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The Chief Elusive Officer: Unit4 Survey Finds That a Third of Employees Have Had No Contact at All With Their CEO
- Over a third of UK respondents (38%) said they would feel uncomfortable approaching senior management to complain about something in the organisation
LONDON , Feb. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Over a third (36%) of UK employees say they have never had any contact with their CEO, according to international research from global software company Unit4. A similar figure, 31% have only received company-wide emails from them, making it clear that business leaders must do much more to engage the workforce. Over a third of UK respondents (38%) said they would feel uncomfortable approaching senior management to complain about something in the organisation.
The findings come from which is based on interviews with employees across the world – UK, US, Germany , Sweden , Norway , Canada and Netherlands – to understand the commonalities and differences in their working practices as well as how critical decisions are made.
UK CEOs prove the most elusive of all nations surveyed. When comparing the state of play across countries, the UK questions the accessibility and motivation of CEOs:
There is also a disconnect between the shop floor and the top floor when it comes to CEO engagement.
"Today we really have a new board member in companies across the world – the Chief Elusive Officer, the business leader who has not once engaged with their employees or sought to empower them to make decisions that impact the future of their organisation. This must change and it must change fast."
"When CEOs are disconnected from their workforce, employees can be left feeling disengaged which can lead to much lower productivity at work and ultimately impact the bottom-line. A rigid, hierarchical business structure is simply no longer suitable for today's workforce and CEOs need to change in order to lead more effectively."
"This old-fashioned management mindset is no longer fit for today's business and must be rejected in order to encourage the best asset a company has; its people. Perhaps a way to enable that is through the better use of technology so that employees can feel more engaged and empowered to make those decisions."
Surprisingly, across the globe only 42% have met their CEO in a one-to-one situation. Globally, 5% of workers were so far removed from their own CEO, they didn't even know if their CEO was a man or a woman.
Interestingly, executives also do not perceive the disconnect between leadership and their workforce. Globally nearly all (94%) think CEOs are performing well in their role, whereas only over a third (37%) of non-managers believe the head of their organisation is the right person for the job.
To find out more about why and how the workplace must evolve to accommodate the business of tomorrow, download the full report here.
Our research, in partnership with Opinium, talked to 1,837 managers and non-managers to get a sense of their autonomy, their own sense of empowerment in the workplace, and any biases and challenges that can cause friction.
This research looked at those who work at organisations of 10 – 999 employees across transportation, infrastructure and logistics, retail, financial services, technology, public services, government, higher education, NGO / not-for-profit and professional services in the following markets: Canada , Germany , Netherlands , Norway , Sweden , United Kingdom and USA.
*For the purpose of this research, non-managers were defined as employees with no management responsibilities in organisations, including entry-level employees. Managers were defined as those within the C-suite, VPs, directors, senior management or middle management.
Unit4's next-generation enterprise software supports our customers in delivering an exceptional People Experience to their customers – from students and professionals to the public servants and non-profits doing good in the world. Unit4 transforms work to be more meaningful and inspiring through software that's self-driving, adaptive and intuitive, intelligently automating administrative tasks and providing easy access to the answers people need. Unit4 works with people the way people work.
For more information please visit https://www.unit4.com/thepeopleexperience follow us on Twitter @Unit4global , or visit our LinkedIn page
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