Employees Are Feeling Confident. Will It Help or Hurt Your Business?

By Rieva Lesonsky

Employees are feeling better about themselves, their workplaces and the job market in general, according to a recent study by HR and staffing firm Randstad, reported in BenefitsPro. Will their happier outlook mean good news—or bad—for your business?

The survey found 75 percent of U.S. workers feel greater job security, which is a positive sign for small businesses. Also positive: 74 percent say they are proud to work for their current companies, 78 percent feel inspired to do their best work every day, and 68 percent enjoy going to work—up 3 percent from the prior survey in March.

However, these positive attitudes could have negative fallout for employers, as 54 percent of employees believe the job market will turn around this year. While they’re not quite ready to jump ship—58 percent say they don’t think they could find a better job right away—45 percent of U.S. workers say they plan to consider their options once the employment picture improves.

The survey concludes that increased confidence means employers have a chance to re-engage and energize their employees. But it’s also important to treat them right, as newly confident employees are seeking more rewards in order to stay in their current jobs. For example, just 20 percent say they would accept reduced benefits in order to keep their jobs, and only 10 percent say they would accept a demotion.

What does it all mean to you? If you’ve been expecting employees to do more for less since the recession began, now may be the time to ease up so you don’t lose their goodwill. If you still can’t quite afford to offer monetary rewards such as bonuses or raises, figure out other ways you can reward employees that don’t require an outlay of cash. Extra time off, flexible hours, fun activities or other unpaid benefits can keep your team energized and happy to be working for you–even as the economy improves.

Image by Flickr user enokson (Creative Commons)

This entry was posted on Friday, May 25th, 2012 at 6:00 am and is filed under Small Business, small business, Uncategorized, Workforce. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.


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