Kenexa (NASDAQ:KNXA), a global provider of business solutions for human resources, today announced the results of its employee confidence study, a quarterly measure of worker opinions and component of the forthcoming Kenexa Composite.
Employee confidence has been found to relate to multiple economic and business performance outcomes at the individual, organizational, industry and country levels as well as being related to consumer confidence in the U.S.
A high level of employee confidence is achieved when employees perceive their organization as being effectively managed and competitively positioned, and believe they have a promising future with their organization, job security and skills that are attractive to other employers. Employee confidence influences individual behavior and has implications for organizational performance and economic conditions.
In December 2009, the global employee confidence index score was 98.0, a very slight improvement from the third quarter (97.9). Brazil (107.5), China (105.6) and India (101.3) reported the highest levels of employee confidence, while France (94.9), Japan (94.0) and Spain (92.4) reported the lowest levels. The United States’ employee confidence index score was 97.1.
For the year ending December 31, 2009, the 12 largest economies reported an increase in employee confidence index scores, with the exception of Japan, which reported a slight decrease for the year. The global employee confidence index score for the fourth quarter of 2009 increased approximately 4 points, from 93.8 in the first quarter. Countries that reported the most improvement in employee confidence index scores throughout 2009 were China (15.8 point increase), Italy (8.1) and Brazil (7.1).
Anne Herman, research consultant, Kenexa Research Institute, said, “Employee confidence fluctuated throughout 2009, with the majority of the countries reporting both increases and decreases. India and China were the only two surveyed countries that had an increase in scores, quarter over quarter.” She continued, “We enter 2010 on a positive note. Our studies have linked employee confidence to higher country-level GDP and stronger organization performance, among other metrics. Therefore, this indicates that as employee confidence increases, GDP and organization performance should both improve, indicating that we appear to be in a state of resurgence.”
