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Towers Watson has released its Global Workforce Study (GWS) results for 2010. It comes in at a time when the relationships between employers and employees are evolving in fundamental ways. The “Deal” is changing. Here  are some excerpts from the Global Executive Summary report:

The desire for security and stability trumps everything else right now, in part because employees see security as a fast-disappearing part of the deal.

Employees understand they are solely or chiefly responsible for ensuring their long-term financial and physical health and well-being as well as their career and performance — but have serious  doubts about their ability to take on these roles.

Mobility is at a decade-long low point — with significant numbers of employees sacrificing the prospect of career growth for a secure job right now.

Confidence in leaders and managers is disturbingly low — particularly in terms of the interpersonal aspects of their respective roles.

The study sees a new employment relationship emerging based on three key inter-linked organizational themes:

Fostering self-reliance on the part of employees

Creating a more personalized work experience for segments of the workforce, aligned  with how people add value to the business

Strengthening agility and flexibility in the organization’s structure, processes, management style and delivery of workplace programs

Of course, there would be more nuances when you would look at individual country level results. And, I am sure  local insights are on their way too. You can visit the Towers Watson’s GWS site to get latest updates as more and more insights are churned out from the data.

It’s been a long time since I shared interesting stuff that I have been reading. That’s not exactly true though, because I do share a lot on my Twitter account. Meanwhile, here is some very interesting stuff that I stumbled upon:

• So, what is the purpose of business? To make money, right? And where did that “mission” take us in the last couple of years! Michael Skapinker, a columnist in Financial Times, has a different perspective. He says the purpose of business is to earn respect. Must read!

• For those of you don’t know, Marketing is another subject that is close to my heart. I did spend some time in that area. Here’s a piece from the McKinsey Quarterly titled “A Marketer’s Guide to Behavioral Economics.” Now, behavioral economics is such an interesting subject and this piece talks about its basic applications in marketing. The possibilities of this field are endless.

• David Zinger contemplates about the future of Employee Engagement. He puts down his predictions about Employee Engagement in 2020.

• Finally, on the HBR blog, I found some really cool stuff. If you are a data visualization fan, you are going to love how Twitter data can be visualized. See here and here.

Brad Federman writes 2 insightful posts on the issue of the typical mistakes organizations & managers make with respect to employee engagement surveys.

In the first post, Brad raises issues like:

• Excessive focus on norms or benchmarks – I have myself maintained that benchmarks are important, but they should not distract you from getting to where you want to go in terms of engagement. Use benchmarks to prioritize and / or set targets, but don’t get into madly chasing them.
• Confidentiality – This seems trivial to some, but is extremely important. Internally-run surveys are not necessarily viewed by employees as confidential. Responses may not be genuine and the data can be questioned.
• The Big Event Syndrome – Engagement surveys must not be reduced to an “event” that comes once in a year or two. Engagement is a journey. And more than the survey, employees look forward to what is done with the survey results.
• So, who’s problem is it anyway? – Let’s not put all the onus on the managers. Engagement is a shared responsibility. Every touch-point for the employee affects engagement. Let’s take a realistic stance on what needs to be done and who needs to do it. Sometimes, its people management skills and sometimes it is more to do with systemic issues.
• Poor survey design – While I know that tons of survey questions are available on the internet, one needs to be careful in selecting them. Questionnaire design is a science and art.

In part 2, he raises yet another set of important issues:

• The Fix-It Mentality – Often organizations are looking to identify the problem and fix it. Doesn’t often work, unless you do a thorough root-cause analysis of the problem.
• All Data, No Insight – A short and cool questionnaire may not be the best solution. It may not be comprehensive enough. It may not even cover the entire gamut of issues that drive engagement.
• All Data, No Action – Need I say anything more? This is the single-most important issue.
• All Responsibility, No Support – If we want our managers to take action and improve things, we need to provide them the enabling platform – tools, training, resources etc. If not, we are left with disengaged managers who are supposed to be driving engagement in their teams!
• Opaque Communications - We need to be very transparent in our communication of survey results, action plans and reviews. Engagement is a collective responsibility and everybody has the right to information.

Browsing through the Human Resource Executive Online site, I came across this interesting article which talks about how we can attract “Gen Y” and engage them in the workplace. Increasingly, companies and managers grapple with this whole Gen Y issue. And, the sheer economics of the demographics make them indispensable.

Read on to find out more about:

- Who are Gen Y?

- What are their expectations from the workplace?

- Why are they indispensable for your organization?

- What kind of workplaces do they like?

- And most importantly, what can you do about this issue, without turning your company upside down!

What has been your experiences in managing Gen Y employees? Key challenges? Successes?

Welcome to 2010! And have a great one!

Just to get things started here, here are some interesting reads I found in the first few days of this year:

• Michael Specht writes an insightful post on HR strategy and how it needs to be “real time”.

• On the other hand, the Flip Chart Fairy Tails blog carries an interesting post wondering if HR Strategy is a Myth or Reality.

• Read about Deloitte’s employee engagement approach. They call it Talent Dialogue and also talk about using social media in the process.

• Finally, if you are still hungry for more, head to the new year’s HR Carnival, which is full of interesting blog posts on a variety of issues.

Happy Reading!