10 July 2008
Working after hours is pointless, says new report
Research shows that employees don't feel valued by employers or colleagues.
A recent survey by the Workplace Intelligence Unit (WIU) questioned 360 UK employees from 3 leading UK companies, including a UK architect, a UK property services firm and a global telecommunications company.
One of the aims of the report, Social Capital in the Workplace, was to find out what sorts of factors prevent individual employees from forming a workplace community.
A lack of respect is a core problem
The results suggest employees feel let down by their employer. Five out of 10 people don't feel valued by their company and don't believe it acts in their best interests.
Five out of 10 people don't feel valued by their employer.
A lack of respect for others in the workplace seems to be a big issue. Four out of 10 of those surveyed believe their colleagues don't respect their time by canceling a meeting at the last minute or failing to be punctual.
Three out of 10 employees think that the views of others being overlooked or disregarded is a common problem in their workplace.
But on the positive side...
Despite these negative results, 9 out of 10 employees said they'd stayed late in the previous 6 months to help out a colleague.
And only 16% would describe the collaboration that goes on between team members as "bad".
Team interaction
The research also revealed how employees prefer to stay in touch. Even though face-to-face communication is considered to be the most effective way of interacting with others, email topped the poll as the most common way for teams to communicate.
Ann Brewin, co-founder of the WIU, says that problems can arise when employees' face-to-face time is limited: "One of the great things about social capital is its impact on knowledge sharing. It's far more effective and cost efficient for people to learn from one another informally on a day-to-day basis than to implement formal training schemes."
Have your say
The Hub finds it particularly concerning that so few employees feel valued by their employer. How do you think results would compare if you carried out a similar survey in your organization? What can be done to improve the employer/employee relationship?
Of equal importance, what can the internal communication function do to strengthen relations between employees?
Discuss these issues with other comms practitioners by joining the Internal Comms Hub members' group on the Communicators' Network.
Other recommendations:
Focus on your "almost engaged" employees for quick wins
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