Headquartered in Lincolnshire, Illinois in United States, Hewitt Associates was a global management consulting and HR outsourcing firm. Established in 1940, the firm delivered a wide range of HR and management services to the companies across the world to in managing their Human resource operations, policies and procedures, enhancing the level of employee engagement and involvement and improving their overall management.

The firm later on in 2010 was purchased by Aon Corporation and since then the new subsidiary of Aon Group is known as Aon Hewitt.

Hewitt conducted a research on employee engagement in year 2007 and published a report mentioning that the best employers have earned their ranks and reputation because of high level of employee engagement. The study revealed that more than 77 percent of the employees were actively engaged in highly productive organizations as compared with 50 percent at other organizations.

Hewitt included almost 10,000 employees working in Canada in more than 120 organizations in the survey and revealed some specific traits of the best employers. These traits included the lower turnover rates, better financial platform and ease of attracting new talent. The consulting firm revealed the fact that employee engagement is not only about creating loyal or satisfied employees but it extends to the state of intellectual and emotional involvement and a strong sense of commitment of the workforce.

Specific Traits of the Best Employers

1. Ease of Attracting New Employees

   The best employers have an easy access to the best industry talent. Because of their reputation, they can attract more than 100 applications for each job posted whereas an average company doesn’t receive more than 30 applications for a particular job.

   This is the ratio when a job is advertised externally. When it comes to employee references, they have ample choices and therefore, have a strict internal employee reference policy; whereas, this is hardly the case with average employers. They may have choices but the number of references is very low.

2. Low Employee Turnover Rates

   It was found out that the rate of voluntary employee turnover rate for full time employees was approximately 9 percent with the best employers. When it comes to part-time or home-based jobs, the employee turnover rate was around22 percent.

   An average organization faces approximately 13 percent voluntary employee turnover annually for full time staff whereas for home-based or part-time staff the percentages goes up to 34 percent.

3. Better Financial Platform

   Higher employee engagement levels in best companies benefit their financial status ultimately. When employees are completely engaged in their jobs, they are more productive. They are able to fulfill all customer requirements plus handle all their queries and issues with complete enthusiasm. This in turn increases the customer loyalty towards the organization.

   The study revealed that the annual growth rate in service and sales experienced by the best employers was 13 percent approximately whereas average employers experienced an increase of only 5 percent in their net sales.

Although the study was conducted in year 2007, but it still holds its effectiveness in the current scenario also. It has been a challenge in front of the managers to increase the employee engagement levels and take their organization to the next level.