Several interesting pieces of research were published this week.
Research last week included a fascinating study by Qualtrics that looked at the issue of recruitment of graduates by the federal government. There may be parallels in other countries, but the challenges in the US are clearly highlighted. The Showpad State of Selling report highlighted the loss of revenue for business and commission for salespeople that a lack of Sales Digitisation can cause.
ADP
The ADP Research Institute (ADPRI) and the Stanford Digital Economy Lab (the Lab) have developed a new methodology for the ADP National Employment Report (NER). It will provide a more robust, high-frequency view of the labour market with a focus on both jobs and pay. Using fine-grained data, this new measure will deliver a richer labour market analysis that will help answer key economic and business questions and offer insights relevant to a broader audience.
A report by the ADP Research Institute entitled People at Work 2022: A Global Workforce View highlights pay expectations across 17 countries. Based on a survey of 33,000 people, the UK results indicated that 50% expect a pay rise, and 55% will ask for one if they deserve one. Only 47% of women are likely to ask, compared to 64% of men. 61% of those working from home will do so, compared to 39% of those in the office.
The same report almost contradicts this finding, with 50% saying that they would accept a pay cut to get greater flexibility in their working life. 71% of the global survey respondents indicated that they would like more flexibility over how they structure their working time, for example, compressing hours down into fewer, longer days. In the UK, 60% say so.
Demandbase
The Demandbase 2022 C-Suite Go-To-Market (GTM) Benchmark Survey in partnership with Demand Gen Report is out. Based on a survey of only 2300 high-level B2B leaders, it looks at which strategies are driving growth, the continued challenge of sales and marketing alignment, the evolving definition of GTM to encompass the entire customer journey, the impact of account intelligence and technology, and more.
Jon Miller, chief marketing officer at Demandbase commented, “This year’s GTM Benchmark Survey told us a lot about sales and marketing leaders’ changing priorities and attitudes. Most importantly, it revealed that the true B2B leaders are modernizing their approach to GTM and becoming more progressive in how they leverage data, align their internal teams, and use technology, leading to greater success.”
The top priority, cited by 61%, is the alignment of Sales and Marketing. Non-alignment is caused by the measuring of different metrics (33%), poor handoffs (28%) and a lack of communication (26%).
The report also looks at issues such as the unreliability and inaccuracy of first and last-touch attribution and how leads are measured. Both leaders and laggards use a mix of data sources for account intelligence, with 47% of respondents using more data sources than last year. Data quality remains an issue for many. Ongoing issues include:
- citing missing/incomplete information (59%)
- data quality (56%)
- siloed data sources (40%)
- difficulty turning data into action (32%)
The report looks at how the leaders are addressing the above issues and why the laggards remain in their place.
MYOB
Research from MYOB revealed that sick leave in Australian SMEs soared in July compared to pre-COVID in Australia. With winter nearly over, the study did not highlight the reasons for sick leave but assumed COVID, as well as flu and cold the likely cause.
Helen Lea, chief employee experience officer at MYOB, said: “It has been a difficult winter for many small businesses, and we continue to see them dealing with leave requirements brought on by COVID and other illnesses.
“After a brief drop in the amount of sick, carers and personal leave taken by small business employees in June, MYOB data shows the July peak reached 44% above the long-term average. This is a similar level to what we saw in April and May, although thankfully not as high as January where SMEs were grappling with more than 100% increase in employees taking this leave.”
Newgen Software
Newgen Software released its 2022 State of Digital Transformation Research. The report shows that 100% of surveyed enterprises are now engaged in digital transformation (DX). 77% started their journey within the past two years. Most are at an early stage, with a fourth (24%) at the discussion stage and half (49%) currently transforming.
Organisations are expecting DX to help them achieve growth, gain a competitive advantage, and provide a better customer experience. There are challenges, though, with the top three cited as lack of management support, cyber security concerns, and lack of in-house digital transformation experience.
Virender Jeet, CEO, Newgen Software, said: “Newgen has consistently seen its customers embrace digital transformation over the past several years. The research illustrates that most enterprises are in the thick of it. It’s a complex process, and only a quarter have completed their transformation. With our NewgenONE platform, we are well-positioned to capitalize on this huge market opportunity.”
Key findings included:
- Most enterprises (68%) are transforming front-end processes. 61% are transforming back-end. And just 38% are transforming both (end-to-end).
- Enterprises are more focused on transforming complex parts of their business than simple ones. 50% see transforming simple business processes as important, while nearly all (93%) cite transforming complex business processes as important. It is the same with complex business information (91% versus 57%) and complex customer engagement (92% versus 6%).
- Enterprises that are the most successful in their DX efforts are more than seven times as likely to be digitally transforming end-to-end (80% versus 11%).
- Top-tier enterprises use a rich set of tools for DX. The tools they use vary depending on whether the business application is simple or complex with regards to the business process, business information, and style of customer engagement.
