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"I Love Mondays!" Are You Kidding Me?

Written by: Betsey Nash

Article Overview: During this recession, employee morale is incredibly important. Betsey shares some new statistics & ideas that can help you - without breaking your budget.

"I Love Mondays!" Are You Kidding Me?

This may come as a surprise to you, as it did to me. After 20+ years in the human resources field I never thought I’d hear that 41 percent of U.S. workers say "appreciation for their job" dominates their Monday morning emotions.(1) Just knock me over with a feather.

What about all that “I hate Mondays” talk? You know: “How’re you doing?” “OK for a Monday,” or “Oh, I’m having a Monday.” Everybody knows that every worker hates Mondays... I guess not. Have we gone so far as to articulate a cliché that no longer proves true?

Are you ready for this one? 21 percent of U.S. workers "are excited to be going to work."(1)

Here’s another stat from the Adecco USA “Workplace Insights” survey of 2,158 U.S. adults—1,206 who are employed full- or part-time that took place earlier this month (Feb. 2009):

• More than three-fourths say they love what they do as much or more than before the recession.

Now that makes sense to me: In fact, they’d better at least act like they do. Now is the time to be indispensible and make sure your boss knows it.

Here’s another statistic from the survey that surprised me, until I realized we don’t really know what it means:

• 90 percent of workers overall have the same level of confidence in their company’s executive team since the economy has worsened.

My point in regaling you with these numbers is that (another number) we HR professionals are spending about twice as much time reassuring and calming our employees than we were a few months ago.(2) Do you think that reflects a hit to your company’s productivity? And stress has a direct impact on job satisfaction, which has a direct impact on workers comp claims.(3)

So while you peruse your bottom line and your cash flow and search every nook and cranny for places to cut, don’t cut anything that affects morale. Keep spending the money for Pizza Fridays or handing out the candy on Valentine’s Day. Think about adding a few more “voluntary benefits” (that only cost you the time to set up the payroll deduction) and give your employees access to things like long-term care insurance, accident and disability insurance; critical illness insurance is very popular right now. 44% of workers are interested in getting a wider array of voluntary benefits through their employer.(4)

Talk with your workers; let them “feel the love” as you ask them what you can do to assist them in accessing more benefits through payroll deduction. They know they can get it cheaper through you. And how great would that be? Knowing that even though we’re all scared about our jobs and our businesses, you took the time and effort to help them feel more secure.

Now, I can believe they appreciate their jobs on Monday morning.

(1) Adecco USA “Workplace Insights” survey, February, 2009
(2) Society for Human Resources Management survey, October, 2008
(3) Hosegood Martin, Pat, Doctoral Dissertation: An Exploration of Job Satisfaction and Workers' Compensation Costs Among Auxiliary Employees in Higher Education, 2007
(4) Prudential, Study of Employee Benefits: 2008 and Beyond, 2008

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Article Tags: budget, employee morale, i love mondays, recession, statistics



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