A third of employees are not committed, finds survey

November 26, 2002

A third of employees are not committed, finds survey

More than a third of employees (35 per cent) worldwide admit to having low levels of commitment to both the job they do and the company they work for, according to the Employee Commitment Report 2002 by Taylor Nelson Sofres. It suggests that more than a third of the world’s companies are failing to get the most out of their employees.

Globally, just over half of employees are committed to the job they do (57 per cent) and the company they work for (51 per cent), suggesting that employees are more committed to the work that they do than the company they work for. One in seven (14 per cent) were ‘career-oriented’ employees, predominantly committed to their work but not to the company they work for. In contrast, only one in twelve (eight per cent) were ‘company-oriented’ employees, predominantly committed to their company but expressing low levels of commitment to the actual work they do.

Employees in the West seemed to be more career-oriented than those in the Asia Pacific region. France, the Netherlands, Germany and the US had the highest proportion of career-oriented employees, while Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong showed the highest proportion of company-oriented employees.

Workers in Japan, Korea and Bulgaria had the lowest levels of commitment. Fifty nine per cent of employees in Japan, 58 per cent in Bulgaria and 55 per cent in Korea were uncommitted to both the work they do and the company they work for. Employees in Israel (59 per cent) and Norway (57 per cent) had the greatest proportion of employees committed to both.

Employees from multi-national companies expressed the highest levels of commitment in their organisations and jobs, while those working for small companies showed the lowest levels of commitment.

Over-50s demonstrated the highest levels of commitment to both their job and their organisation (48 per cent).

There are also clear differences in commitment across business sectors. The highest levels of commitment to both the organisation and type of work were demonstrated in the education (52 per cent), financial services (51 per cent), public sector (48 per cent) and business services (48 per cent) sectors. In contrast, just over a third (35 per cent) of employees in the manufacturing and construction sectors demonstrated high commitment levels.