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YOU BETTER RECOGNIZE: SOBERING NEWS FOR 2010

Happy New Year!  Have you made your resolutions?  By the looks of things, many people may be resolving to find new jobs in 2010, as a new survey by the Conference Board reveals employee satisfaction is at an all time low.

The study, issued yesterday, found that only 45% of the American workforce is happy with their current employment, down 2% since 2008 and 12% since the survey began in 1987.  With what can only be seen as measured optimism in a partial economic and job market recovery in 2010, 22% of survey respondents don’t expect to be in their current job in a year.

A number of reasons were cited for the growing dissatisfaction, including leadership’s lack of interest in listening to employees (sounds like a job for Undercover Boss), and income levels not keeping up with inflation:

The drop in job satisfaction between 1987 and 2009 covers all categories in the survey, from interest in work (down 18.9 percentage points) to job security (down 17.5 percentage points) and crosses all four of the key drivers of employee engagement: job design, organizational health, managerial quality, and extrinsic rewards.

Other reports do little to dispel the notion that satisfaction will continue to drop in 2010 unless organizations make serious concessions to improve engagement. CNN Money recently posted a story that while more companies will be doling out raises in the new year, the pay increases will likely be smaller than expected.

On the bright side, not all employees are unhappy at work, and some notable companies, including many of our customers, are regularly recognized in “Best Places to Work” lists for doing right by their workforces.  It is their outstanding leadership and understanding of the important role employee recognition plays in employee satisfaction that will drive their success in 2010 and beyond.

We hope you’ll resolve to put your employees first this year, and recognize them before they make good on their own resolutions.