UK Workers Have Little Trust in Bosses

September 7 2010 - Nearly one-third of young professionals lack trust in their employer according to research from recruitment consultants Badenoch & Clark.

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Guy Emmerson, associate director of Badenoch & Clark said:

"Without a culture of trust in the workplace, employers will struggle to foster employee engagement and, in turn, retain their workforce. As recruitment activity levels pick up, employers need to consider the strength of their relationship with employees across all levels of the business, or run the risk of staff voting with their feet. Younger employees - the so-called Generation Y - have specific expectations of their employers, so encouraging more two-way conversations on business performance will prove vital to increasing levels of trust and gauging job satisfaction. Without this it will be become harder to obtain any kind of staff loyalty and in-turn retain talented graduates."

Asked whether they trust their employer to provide accurate information about business performance, 32.2 per cent of those between 16 and 24 said they did not believe either 'most' or 'any' of what they are told. This compares to 18.2 per cent in the previous annual survey, suggesting an increasing disillusionment among younger workers.

Those employed in the legal profession proved particularly sceptical, with 36.9 per cent across all age ranges stating that they do not believe either 'most' or 'any' of what their employers tell them about business performance. A further 26.3 per cent trusted 'parts' of what they are told; only 10.5 per cent reported 'totally trust' in their employer.

This compares to 5.9 per cent of HR professionals who report distrusting their employers. Levels of 'total trust' is also higher in other sectors: 23.3 per cent of sales and marketing and 23.2 per cent of administration and clerical professionals.

Guy Emmerson commented:

'This research highlights the detrimental impact the recession has had on the workforce, not just in terms of job losses and pay freezes, but in terms of the relationship between employer and employee. Now is the time to start repairing this relationship and being more honest and open with employees about business performance.'

Characteristics Of Engaging Managers

Research by the Institute for Employment Studies published in 2009 indicates that engaging managers are made, not born - they learn from their own and other people's mistakes and modify their behaviour accordingly.

The report, The Engaging Manager by Dilys Robinson and Sue Hayday (IES Report 470, November 2009) is based on interviews with 25 'engaging managers' (identified as having high engagement scores of teams in their last employee survey), 22 'senior managers' (people managing the engaging managers), and focus groups with 25 teams managed by the engaging managers (a total of 154 people). The seven organisations involved were:

• The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)
• Centrica
• Corus
• Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
• London Borough of Merton
• Rolls-Royce
• Sainsbury’s

The report concludes that great managers are focused on performance, taking the 'good bits' of other managers they have observed and avoiding the 'bad bits' of behaviour. They were effective communicators and showed improvement over time, according to senior managers. They were ready to show honesty and openness when breaking bad news and gave frequent individual feedback to staff. The features of engaging and non-engaging managers included the following:

Characteristics of engaging managers

• high performers
• communicators
• visionary
• empathisers
• developers
• enthusiasts
• protectors
• networkers
• rocks
• brave
• jugglers
• mavericks

Characteristics of disengaging and poor managers

• micro managers
• muddlers
• blamers
• egoistical
• pessimists

According to Dilys Robinson, Principal Research Fellow at the Institute for Employment Studies:

"The excellent and engaging managers we spoke to have very varied jobs, different spans of control and seniority. But one thing they have in common is how very focused they are on performance. They all manage teams that are known to be high-performing within their organisations, which underlines how important engagement is in difficult times.

"We asked team members to draw pictures of how they see their managers. Interestingly, several people drew smiling devils, indicating that not all engaging managers toe the company line. The most popular picture of all was of a sun or a smiling face.

"The drawings gave us insight into engaging managers' characteristics. The teams value their managers' strategic vision, interest in them as individuals and fostering of positive team culture. Our engaging managers are challenging and approachable, and have good skills in communicating and listening. Their teams also expect them to be honest and development-focused. But engaging behaviours can be learnt and that's good news for aspiring managers."

Other key findings were:

• Engaging managers, senior managers and teams all had clear views about disengaging behaviours to be avoided
• Disengaging behaviours included: lack of empathy, poor communication and listening skills, being self-centred, failing to inspire, blaming others, aggression, poor delivery record, lack of approachability, lack of integrity, and micro-managing
• Engaging managers were seen to be active internal networkers who did not necessarily feel a need to network externally
• Two-way communication was viewed as an essential feature of engaging management
• Engaging managers had in-depth knowledge of their organisation, how their role fitted into the bigger picture, and were able to communicate this effectively to their teams

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