Qualtrics
A study by Qualtrics looked at the impact of COVID on organisational culture. While around half of European organisations felt that the pandemic has a positive effect, in France (50%), Germany (48%) and the UK (62%), there are issues such as a division between employees and low morale.
When culture improved, most put it down to better communication from their organisations (FR: 55%, DE: 56%, UK: 59%) and managers who were effective listeners (FR: 51%, DE: 50%, UK: 59%) or cared for them personally (FR: 47%, DE: 48%, UK: 56%).
Phil Pringle, Employee Experience Specialist at Qualtrics, said: “Improved communication has been a clear driver in improving company culture. The mission for leaders now is to have the right listening in place, at the right time and acting on that information to ensure they are keeping their employees engaged.”
SD Worx
SD Worx has published findings from a survey that looked at the struggle companies face recruiting. 59% of European employers are facing difficulty attracting talent. The challenge is highest in Belgium (65%), the UK (59.1%), the Netherlands (54%) and Ireland (53%). Countries such as Sweden (32%), Italy (32%), Norway (31%) and Spain (29%) seem to have a slightly less difficult time attracting employees.
European employers cited five core areas that will determine companies’ ability to attract top talent:
- 35% of employers put working hours and flexible working arrangements as a major priority
- 34% of employers said job security and financial stability are in the top five
- 34% said employees value the work atmosphere and social environment
- 32% identified meaningful, interesting and challenging work as the key
- 27% of respondents said training and development opportunities are important
Colette Philp, UK HR Country Lead at SD Worx, commented: “From a top to bottom level we need to rethink how we do recruitment. This means paying careful attention to new learning curves, opportunities for development, and the adaptability of potential candidates for a job.
“Right now, it’s a job hunter’s market and the onus is firmly on employers to step up to new expectations by hitting all the right notes in terms of pay, flexibility, purpose and culture. But despite the urgency, employers don’t have to support that switch alone. For example, they can make use of education and training, or they can work with interim contracts. This way, companies can still succeed in filling vacancies while increasing employee potential.
“Taking this fresh approach to recruitment practice has enormous potential to reshape not just growth and productivity but also employees’ very own career trajectories with a company.”
Smartsheet
A Smartsheet commissioned Forester Consulting Total Economic Impact report for Brandfolder found the software delivers a 276% ROI. The report also highlights that it delivers a 40% increase in team efficiency and up to 90% time savings when searching for digital assets in Smartsheet’s digital asset management platform
Jim Hanifen, Head of Product and Engineering, Brandfolder at Smartsheet said: “Content is no longer just the domain of creative and marketing teams. Every team at an organization touches content in some way, and while some have tools to store these assets, many still struggle to organize, manage, distribute, and gain performance insight into their assets with a powerful, centralized, and easy-to-use solution.
“We’re happy to see the Forrester study validate, in our opinion, the end-to-end benefits we know an organization can realize after implementing a digital asset management platform like Brandfolder. These benefits are what thousands of Brandfolder customers across the globe have already realized, unlocking new value and immediate impact for any campaign.”
Xero
Xero published its monthly small business indices last week and included a report from Canada for the first time. The reports now reveal sales growth and employment figures from Aotearoa (New Zealand North Island), Australia, Canada, the UK and the US.
In Australia, despite the index falling 40 points, small businesses recorded the highest jobs growth in 11 months, despite a slowdown in sales. A quarterly report on sales growth in Canada, which excludes price effects, actually fell 1.7% y/y (down from a 7.7% rise in February).
In Aotearoa sales fell -1.5% year-on-year (y/y) in July, down from a 4.4% y/y growth in June and the lowest it has been since September 2021. However, jobs rose by 4.7%. In the UK, the index fell sharply as sales growth slowed to 4.5% and jobs fell by 4.5%. Late payments continue to impact small businesses.
In the US, another quarterly report, paired with the Canadian one, showed sales growth of 11.3%, but this was boosted by 8.5% inflations. The real sales growth is nearer 2.8% year over year.
New Zealanders need to work smarter
Xero also published information that looked at the productivity of New Zealand businesses. It found that New Zealand firms are half as productive as Irish ones. The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) show New Zealanders are working longer hours, positioned eleventh out of 34 countries for average hours worked per worker. Xero puts the reason down to a lack of digitisation.
Bridget Snelling, Xero New Zealand Country Manager, said: “Every day, New Zealanders are working more than our international counterparts, with much less to show for it per hour. In fact, Kiwis would need to work 20% more to reach the average OECD GDP output. For Kiwis working a 40-hour work week, this is equivalent to working an extra day per week to make up the labour productivity gap, and that’s just to reach the average productivity mark.
“Right now businesses across Aotearoa are spending a huge amount of time on tasks that can be automated or done more efficiently with the help of an app. We need to ensure every hour spent working is doing something only a human can do, this will unlock huge productivity benefits.
“Some small business owners may feel their line of work isn’t suited to apps and cloud based tools, but there are more than 1000 apps connected to the Xero alone, many of which are specifically designed to help specific industries. If you want advice on what apps will best support your business, try talking to your accountant or bookkeeper.”
