Friday 27 December 2013

Your Work: Are you thriving? Just surviving? Giving it your all? Or on cruise control?


Like me, you have been in a workforce of some description for some years or maybe you are a relative new comer to the world of work. A modern factory, a modern office environment or a shambles of a building or office that you diligently attend every day.

From an early age, I have had a fascination about human behavior and how it all works and why we do what we do and behave the way we behave. And today , my role is meeting with senior people in all sorts of businesses big and small and I am rather dismayed at what is published in terms of how we generally treat people in workplaces and what the workforce is saying about how they feel in their workplaces.

On one hand I want to believe that senior people and actual business owners would surely want their workforce  to thrive . Would want their people to be physically well, to be forthcoming with their creativity, with their energy  and ideas. I desparately want to believe that the vast vast numbers of senior people would want all of this and more for their people.

On the other hand, I cannot but despair at what the research and statistics actually report.

When you look at the extraordinary research carried out by firms  like the Gallup Corporation – who have been painstakingly measuring what is actually going on within workforces for decades – you cannot but wonder what a sorry state of affairs we have.

Only today I was reading another lot of evidence that points us toward a sorry state of affairs.

Ok, there were only 1,000  US workers  polled  but still it revealed that :-

  • Employee's Feel Discouraged: More than half (54%) of employees have felt frustrated about work.
  • Manager/Employee Relationships Need Improvement: Only 38% strongly agree that their manager has established an effective working relationship with them.
  • People Don't Understand Strategic Direction: 40% say they don't get the company's vision or have never seen it.
  • Innovation Is Being Stymied: Nearly 67% of American workers can name at least one thing that would prevent them from taking any kind of risk at work.
  • Big Picture Contributions Missing: Only 43% of workers say they feel accountable for the company's revenue, profit, or growth.
  • Not Leading by Example: Just 26% of workers strongly agree that managers embody the values they expect from their employees, only 39% say their manager understands his/her role at the company, and 40% strongly feel their managers understand their company's strategy or goals.
  • Collaboration Across Teams Is Tough: Just 27% strongly feel they can depend on outsiders to fulfill their duties when working with other groups.
  • Training Isn't Relevant: 26% report they don't have any training available to them right now, and the 62% that do have training available believe it is either somewhat or not at all applicable to their jobs.

How do these findings impact on you ?

For me ?  I need to do something about it.
Thank you Ray Jacobs for submitting this article. To get in touch with Ray please contact him through the following mediums:

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