CEOs Misjudge Benefits and Incentives Most Conducive to Employee Retention

What makes an employee stick with an employer? Chief executive officers need better information than they currently have when it comes to answering that question, comparative surveys conducted by Opinion Research Corporation (ORC) suggest.

According to two recent ORC polls, one conducted on behalf of the NYSE Group (NYSE:NYX) among CEOs and a second independent effort surveying adults employed full-time, CEOs misjudged the significance of retirement benefits, employee discounts and stock incentives in keeping employees at their firms. Of the CEOs polled, 15% thought retirement benefits were more important for retaining employees than three years ago. By contrast, of the full-time employees surveyed, 60% said retirement benefits were more important than three years ago – a 45 percentage point gap.

Regarding the importance of employee discounts in keeping workers around, virtually no CEOs thought these played a greater role in retention than three years ago. Employees disagreed by almost a 20 percentage point margin, saying discount programs do make a difference.

Finally, more than one-half (53%) of CEOs thought stock incentives would have a greater impact on retention than three years ago. Yet only one-third of employees felt the same – a gap of 20 percentage points between the two groups.

CEOs and employees were in agreement in several areas, however. Cash bonuses, social  responsibility and diversity initiatives, daycare programs, flexible schedules, and community outreach programs were each seen as having relatively the same impact on employee retention as they did three years ago.

Commenting on these results, Jeffrey T. Resnick, EVP and Global Managing Director of Opinion Research Corporation, stated: “CEOs require better information on the needs and wants of their employees if they are going to manage the ‘emotional side’ of their workforce. As the contest for talent continues to heat up, they must better understand what benefits and incentives are deemed most significant by their top people. Employees don’t see the world the same way that today’s well-heeled CEOs do. Smart CEOs will find the tools to help sharpen their vision on this issue.”