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View All Press Releases| Mulady Solutions | 26 Jan 2010 |
Newsletter - The Business of Chinese Whispers
Nearly 5 years ago, Gallup reported an increase in the number of disengaged employees in the UK, a rise from 20% to 24%. Therefore 24% of employees are not only not engaged but they are shouting their dissatisfaction from the roof tops.
At about the same time consultancy ISR found that UK workers are some of the biggest gossips in Europe. In the hi-tech sector nearly 8 out of 10 employees said they heard about significant developments through rumour first.
The report concluded that employees cared about their manager’s ability to communicate, keeping them involved in the organisation and in the decision making process.
So what has changed in the last 5 years? Are we communicating, and involving our people? From what I am hearing at the moment the answer to this is a resounding no! In my view if these surveys were updated today, the figures will have at best stayed the same but may have even got worse.
For example a very unhappy employee was telling me about her company where the reception staff had ‘disappeared’ overnight, a meeting was called for all the remaining staff to advise them that a ‘restructure’ was taking place – no more information. So what happened? The Chinese whisper syndrome started with covert discussions taking place over coffee as to what may or may not be happening, productivity went down, the ‘am I next?’ question was asked and discontent among this employee who is now caretaking a reception role without consultation and in addition to her normal remit.
How could they have done it? Communicating as much as possible about what was happening with the reception staff but more importantly asking the team how best to manage the situation – not exactly rocket science but a path that could have got them out of the heap of trouble I see looming with disengaged employees.
