The CIPD recently published its regular Employee Outlook report, which provides insight on UK employee issues.

There were lots of results worthy of note including – the difference between an employees’ perception of their line manager compared with their perception of more senior managers in the business and also, the correlation between an employees’ view on their managers and how engaged they are in the business.

But there were a couple of other results from which I drew one simple conclusion that might help us all be better leaders.

And those results centred around the difference between an employee and  their manager’s perception of how the employee was treated.

The table below looks at how often each party feels they meet to discuss work related issues:-

How often managers meet with each person they manage to discuss their workload, meeting   objectives and other work-related issues – %
	Managers perception	Employees perception
Weekly	50	17
Twice a month	11	7
Once a month	17	15
Less than once a month	17	30
Never	5	12
Not applicable – I don’t have a   manager – 20

 

Putting to one side for a moment how often you think you SHOULD meet with your line manager or employees, what is interesting is that 50% of Managers compared with 17% of employees believethey meet weekly.

And similarly, differences in perception about what they talk about when they DO meet.

How often managers talk about any of the following issues when they meet with the employees they manage
	Managers  perception	Employees perception
Provide feedback on performance
Always	46	17
Sometimes	46	47
Give praise and recognition
Always	63	19
Sometimes	35	47
Listen
Always	80	38
Sometimes	20	41
Discuss their well being
Always	51	19
Sometimes	41	43

 

So, nearly ALL managers think they listen, give recognition, provide feedback and discuss the wellbeing of their employees ‘always or sometimes’ against, on average, two thirds of employees.

So what do the other third think? When their bosses think they are doing all that good stuff, what are the employees hearing?

Given the results from this survey, it seems to me that if we are looking to improve the performance of our leaders and their teams, a really good place to start might be to look at how well a leader and their team communicate with each other.

Only when we are sure there is a high degree of clear, clean communication should we consider the leader’s skill gaps and what kind of development program might help improve the team’s results.

Another interesting part of the survey was the link between satisfaction with a direct manager and how ‘engaged’ an employee is.

In defining engagement, the CIPD take account of such factors as whether an employee is motivated by the purpose of the organisation, trusts the senior managers and works more hours than is paid or contracted to. And the survey shows:-

According to employees, how often managers spend talking to employees about the following matters and the link to employee engagement
	Disengaged	Engaged
Provide feedback on performance
Always	1	30
Sometimes	12	50
Give praise, recognition
Always	0	36
Sometimes	9	52
Discuss their well-being
Always	0	34
Sometimes	9	40
Listen
Always	0	61
Sometimes	18	33

So an employee is more likely to be engaged (and therefore more productive) if they believe a manager ‘always or sometimes’ spends time listening, giving praise, providing feedback and discussing their well being.

If you manage a team and would like to improve productivity, rather than look for ways of spending more time with them or giving more praise and feedback, why not start by finding out how all the good stuff you are already doing is actually perceived by them?

If you would like to find out more about how you can develop clear, clean communication between you and your team, email me at allison@macintoshwright.co.uk or call me on +44 7551 303835

If you would like to read the CIPD report in full, go to www.cipd.co.uk