EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT INDEX

Money Can't Buy Employee Commitment, WFD Research Reveals
Breakthrough measurement and diagnostic tool identifies what drives employee commitment

BOSTON,MA - WFD, Inc., a national leader in the work-life industry, today unveiled a new business tool that determines conclusively the factors that heighten employee commitment on a company by company basis. The new tool - called the WFD Commitment Profile - reveals that employees consider factors such as openness of communications, advancement opportunities, and manager effectiveness to be far more crucial than compensation to the creation of their commitment.

The Commitment Profile is based on years of field testing and validation against numerous academic models, and stands alone in its ability to provide a statistically valid and predictive measurement of employee commitment. Even more importantly, it uncovers those drivers that influence the growth or decline of commitment in a given company.

Charles Rodgers, WFD chairman said, "The Beatles sang, 'I don't care too much for money, because money can't buy me love.' Money can't buy employee commitment, either. There are at least seven drivers more important than compensation that influence sustainable workforce commitment. And these drivers are directly under management's control."

The Seven Drivers of Employee Commitment:

WFD's research has identified seven major drivers of employee commitment that make up a company's overall Commitment Profile.

The seven drivers are..

1. Communication - The openness of upward and downward communication in the workplace

1. Diversity and inclusion - the sense that employees have that 'people like themselves' are valued and respected

1. Job satisfaction - the degree of satisfaction with specific job characteristics like challenging work, tools to do the job, and learning opportunities

1. Flexibility - the employees' sense of control over the when, where, and how they perform their job

1. Manager effectiveness - a measure of the level of people management, communication, and business skills of immediate supervisors

1. Work-life support - the degree to which employees feel support in the workplace for integrating work with personal and family responsibilities

1. Career advancement - the sense of opportunities to grow and advance based on performance

The seven drivers represent the foundation of employee commitment. Before undertaking any large-scale transformation a company's leadership must first understand the commitment levels and its drivers for the organization. That understanding is critical to retention strategies, and the Commitment Profile can be viewed as an organizational compass, telling companies exactly where they stand with their employees.

Data from the Commitment Profile shows that high grades in the Workplace Satisfaction and Diversity and Inclusion drivers predict the highest levels of employee commitment. WFD's Commitment Profile also furnishes its clients a customized Stress and Burnout Index that identifies key factors contribution to high stress and turnover.

Steps to Developing a Company's Commitment Profile: How it works

Commitment measurement + Analysis of commitment drivers = Commitment Profile

1. Employee questionnaire results establish a customized index of the competitive potential of a company's workforce.

1. WFD then provides a thorough analysis and evaluation of a company's performance in each of the seven drivers of commitment. This evaluation determines the exact factors, behaviors and attitudes causing low employee commitment and high turnover intention.

1. From these two sources, a company's overall Commitment Profile is developed enabling the creation of well-grounded intervention strategies that are proven to increase productivity, performance and customer satisfaction, as well as reduce turnover.

Meeting a Business Need

Although employee commitment has emerged as a significant competitive advantage and bottom line issue for CEO's, companies have long struggled with how to accurately measure and improve it. WFD's rigorous methodology meets the growing need for analysis, depth and actionable strategies lacking in prototypical employee attitude surveys or national workforce opinion polls.

"We find that company leaders want to know two things," Rodgers concluded. "How committed and engaged is our workforce to achieving our business goals? And what are those drivers that strengthen or weaken our employee commitment? Now, using this powerful tool, they can answer those questions with precision and confidence."

WFD is a management consulting firm that helps companies redefine the workplace for employees and the bottom line. For over 15 years, WFD has helped its clients stay ahead of workforce trends by implementing innovative programs and aligning people strategies with business objectives. Its global services include employee commitment audits, work-life strategy consulting, community investment, dependent care strategy, workplace flexibility consulting, and women's advancement.