Minneapolis, MN, September 1, 2010 - Modern Survey’s latest employee engagement study of the U.S. financial sector was recently utilized by Financial & Insurance Meetings Magazine (part of the Meetings Net publishing group). One of several industry experts quoted in the article, Don MacPherson, President and Co-Founder of Modern Survey, gives some context to the latest engagement data and offers prescriptive solutions for how organizations can take action on these findings.

Click here to read the article.

About Modern Survey

Modern Survey is a human capital measurement company. Providing a robust suite of proprietary technologies combined with an array of consultative services, Modern Survey helps organizations manage talent throughout the employee lifecycle, measure and evaluate customer satisfaction and gain insight into changing markets. Modern Survey products and services have spanned 100 countries on six continents in over 30 languages. Through direct and partner channels, Modern Survey’s solutions have been used by more than 500 companies, over 85 of which are among the Fortune 500.

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Media Contact:
Jennifer Halstead, Marketing Manager
Modern Survey
jhalstead@modernsurvey.com
612/746.3917

Minneapolis, MN, August 30, 2010 - Modern Survey has been recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America. After another year of increased brand awareness, new enterprise client acquisitions, and solution advancements in employee engagement, on-boarding, performance appraisals and 360-degree feedback, Modern Survey is proud to have earned this prestigious honor for the second consecutive year.

In announcing the news, CEO Patrick Riley said, “We’re thrilled to be recognized for a second year as an Inc. 5000 company, and we anticipate continued growth in the years ahead. Even in a slow growth economy with high unemployment, our enterprise human capital measurement solutions continue to resonate with companies because we help them maximize a critical asset: their people. When you combine our innovative solutions with the expertise and unrelenting commitment of our services team, it translates into positive results for everybody.”

The Inc. 5000 list ranks privately held companies based upon revenue growth over the past three years. Over this period, Modern Survey posted an impressive 65% growth in revenue, earning a rank of 3091 on the 2010 list. Modern Survey also ranked 51st among companies in the greater Twin Cities metro area.

Inc. is a prominent national magazine based in New York City targeted towards entrepreneurs and small businesses. The magazine is published monthly with a circulation of over 700,000. The 2010 Inc. 5000 list was announced on August 24^th and can be found online at http://www.inc.com/inc5000/.

About Modern Survey

Modern Survey is a human capital measurement company. Providing a robust suite of proprietary technologies combined with an array of consultative services, Modern Survey helps organizations manage talent throughout the employee lifecycle, measure and evaluate customer satisfaction and gain insight into changing markets. Modern Survey products and services have spanned 100 countries on six continents in over 30 languages. Through direct and partner channels, Modern Survey’s solutions have been used by more than 500 companies, over 85 of which are among the Fortune 500.

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Media Contact:
Jennifer Halstead, Marketing Manager
Modern Survey
jhalstead@modernsurvey.com
612/746.3917

About Modern Survey

Modern Survey has established itself as a leader in the online survey industry, providing a robust suite of proprietary technologies combined with an array of consultative services that help our clients manage talent throughout the employee life cycle, measure and evaluate customer satisfaction and gain insight into changing markets. Modern Survey products and services have spanned 100 countries on six continents in over 30 languages. Through direct and partner channels, Modern Survey’s tools and services have reached more than 500 companies, over 85 of which are among the Fortune 500.

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Media Contact:
Jennifer Halstead, Marketing Manager
Modern Survey
jhalstead@modernsurvey.com
612/746.3917

Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity brings people together to create and preserve homeownership in neighborhoods, to partner with hard-working, low-income families to be successful homeowners, and to inspire action that promotes affordable housing for everyone in the community.

This year, Twin Cities Habitat will serve more than nine hundred families by creating and preserving homeownership in the Twin Cities.

The Modern Survey team volunteered as part of a group of entrepreneurs and other businesses contributing on this specific home.

About Modern Survey

Modern Survey has established itself as a leader in the online survey industry, providing a robust suite of proprietary technologies combined with an array of consultative services that help our clients manage talent throughout the employee life cycle, measure and evaluate customer satisfaction, and gain insight into changing markets. Modern Survey products and services have spanned 100 countries on six continents in over 30 languages. Through direct and partner channels, Modern Survey’s tools and services have reached more than 500 companies, over 85 of which are among the Fortune 500.

