Aceup: Disconnect Between Leaders and Employees
Aceup recently released research indicating a disconnect between executives’ views on leadership, career path, and collaboration versus employees’ opinion on those topics. More than 600 leaders from C-level to individual contributors were surveyed.
Seventy-four percent of executives reported that they think they are inspiring employees, while only 27% of individual contributors agreed. Career path was another area where executives and individual contributors were not in agreement. While 66% of senior leaders said their company has clear career paths for everyone, 35% of individual contributors agreed. Additionally, individual contributors are 27% less likely than senior leaders to agree that there is good collaboration between their teams and departments.
Other themes that emerged were the need for human-centered leadership, soft skills development, and coaching. Over half of all respondents agreed that leading with compassion and being people-centric was important right now, but only 33% strongly agreed that people managers are well-equipped to lead in the future of work. Fifty-four percent of the employees surveyed said strong soft skills were needed for success and would ideally be part of upskilling workers to prepare them for new roles within the company. Coaching was also identified as an area for improvement. Only 35% of companies provide a formal, ongoing leadership coaching program for all employees, and 18% offer no coaching to help employees build leadership abilities.
isolved: Voice of the Workforce 2022-23
isolved has released data on reasons employees are engaging, leaving, or staying with employers. More than 1,000 full time employees were surveyed across regions and varying industries in the United States. Topics includerecruitment, onboarding, technology, culture, engagement, and support. Some key findings include:
- Technology is key to employee experience (EX). Most employees (82%) feel like they have the right technology to do their jobs effectively. For the 19% who said they did not, a single system for all work functions was identified as what is most needed. This was followed by a request for role-specific technology and collaboration tools.
- The onboarding experience is important. Fifty-one percent of respondents said they have been tempted to leave a new job because of a negative onboarding experience.
- Twenty-one percent of employees do not feel their employers support their professional development and 45% would like career pathing to be offered.
- When asked what employers could improve upon to better support mental health, paid mental health days and flexible work arrangements topped the suggestions.
Related article: Smaller Companies Look for Ways to Support Positive Employee Experience
Qualtrics: Managers Feeling Pressure for Results and Visibility
New research from Qualtrics reports that managers are feeling more pressure to produce results than they did a year ago. Forty-three percent of managers and 41% of senior leaders report feeling this way. In addition, with the move to remote/hybrid working, managers are feeling the need to be more visible to leadership, regardless of accomplishments.
Managers are often being put in a tough position, having to implement return to office policies that might be unpopular. “Companies simply cannot take their managers for granted. They carry an increasingly heavy load and are the connective tissue that holds an organization together, especially during times of uncertainty and change,” says Qualtrics Chief Workplace Psychologist Dr. Benjamin Granger. “As we learned during the pandemic, it is essential that we care for our caregivers, and that applies in the workplace as well. Every company needs to be tuned in to how their people leaders are really doing and identify ways to directly support them.”
This added stress may result in potential churn at management levels. According to the data, managers and senior leaders are more likely to look for a new job in the next six months than individual contributors and C-suite leaders.
Author Information
As a detail-oriented researcher, Sherril is expert at discovering, gathering and compiling industry and market data to create clear, actionable market and competitive intelligence. With deep experience in market analysis and segmentation she is a consummate collaborator with strong communication skills adept at supporting and forming relationships with cross-functional teams in all levels of organizations.
Sherril holds a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from University of Colorado, Boulder and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Rutgers University.
