HR professionals report that the most talked-about topics in the workplace are the economy and company-specific topics--with less attention being paid to politics and the NCAA college basketball tournament--in a recent Compensation.BLR.com poll.
When asked "What is the 'hot topic' in your workplace?," 42 percent responded "The economy" while 36 percent said it was "Company-specific topics." Just 12 percent reported that "The presidential election" was the hot workplace topic and only 10 percent said it was "March Madness," referring to the NCAA college basketball tournament (which lasts about one month from early March to early April).
The results indicate that employees are primarily concerned with matters that have a direct and relatively immediate bearing on the workplace--obviously the case with company-specific topics, and certainly so with the economy, the state of which can affect a company's budget, raises, and staffing levels. The fact that the economy was the hottest topic may relay fears about the impact that a possible recession may have on companies as a whole as well as on employees as individuals.
Employees seem less concerned with the presidential election, the workplace impact of which, if it exists, won't be for at least a year from now (or longer). And they are likewise not allowing March Madness to serve as a distraction from these work-related concerns to any large degree.
The Compensation.BLR.com poll included 243 respondents.
