47 percent happy with leaders

Less than half (47
percent) of UK employees rate their senior leadership team as effective, according to a study

Kenexa Research
Institute. Developed from a survey of 21,920 employees in 18 countries, the study
shows that an organisation’s senior leadership team has a significant impact on
its employees’ overall opinions of the company and engagement levels, which
have been linked to both earnings per share and total shareholder return.

Employees in India (69
percent), Brazil (59
percent) and the United States
(54 percent) report the highest ratings of leadership effectiveness followed by those in China (53 percent) and Canada (52
percent). Workers in Japan (33 percent) report the lowest ratings. The average
number of employees worldwide who rate their leadership team as effective is 51
percent.

Jack Wiley, executive director, Kenexa Research Institute, said: “UK employees
view their senior leadership team as effective if it quickly responds to
marketplace opportunities and competitive threats, keeps employees
well-informed about organisational issues, makes decisions that demonstrate
that quality and improvement are top priorities and motivates people to work hard
and to put in extra effort when needed.”

For all workers studied, a strong organisational leadership team has a
significant impact on the level of employee engagement. This is the extent to
which employees are motivated to contribute to organisational success and are
willing to apply discretionary effort to accomplishing tasks important to the
achievement of organizational goals. Engaged employees favourably rate their
pride in their organisation, their overall job satisfaction and they are
willing to recommend their organisation as a place to work.

Employees with positive opinions of their leadership team state a much higher
intention to stay with the organisation compared to those who are dissatisfied.
They are also much more likely to have confidence in the organisation’s prospects
and more likely to feel that they have a promising future career within the
organisation.

“These findings reinforce the importance of senior management’s communication
with employees,” said Jack Wiley. “Those teams that demonstrate a
strong emphasis on gaining employees’ confidence through their decisions and
actions, keep employees well informed regarding company direction and have the
ability to deal with the organisation’s challenges are the teams that will
build more highly engaged workforces and outperform their competitors.”