Archive for the 'Survey Results' Category

If the recession seems to have taken a toll on your workplace morale, you’re hardly alone…

A new CareerBuilder survey, released today, indicates that nearly a quarter of employers (23 percent) rate their organization’s current employee morale as low. According to Jason Ferrara, CareerBuilder’s Vice president of corporate marketing, low morale is an unfortunate side effect of this recession.  

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• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on November 18, 2009
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• Categories: Employee Engagement, Survey Results

You may recall a season two episode of “The Office” in which Michael Scott starts a suggestion box for the employees of Dundler Mifflin. Michael encourages his employees to submit their “constructive compliments,” and at the suggestion box meeting, one of the first suggestions from the box reads: “You need to do something about your B.O.” Things go south from there.

CareerBuilder recently asked more than 2,900 hiring managers about the most memorable employee requests they’ve received in the office suggestion box. To say the results were “interesting” would be an understatement.

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• Posted by: Amy Chulik on November 11, 2009
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• Categories: Survey Results

Might as well cross taking the “Which Halloween character are you?” Facebook quiz off your ‘to do’ list secret ‘to do’ list – CareerBuilder already did the work for you. 

CareerBuilder recently asked more than 4,000 workers nationwide, “Which Halloween character does your boss most resemble?” – among other questions – for its Halloween survey, released today.

According to the survey, 18 percent of workers describe their workplace as scary. (And no, that’s not as in “scary how awesome it is.” Sorry.) When asked what made their workplace so frightening, workers reported the following aspects of their jobs: Continue Reading…

• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on October 27, 2009
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• Categories: Survey Results

Last week, CareerBuilder released its annual survey on open enrollment that found that 15 percent of hiring managers estimate more than 10 percent of their employees miss annual open enrollment deadlines each year on average, which can have a significant impact on employees’ pocketbooks.

According to the survey, one third (34 percent) of human resource managers said missing open enrollment costs employees, on average, at least $500 in out-of-pocket expenses. Twenty percent reported that it costs employees more than $1,000 while 10 percent reported it costs employees more than $2,500.

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• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on October 20, 2009
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• Categories: Economy, Employee Retention, Health Care, Survey Results

We’ve been struggling through a recession, and over the past year, many things have changed. One thing, however, remains the same: Employees will call in sick, and they will sometimes not really be sick. Yes, I’m talking about that unspeakable action: They will lie. CareerBuilder has just released 2009’s survey about the most unusual excuses for missing work, which included more than 4,700 workers and 3,100 employers. Turns out nearly one-third of the workers surveyed have called in sick to work when they were well at least once.

As in 2008’s most unusual sick excuses, this year’s list is spotted with strange animal injuries, other bouts with nature or pedestrians, and questionable friendships, as well many head-shakers, like “I accidentally hit a nun with my motorcycle.” In a new twist, however, this year’s survey results are reflective of the effect of our tough economic climate, as 28 percent of employers think more employees have been absent with fake excuses due to increased stress and burnout due to the recession.

Here are 2009’s Most Unusual Excuses for Missing Work:

• Posted by: Amy Chulik on October 8, 2009
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• Categories: Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Survey Results

Yesterday, CareerBuilder released the results of a survey about confronting awkward office situations.  More than 4,400 workers nationwide participated to reveal which embarrassing observations – from an undone zipper to the need for a breath mint – they would be willing to point out to a co-worker of equal, lower or higher status. (Results after the jump.)

It may seem silly, but when you’re in these situations yourself, it doesn’t always feel that way – personal hygiene and appearance are pretty sensitive subjects, and rather than risk awkwardness by trying to save someone from future embarrassment, many of us will do anything we can to avoid it altogether.  Case in point: When I told a friend of mine about this survey, she immediately related:

“We had a guy at my office who smelled,” she said.  The guy’s body odor was so distracting, in fact, that my friend went to HR about it. When HR told her that it was her job to tell the employee, she went to some male co-workers asking them to say something to the guy, but they, too, refused. 

“What did you eventually do?” I asked her.

“Nothing,” she said. “He doesn’t work there anymore.” 

“Oh.” Not the answer I was hoping for.  Awkward silence.

“He wasn’t let go or anything,” she added. ”He just left. I forget why.” 

For her, the problem solved itself (sort of), but I still felt bad for the employee she was talking about; however, I don’t know how I would’ve handled the situation myself, and as the survey results indicate, not many others would have handled the situation differently than my friend had:

Only 28 percent of survey respondents revealed that they would tell a co-worker at an equal or lower level that he/she needed a shower; while only 11 percent would do the same for a higher level co-worker.    

On a similar note, I recently came across this post on ERE.net by recruiter Sarah Welstead, who suggests that it’s in recruiters’ best professional interests to give candidates with bad personal hygiene a heads-up. After all, the author reasons, “if we don’t tell them, who will?…These candidates will be unemployed for months.” 

What are your thoughts? Do you agree? Have you ever had to confront a co-worker about bad hygiene, and if so, how did you do it?

Keep reading for full survey results. Continue Reading…

• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on September 25, 2009
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• Categories: Survey Results