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Media Contact:
Jennifer Halstead, Marketing Manager
Modern Survey
jhalstead@modernsurvey.com
612/746.3917

Minneapolis, MN, July 28, 2010 - Over the past few months, renowned public speaker, Walter Bond hosted a webinar series on employee engagement featuring Don MacPherson, President and Co-founder of Modern Survey. MacPherson was selected to provide his employee engagement expertise and describe what employee engagement is, why it’s important, and how business leaders can   boost engagement to better position their organizations to succeed.

Throughout this five- part series, Bond and MacPherson covered a wide range of issues critical to employee engagement. MacPherson gave audience members insight into topics such as: “Showing Recognition and Driving Employee Engagement,” “Where is Employee Engagement Going?” “Implementing an Employee Engagement Survey: The Role of Senior Leadership and HR,” and “Is Employee Engagement All You Need?”

This series served as yet another opportunity for MacPherson to demonstrate Modern Survey’s thought leadership around employee engagement and reach out to new audiences with a positive message that will help organizations and their employees thrive.

Don MacPherson is available to speak to a wide variety of audiences including business leaders and HR decision-makers. To book MacPherson for your organization, please contact ask@modernsurvey.com for more information.

About Modern Survey

Modern Survey has established itself as a leader in the online survey industry, providing a robust suite of proprietary technologies combined with an array of consultative services that help our clients manage talent throughout the employee life cycle, measure and evaluate customer satisfaction, and gain insight into changing markets. Modern Survey products and services have spanned 100 countries on six continents in over 30 languages. Through direct and partner channels, Modern Survey’s tools and services have reached more than 500 companies, over 85 of which are among the Fortune 500.

About Walter Bond Seminar

After graduating from the University of Minnesota with a BA in Communications, Walter Bond overcame a devastating injury to become the first NBA rookie free agent ever to start on opening night. Walter, the young man who never, ever gave up on his dreams, went on to have an eight-year professional basketball career, playing alongside such NBA greats as Karl Malone and John Stockton as a guard for the Dallas Mavericks, Utah Jazz and Detroit Pistons. Toward the end of his basketball career, Walter developed the ability to apply on-the-court success and teamwork to the business world when he and his wife became owners of a national franchise. He has since shared his insight and experience with hundreds of businesses and organizations around the world. Bond is a Certified Speaking Professional and member of the National Speakers Association. Bond has been voted “Speaker of the Year” (2005) by Minnesota Meetings and Events (MME), and “Program of the Year” (2006) by Meetings Professionals International (MPI).

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Media Contact:
Jennifer Halstead, Marketing Manager
Modern Survey
jhalstead@modernsurvey.com
612/746.3917

Minneapolis, MN, July 26, 2010 - Don MacPherson, President and Co-founder of Modern Survey, recently guested on the internet radio program Total Picture Radio with Peter Clayton. Discussing Modern Survey’s latest findings on employee engagement in the financial services industry, MacPherson expounded upon what leaders ought to be taking away from this new study and how organizations can combat a decline in employee engagement levels.

Click here to listen to the podcast.

About Modern Survey
Modern Survey has established itself as a leader in the online survey industry, providing a robust suite of proprietary technologies combined with an array of consultative services that help our clients manage talent throughout the employee life cycle, measure and evaluate customer satisfaction and gain insight into changing markets. Modern Survey products and services have spanned 100 countries on six continents in over 30 languages. Through direct and partner channels, Modern Survey’s tools and services have reached more than 500 companies, over 85 of which are among the Fortune 500.

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Media Contact:
Jennifer Halstead, Marketing Manager
Modern Survey
jhalstead@modernsurvey.com
612/746.3917

Minneapolis, MN, July 20, 2010 - Over the past twelve months, employee engagement has dropped significantly across the U.S. workforce. In March 2010, Modern Survey released the results of a comprehensive study depicting a precipitous decline in the degree to which U.S. workers are psychologically invested in their work. Now, nearly six months later, a new study focused specifically on the financial services industry shows the same trend of declining engagement, only magnified to a startling degree.

