihood of a raise fell 11.1 points, reflecting employees’ doubt they would get one this year. Wage increases on the average are expected to be modest going into 2018, according to Willis Towers Watson's (WTW) Data Services; only top performers and managers could expect considerably more.
Trust in company leadership dropped 3.4 points. HRDive said lower confidence in leadership was particularly troubling and advised HR leaders to use the index to gauge worker confidence in their own organisations .
Perceived likelihood of job security, however, saw an increase of 4.5 points in said quarter.
The Worker Confidence Index has traditionally aligned with trends in the Consumer Confidence Index, indicating consumer confidence directly related to workers' job security and health. The decline in the WCI in second quarter 2017 suggests that there could be a decline in the CCI at the end of September 2017.
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