Employee confidence has two contributing factors: organizational andpersonal confidence. Organizational confidence is defined as employeeshaving confidence in their organization's future, believing theirorganizations are managed effectively, feeling that the products/servicesare of high quality and sought after, that the organization is competitiveand that the industry in which the organization is operating is robust andhealthy.

Personal confidence is defined as employees feeling there is a promisingfuture for them at their organization, that they won't be laid off, feelingthe organization is helping them develop the skills they need in thefuture, believing other organizations are hiring people with similar skillsand experience, and feeling that if they left their current employer theycould find a similar job utilizing their skills and paying at leastsimilarly to their current position.

A significant number of employees feel that the future at their currentemployer is rather bleak for them personally (19%). In addition, theseemployees feel that their current employer is not helping them develop theskills they will need in the future (19%) and if they were to leave theircurrent employer, their next job would not pay them at least similarly towhat they currently earn (17%).

Jeffrey Saltzman, east coast practice leader for Kenexa, stated, "When youexamine the employee confidence results through the lens of those who viewthe glass as half empty, an interesting story unfolds. A near perfect stormarises when you have employees who feel they are in a dead-end job, yettrapped due to an inability to keep current with necessary skills,compounded with the belief that they would take a financial hit should theyswitch jobs. It is no wonder, as these employees look around wondering howthey got into their predicament, that the most negatively scored item onthe study was the effectiveness of management (20%)."

This pattern, while it exits almost everywhere, is more pronounced inJapan, 34% of surveyed workers feel they do not have a promising future attheir current employer, followed by those in the United Kingdom (24%) andItaly (22%).

Saltzman continued, "People with these feelings will be underutilizedassets. An organization will be better positioned if they invested in skilldevelopment, which would bring some relief to these employees. Unhappyemployees with highly developed skills can be attractive to thecompetition. By developing their skills, these employees will also becomemore attractive to their current employers and are more likely to get pastfeelings of being at a dead-end, in their career."

This study was part of a larger quarterly study that Kenexa undertakes tomeasure business conditions in major markets. Kenexa has an unequalleddatabase of worldwide employee survey results from workers in Brazil,Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain, theUnited Kingdom and the United States that allows the company to provideexceptional insights to organizations of all sizes on a global basis. Thisbusiness-critical information enables international organizations to bettermaximize their overall performance.

About Kenexa

Kenexa (NASDAQ: KNXA) is a global leader in building the world's greatestworkforces using a combination of software, employee research science andbusiness process optimization. Kenexa's global solutions include applicanttracking, onboarding, recruitment process outsourcing, employment branding,skills and behavioral assessments, structured interviews, performancemanagement, multi-rater feedback surveys, employee engagement surveys andHR Analytics. Kenexa is headquartered in Wayne, Pa. (outside Philadelphia).Additional information about Kenexa and its global products and servicescan be accessed at www.kenexa.com.

Add to Digg Bookmark with del.icio.us Add to Newsvine