Amateur wrote:
A? not comfortable because it is no where mentioned that those benefits 'raised' employee satisfaction levels!
B? not comfortable because of 2 reasons. Can 20% be called high? Is profitability reason for employee satisfaction or employee satisfaction reason for profitability?
C? We did not talk about companies without these benefits!
D? Is the 1-5% departure because of day care benefits or some other bigger benefits such as flexible schedules? The little departure rate can be because of employee satisfaction which could be caused by other benefits. Same reason we omitted B. We cannot give the low employee departure credit to daycare benefits alone! For example, imagine yourself in this scenario, 15% people want to leave from company with no benefits. Including daycare services, 3% would back off from leaving. Now the company announces, come whenever you want and other benefits (higher bonuses and family vacation every year) the employees will be more satisfied and another 7% don't want to leave. Remaining 3% still wants to leave for whatever reason (be closer to their family). So in this case how can you say that lower employee departure is because of daycare benefits? Moreover, "varied between 1 and 5% over the period" means per fiscal year or per half year or per quarter? My company discusses these on per quarter basis. So including "per year" in answer choice makes it worse than B
E? Other companies are not in discussion.
So
I am lost
Hi Amateur
I would like to answer the question you asked regarding choice D.
First of all, the author addresses a study of factors affecting employee satisfaction levels by investigating eight companies that provide flexible schedules and on-site daycare benefits.
Results of the study are that 1) overall satisfaction levels at the companies were high, 2) the companies enjoyed profit margins averaging over 20% over the last five years, and 3) the rates of employee departures at these companies had varied between 1% and 5% over this period.
Clearly, the investigators are directly attributing these results to the benefits companies are offering to their employees. If you can observe third finding of the study, the rate of employee departure varies between 1% and 5% in those companies. Generally and as per my knowledge, most companies estimate the rate of departures every year and so it is fair enough to use the phrase "employees stay for at least one year" in choice D. I hope I answered second part of your question.
Regarding the first part of your question, the conclusion drawn in choice D is not emphasizing over the kind of benefits that helped companies retain employees but rather implies that 95% of employees will stay for at least one year (
Rephrasing one of the observations from the study : rates of employee departures at these companies had varied between 1% and 5% over this period) at
SOME companies with daycare benefits(
It does not mean that only companies with daycare benefits enjoy low rates of departures). It is ok to conclude that
SOME of the companies with day care benefits have low rates of departures based on the information given in the stimulus. Always make sure that the information given in the answer choice is directly drawn from the stimulus without making any additional assumptions.
Hope I helped u. Thanks.