I am looking for one or more studies conducted by reputable
organizations (i.e. the Society for Human Resource Management) that
examine the correlation between the happiness of employees with
turnover rates, productivity, and all the other
HR/performance/retention issues that cost companies money.

My ideal would be to find studies that link a company's creation of a
softball team or installation of a free soda machine with employees'
appreciation, subsequent work rate, average # of years with the
company, etc.  Studies that disprove this theory or prove that there
is little connection between "fun" benefits and productivity/turnover
would also be welcome.

Additional information or separate studies altogether about the
average cost of recruiting/training new staff would also be welcome
and bring additional tipping.

Thanks for your help!

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Request for Question Clarification by czh-ga on 18 Oct 2004 16:02 PDT

Hello justjoe-ga,

It would take more time and effort to get an answer to your question
than is warrented by the price for this question. I suggest that you
check the Google Answers pricing guidelines to help you calibrate your
expectations.

http://answers.google.com/answers/pricing.html
$2-$5  Can be answered with a single link or a single piece of information.

From my personal experience in the HR field I can tell you that "fun"
benefits rate very low on the ranking of benefits that make a
difference to employee retention. Here are a couple of links on this
topic. Let me know if these are sufficient to meet your needs. I look
forward to your clarification.

~ czh ~

http://humanresources.about.com/library/weekly/uc110101b.htm
Are You Getting the Best Benefit From Your Benefits? 

http://www.benefitnews.com/work/detail.cfm?id=607
Data challenge assumptions on retention issues 
 
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IJN/is_2001_Dec/ai_80745800
Despite soft economy, retention still tops priority list - Retention -
Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

---

Clarification of Question by justjoe-ga on 19 Oct 2004 12:25 PDT

hello czh, the links you provided in your question will sufficiently
answer my question for now.  thanks for your help and sorry to lowball
you on the price, it was unintentional and i am new to google answers.

Hello again justjoe-ga,

Thank you for accepting the links I furnished as a satisfactory
answer. Here are a few more to help you continue your explorations.
?Fun? or ?personal? benefits are usually used by employers who seek to
retain employees in very highly competitive fields when there is a
shortage of talent. They also tend to be used by companies that
require/expect exceptionally strong commitment and a workaholic
lifestyle from their employees. Startup companies are well-known for
this. The personal perks are cheap if they can keep employees ?on
campus? and working long hours. Such perks are not necessary when
employees are fearful about retaining their jobs or the survival of
the company. It?s all very much related to the laws of supply and
demand.

Best wishes for your job search and finding a company that will
capture your imagination.

~ czh ~


http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=3803&t=organizations
Your New Core Strategy: Employee Retention

***** This is a long article from Harvard Business School that will
give you a good overview of current thinking about the relationship of
employee benefits to employee retention.

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.vault.com/nr/newsmain.jsp?nr_page=3&ch_id=401&article_id=53007&cat_id=1089
Employers Reshuffling the Benefits Deck

Personal Perks and Unusual Benefits 
Some organizations seem to go above and beyond when providing personal
perks to their workers. More than one in ten (11 percent)
organizations offer paid dry cleaning services to workers, 8 percent
offer massage therapy, 4 percent offer concierge services and 1
percent of respondents offer pet health insurance, nap time during the
workday or already prepared take-home meals. The popularity of
subsidizing food or cafeteria services appears to have peaked in 1999
when 37 percent of respondents said they offered this benefit. In
2000, the number fell to 30 percent, the same percentage reported in
1998.

New to the SHRM Benefits Survey are several unusual benefits centered
around employee entertainment. According to the survey, 41 percent of
HR professionals say their organizations pay for employees to attend
sporting or cultural events and more than three in ten offer Halloween
parties (36 percent), theme days (34 percent) or ice cream socials (32
percent).

***** This is a somewhat dated survey that was taken prior to the
current recession.

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.workforce.com/section/02/
Comp, Benefits, Rewards

***** This site offers a large collection of articles that will give
you a good idea of the topics that most concern HR professionals
regarding employee benefits.



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employee benefits surveys retention

S/he is great, very courteous and helpful.

Hello justjoe-ga,

Thank you very much for your kind words, generous tip and five stars. 

~ czh ~

Although fun perks may not have a drastic affect on productivity,
there are some recent studies that show that employee efficiency can
be improved in some less-than-obvious ways.  The Department of
Ergonomics at Cornell University, for example has found that there is
a significant correlation between the temperature of an office and
productivity:

http://www.wisegeek.com/is-there-a-link-between-office-temperature-and-worker-productivity.htm

Its a relatively new study, so additional work will need to be done to
determine the ideal working temperature zone, but the initial results
look promising.