Correlation Table

MAN 6316: HRM Metrics

Individual Analysis Project: Fall 2014

*Names and data contained within this assignment are purely fictitious—any similarity to an actual retailer is purely coincidental

Individual Analysis Project:

Background Information & Instructions

You have been hired as an external consultant to examine the employee engagement at Focus Financial, a regional financial

advising firm located in the Northeastern United States. They have been in business for about 20 years, and they now have 30

locations and 4000 employees. They face heavy competition from other financial advising firms, and they have realized that one of

the best ways to remain competitive in the market is to set themselves apart by employing exceptional staff who provide excellent

customer service. Given this focus on customer service, Focus Financial knows that retaining their employees is crucial, as

experienced employees can often provide the best service. In an effort to determine what factors may influence an employee’s

decision to remain with the company, the company has decided to collect data on several variables.

Although Focus Financial has an in-house HR department, they are mid-size compared to other regional financial advising

companies, and they do not have HR personnel who specialize in the area of HR metrics or analytics. Due to their limited

experience, they hired a survey company to collect some data from a sample of their employees (225 employees at two of their

locations). The survey company collected the data and provided them with a dataset and some rough correlation analyses, but

Focus Financial does not know how to analyze the data or interpret the results. Given your knowledge of HR metrics, they would

like you to examine this data and make some recommendations.

In particular, they would like you to complete this project in two parts. The first is an initial “worksheet” (Part 1), which includes

Step 1 below. The second is the full written report (Part 2), which summarizes and reports the findings from Steps 1-3. The final

written report should be 3-5 double-spaced pages (not including tables/figures).

Here are the steps you need to complete for Part 1:

Step 1: Descriptive Statistics.

 Provide descriptive statistics for the data (see “Individual Analysis Project Dataset” file): o Calculate the means, medians, modes, and standard deviations for each of the variables using Excel (Descriptions

of each of the variables are provided on the following page). Enter these values into the appropriate area of the

Part I Worksheet.

o Describe the characteristics of the sample by answering the appropriate questions on the Part 1 Worksheet. Here is some additional information about the company as a whole:

 Average age of employees (company-wide; all 30 locations): 38 years old  Percentage of employees (company-wide, all 30 locations) who are female: 23%

(Note: Completing the Part 1 Worksheet is all you need to do to successfully complete Part 1 of the project. You will do

additional work with this data for Part 2 of the project).

***Submit the Part 1 Worksheet via Blackboard by 11:59pm on November 1 st ***

For Part 2 of the project, please complete Steps 2 and 3 below.

Step 2: Summarizing the Correlation Table

 Examine the SPSS correlation output provided by the survey company (this information is provided on Blackboard in the “Individual Analysis Project Correlations” file).

o Create a new, more stream-lined correlation table to include in your final report. Use the correlation table from In-Class Assignment #2 as a guide. Some general questions to consider include the following:

 Is there any information in the table that is repeated and could be omitted?  What are some changes you could make to this table to make it more “user friendly” or easier to read?  Note: Be sure to include all of the information necessary for a “complete” correlation table (e.g., means,

standard deviations, correlations, etc.)

o Examine the correlation table you just created, and summarize the correlational relationships. (hint: organizing this information in a table format can be helpful—a blank table is provided in the “Individual Analysis Project”

Folder for your convenience. Please feel free to copy and paste it into your executive summary).

 What is the direction of each relationship?  What is the statistical significance for each relationship?  What is the practical significance for each relationship?

MAN 6316: HRM Metrics

Individual Analysis Project: Fall 2014

*Names and data contained within this assignment are purely fictitious—any similarity to an actual retailer is purely coincidental

Step 3: Interpretations, Recommendations, and Limitations/Next Steps

 Use the information you gathered in Steps 1-2 and interpret these findings. Specifically, make written recommendations to the company regarding the following:

a. How are Intentions to Stay related to Pay Satisfaction and being Conscientiousness? For instance, are people who are Conscientious more likely to have intentions to stay? How does pay satisfaction influence whether an employee

intends to stay with the company?

b. Does age or gender share a statistically significant relationship with any of the variables? If so, what do those relationships mean?

c. Focus Financial believes that their best customer service providers are the employees who are most likely to leave the company. Does the data support this hypothesis? How is Customer Service Performance related to each of the

variables studied?

d. Based on these results, what changes would you suggest Focus Financial make to help its employee retention? In other words, where should they focus their efforts to prompt the most change? (note: you can be creative with your

suggestions, as long as they make sense based on the correlation results).

e. Focus Financial had access to limited data during this investigation, and they would like to conduct another study in the near future. Think about what you have learned during this class. What kinds of data do you think the company

should collect in the future to better assess their employee retention concerns? Are there any changes to their data

collection methods that you would suggest? (Note: You can be creative, but be sure to support your suggestions with

rationale/evidence from the course material.

The final written report should be 3-5 double-spaced pages (not including any tables/figures). The final written report should

contain the following sections:

 Brief introduction (e.g., what is the purpose of the report?)

 Descriptive statistics for the data

 Correlation table & summary of correlational relationships

 Interpretation and Recommendations

 Outline of limitations/next steps

***Submit Part 2 (the complete project) via Blackboard and in paper form by 8:30am on November 22nd***

Due Dates:

PART 1 (Worksheet, Step 1 only): Saturday, November 1 st by 11:59pm (via Blackboard)

PART 2 (complete project: Steps 1-3): Saturday, November 22 nd

by 8:30am (via Blackboard and via paper copy)

PLEASE NOTE: Project submissions will only be accepted until the deadlines indicated above. Blackboard will automatically close

the submission system at this time. Any reports submitted after this timeframe will not be accepted.

Here is a brief description of each of the variables in the dataset, as well as their associated scale reliabilities:

EmployeeID: Unique employee ID number given to every survey respondent

Gender: Employee gender (0 = male, 1 = female); Scale reliability: 0.95

Age: Employee age in years; Scale reliability: 0.91

Customer Service Performance: Customer service performance rating of employee; made by their supervisor (1= below

expectations, 5=above expectations); Scale reliability: 0.54

Intent to Stay: The degree to which the employee agreed with the statement “I intend to stay in this job for the next six months.”

(1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree); Scale reliability: 0.75

Conscientiousness: The degree to which the employee is conscientious. Survey question used: "I get tasks done on time."

(1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree); Scale reliability: 0.85 Pay Satisfaction: The degree to which the employee is satisfied with the pay they receive. Survey question used: "I am satisfied

with the pay I receive from my employer." (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree); Scale reliability: 0.81