While employee engagement had trended upward in the U.S. financial services sector from 2008 to 2009, over the past year, the industry has experienced a tremendous decline. Most alarmingly, the number of disengaged employees has skyrocketed from 11% of the population in 2009 to 29% in 2010, a statistically significant increase of eighteen percentage points.

Modern Survey’s Employee Engagement Index uses five questions that gauge the extent to which employees: take pride in their company, believe they have a promising future at their company, recommend their company as a great place to work, go “above and beyond” their normal job duties to help their company succeed, and intend to stay with their company. All five of these items saw steep declines from 2009 to 2010, including twenty-plus percentage point drops in the degree to which employees take pride in their organization, and the degree to which they are willing to put forth extra effort on the job.

Modern Survey President, Don MacPherson, explains, “The pattern we are seeing in the financial services industry is in line with the pattern we have seen for the overall U.S. workforce. But within financial services the declines in engagement are much more dramatic. Worker disengagement is even worse for the largest financial services companies. At companies with over 10,000 employees, two out of every five employees are disengaged. That compares to one in five for the overall U.S. workforce.

“Another disturbing trend we found is that employee “intent to stay” continues to drop. In 2009 it dropped to 62% favorable from 65% favorable the year before. This year it dropped to 55% favorable. Traditionally, the financial services industry has scored well above the U.S. workforce in this category. Now the percentage of financial services workers who intend to stay with their company is slightly below the US workforce. This is an important warning for executives because if employees leave their organizations there will be an incredible amount of damage control necessary to offset the knowledge and relationships that go with the exiting employees.”  

While there is no doubt that the latest findings present a troubling outlook for the financial services industry, Modern Survey Senior Consultant, Bruce Campbell, sees opportunity for organizations to overcome this trend of declining engagement and ultimately position themselves to succeed.

“Our findings indicate that financial services organizations are vulnerable to potentially devastating loss of talent in the coming months,” says Campbell. “Given this, leaders and managers at all levels need to be paying more attention than ever to their employees - particularly their top performers and high potentials. Now is the time for a “high touch” approach to managing people. Invest extra time and effort in getting to better know and understand each employee as an individual - what their interests are, what they value most, their current concerns as well as their hopes for the future. Spending time on personal conversations like this tangibly demonstrates that you care about and value employees as individuals and this is something all employees want to feel and believe, perhaps now more than ever. Make notes about things you learn that can help you tailor the things you do to recognize and reward individual employees so that they have the greatest impact. And to minimize loss of key talent, perhaps the most important thing you can do is to create and communicate compelling, personalized visions of the opportunities for growth and advancement that are likely to become available to them if they continue to perform at their best.”

See the full results from this study here.

About Modern Survey
Modern Survey has established itself as a leader in the online survey industry, providing a robust suite of proprietary technologies combined with an array of consultative services that help our clients manage talent throughout the employee life cycle, measure and evaluate customer satisfaction and gain insight into changing markets. Modern Survey products and services have spanned 100 countries on six continents in over 30 languages. Through direct and partner channels, Modern Survey’s tools and services have reached more than 500 companies, over 85 of which are among the Fortune 500.

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Media Contact:
Jennifer Halstead, Marketing Manager
Modern Survey
jhalstead@modernsurvey.com
612/746.3917

The Components of Employee Engagement

Through national surveys, Modern Survey tracks employee engagement levels using five questions that have been identified as critical indicators of employees’ psychological investment in their organizations.

Modern Survey began conducting this study on the financial services industry in May 2008 to a nationally representative sample of 200 U.S. working adults (18+ years old) who match census data in terms of age, gender, and region.

The following chart shows the percentage of favorable responses to each question, for the most recent survey iterations, as well as the percentage point change from the previous iteration:

U.S. Financial Services Engagement Component Trends: Percent Favorable

U.S. Financial Services Engagement Level Trends

Note: The overall Chi Square test for the Fully Engaged percentages across all 3 measurements was not significant (p = .529) so tests of year to year changes are not warranted. The overall Chi Square for the Disengaged percentages across all 3 measurements was highly significant (p = .000) so tests of year to year changes are legitimate. The percentage of Disengaged employees in 2010 does not differ significantly (p = .137) from 2008.

