Some interesting workplace facts and stats

According to the 2008 — 2009 WorkUSA Report from Watson Wyatt, highly engaged employees are 26 percent more productive, and their companies earned 13 percent greater total returns to shareholders over the last five years. In addition, engaged employees take 20 percent fewer days off, are significantly less likely to steal inventory and supplies from the workplace, and tend to be more supportive of organizational change.

25 percent of the American workforce has been in their current position for less than a year, according to 2009 research from the U.S. Department of Labor.

Hiring the wrong person costs a company from 15 – 23 times the person’s annual salary in expenses such as recruiting, training, loss of productivity, disrupting other employees, errors, fixing problems caused by the bad hiring decision.

Research by the Society for Human Research Management found that 79% of those who quit their jobs cite lack of appreciation as the main reason.

The Conference Board’s most recent periodic poll showed that only 45 percent of workers in the U.S. were satisfied with their jobs, the lowest level in the 23 - year history of the poll.

Research suggests that 96 percent of new employees, at the end of their first day on the job, aren’t certain they made a good decision by accepting the position.

Research by Wharton finance professor Alex Edmans found that “firms cited as good places to work earn returns that are more than double those of the overall market.”

Research by Symmetrics and others has consistently shown that a 10 percent increase in employee engagement results in a 5 percent increase in profitability.

Ten percent of all workers in the U.S.—or 15 million people—reportedly say they have bad bosses, according to a recent poll conducted by Lake Research Partners for Working America. 36 percent of workers feel some pressure to stay with a bad boss because of the economy today. 33 percent of those polled said that their bosses insufficiently recognize employees for their hard work.

An outstanding onboarding program can increase retention rates from 25-100 percent, improve an employee’s overall productivity as much as 60 percent, and improve job performance by up to 11.3 percent.