Britain’s workforce is experiencing an information blackout at work, causing one in four employees to head for the door, research finds.
Some 80 per cent of employees want their bosses to share more information with them concerning the business, with less than one in ten (9 per cent) employees being aware of company progress in real time and only one in ten (9 per cent) believing their boss/manager is data-driven, according to a study by Geckoboard.
This lack of transparency appears to be building a culture of mistrust, with four in five (79 per cent) saying that they do not trust their bosses who failed to share company data.
More than a quarter (28 per cent) of employees also believe the dearth of company information provided stems from their bosses playing power games. This level of suspicion is creating a vicious circle, with half (52 per cent) of employees resorting to their own detective work to discover what’s really going on in their company.
With half (50 per cent) of British staff saying that company information has a significant impact on how they contribute to the overall performance of the organisation they worked for, data transparency appears to have a notable link to productivity and efficiency. In fact, more than nine in ten (93 per cent) say they would rather hear bad company news than be left in the dark.
Despite this, nearly half (49 per cent) of the British workforce only get access to key company data four times a year or less. British industry appears to be adopting a ‘mushroom management’ approach, which involves keeping employees in the dark on company matters.
Geckoboard CEO Paul Joyce says, ‘They say no news is good news; however our research shows that this is far from the case when it comes to business management. Without a clear view of the company position, how can we expect our employees to make the right decisions and perform against business KPIs to drive business growth?
‘Ditching the style of mushroom management and instead adopting a clear, transparent data position with staff will not only boost morale, but will help a business get the most out of its employees.’
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