About the Study

The five Employee Engagement Index questions were posed to a nationally representative sample of financial services industry workers in the U.S. in May of 2008. Modern Survey then repeated the questions with industry-specific surveys conducted in May of 2009 and again in May of 2010. Each survey was administered online and included people who work full-time or part-time in organizations with 100 or more total employees. The survey was completed by representative samples 300 U.S. financial services workers in 2009 and 2010, and 200 U.S. financial services workers in May of 2008.

Clarifying Engagement Levels

Modern Survey has developed a proprietary method for categorizing individual workers into four distinct levels of engagement, based on the pattern of answers each worker gives to our Engagement Index questions. Fully engaged employees answer at least four of the five questions with the most positive response possible. Moderately Engaged employees give mostly positive answers, while Under Engaged employees give mostly neutral to mildly positive answers. Disengaged employees give mostly negative answers.

Minneapolis, MN, June 2, 2010 - Modern Survey President, Don MacPherson, presented last week to a group of human resource leaders in the Twin Cities on the topic of employee engagement. The event, hosted by the HR Executive Forum, was conducted in round-robin format and based around the theme, “Economic RE-Boot: RE-Charging, RE-Energizing, RE-Engaging.”

In his thirty minute presentation, “The State of Engagement: What is it Really?” MacPherson provided a detailed look at how the economic recession has impacted employee engagement, encouraging participants to think critically about the ways in which environmental factors affect the workforce. MacPherson looked at projections for where employee engagement is going, what the workforce climate will look like in the short and long-term future, and discussed ways in which organizations can think proactively to combat sagging employee engagement and position their workforce for success. This presentation also stressed the importance of leaders’ focus on the drivers of engagement regardless of external factors like the economy.

MacPherson is steadily building a reputation as an in-demand speaker and thought leader on employee engagement and human capital measurement. Built upon a foundation of extensive research and real world experience, MacPherson’s vision for the future of human capital management is resonating within the HR community, and extending beyond to business leaders at all levels.

Recounting his audience’s reception, MacPherson said, “People are really interested in exploring the psychological state of the workforce throughout different points in time. There’s a desire for re-evaluation, looking back at what got us to where we are today in order to look forward and be proactive as new challenges emerge.”

To book Don MacPherson as a speaker for your organization, please contact ask@modernsurvey.com.

About Modern Survey:

Modern Survey has established itself as a leader in the online survey industry, providing a robust suite of proprietary technologies combined with an array of consultative services that help our clients manage talent throughout the employee life cycle, measure and evaluate customer satisfaction and gain insight into changing markets. Modern Survey products and services have spanned 100 countries on six continents in over 30 languages. Each year, Modern Survey receives millions of web survey responses and generates tens of thousands of advanced reports. Through direct and partner channels, Modern Survey’s tools and services have reached more than 500 companies, over 80 of which are among the Fortune 500.

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Media Contact:
Jennifer Halstead, Marketing Manager
Modern Survey
jhalstead@modernsurvey.com
612/746.3917

Modern Survey’s state-of-the-art 360-degree feedback system was selected for its ease of implementation and its ability to help Clarkson meet very quick timelines with flawless execution and delivery. Providing a unique synthesis of service and technology, Modern Survey helped Clarkson complete this project while meeting aggressive timelines for administration and report-delivery.

Modern Survey COO, Dan Riley, said, “Modern Survey is proud to partner with Clarkson University and to help them fulfill their mission of academic excellence.”

About Modern Survey:

In less than a decade, Modern Survey has established itself as a leader in the online survey industry, providing a robust suite of proprietary technologies combined with an array of consultative services that help our clients manage talent throughout the employee life cycle, measure and evaluate customer satisfaction and gain insight into changing markets. Modern Survey products and services have spanned 100 countries on six continents in over 30 languages. Each year, Modern Survey receives millions of web survey responses and generates tens of thousands of advanced reports. Through direct and partner channels, Modern Survey’s tools and services have reached more than 500 companies, over 80 of which are among the Fortune 500.

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Media Contact:
Jennifer Halstead, Marketing Manager
Modern Survey
jhalstead@modernsurvey.com
612/746.3917