Kenexa Research Institute Reveals Employee Attitudes Regarding Business Travel

WAYNE, PA--(Marketwire - September 4, 2008) - Kenexa® (NASDAQ: KNXA), a leading provider of recruitment and retention solutions, today released the results from its latest WorkTrends survey. This study, part of the Kenexa WorkTrends™ database, a comprehensive normative database of employee survey results, queried participants on their work-related travel habits, job satisfaction, engagement and satisfaction with their current company. The purpose of this study was to determine if employees whose travel requires them to spend at least one night away from home, are more or less engaged in their work and if they are more or less likely to leave their organization than are stationary workers.

Respondents were categorized into four groups: No Travel, Light Travel (10%-30% of the time), Heavy Travel (40%-60% of the time) and Road Warrior (70%-100% of the time).

When asked about job engagement, the survey responses revealed a disparity between the four main groups. Those in the No Travel and Road Warrior groups felt less engaged with their jobs and organizations than did those who classified themselves in the Light Travel and Heavy Travel categories.

Despite having the highest engagement and satisfaction ratings, members of the Heavy Travel group are also the most likely to consider leaving their organization within the next 12 months. Employees across the board reported more satisfaction with their individual jobs than with their organizations.

Senior and middle managers travel the most -- 67% of respondents indicated they travel to some extent, with 55% grouped in the light travel category. Men travel more frequently than women do and younger workers travel more than older workers.

Although the majority of their travel is in the Light Travel category, employees who work in China and India travel more than people in the rest of the world. Japan and Mexico also rank highly; in Mexico, the highest percentage is in the Light Travel category (43%). The same is true for Japan (32% in the light travel category), although Japan has the largest percentage in the Road Warrior category (11%).

The survey also examined workers' attitudes about work/life balance and stress levels. Surprisingly, employees who do not travel for work feel they have much less work/life balance than Light Travelers, but as expected, significantly more work/life balance than Road Warriors. The Light Travel and Heavy Travel classifications reported feeling less stress than the other workers did.

"The results of this survey illuminate interesting relationships between business travel and employee engagement. Organizations should be cautioned, however, that there is a breaking point -- employees who spend the grand majority of their time on the road are more stressed and lack work/life balance. The needs of the employee should be considered before signing them up to go on the road, but the good news is, once they've signed up, they seem to enjoy the autonomy that work travel offers," said Jack Wiley, executive director, Kenexa Research Institute.

About WorkTrends™

The Kenexa WorkTrends database is a comprehensive normative database of employee opinions on topics including leadership, employee engagement and customer orientation. Comparisons are available for workers from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

About Kenexa

Kenexa (NASDAQ: KNXA) is a global leader in building the world's greatest workforces using a combination of software, employee research science and business process optimization. Kenexa's global solutions include applicant tracking, onboarding, recruitment process outsourcing, employment branding, skills and behavioral assessments, structured interviews, performance management, multi-rater feedback surveys, employee engagement surveys and HR Analytics. Kenexa is headquartered in Wayne, Pa. (outside Philadelphia). Additional information about Kenexa and its global products and services can be accessed at www.kenexa.com.

Members of the press can request a copy of the research results from the media contact listed below: