Attitudes and Opinions

Psychologists have long known that employees with positive and balanced attitudes toward their employers produce more and higher quality work. Why is this?

It is because employee attitudes reflect their tendencies to feel, think and behave in various ways in response to some object or target of focus. It therefore follows that at work, job performance is affected by how employees feel about themselves, their employers, their fellow workers and their customers.

Our research has shown that a significant element of business success does depend largely on the attitude of their employees. Employees with negative attitudes have a tendency to withdraw from customers and even depersonalise them affecting the quality of service on offer. This is not difficulty to qualify. Think back to a time when you personally experienced a poor level of customer service. What did you think at the time? How did it make you feel? What was the consequence in terms of your behaviour? You would have probably felt annoyed and frustrated as you did not expect to be treated in this way. You probably will not recommend that company or service to others. The opposite is also true of course, and when we can recall positive experiences we tend to return to that place of business and recommend their services to others.

Our research has also found that employees who feel negative towards the organisation do not perform to the best of their capabilities and are less efficient in the completion of their day to day activities.

An increasing awareness of the importance of attitudes means that today, more than ever before, organisations are working hard to stay informed about their workforce opinions and attitudes.

The benefits of assessing employee attitudes cannot be understated, whether through focus group type methods or employee surveys measuring attitudes can:

• Improve customer service
• Help attract, motivate and retain talented people
• Reduced the costs of training
• Improve the quality and quantity of employee productivity and
• Support change initiatives

Well-designed and implemented employee research should be an integral part of any organisations strategy for human resource management and development.

At Zeal solutions we have extensive national and international research and commercial expertise in the assessment of employee attitudes and culture.

We work with our clients to develop a tailored and complete survey strategy. See our services on Measuring and Changing Attitudes for more information.