A 2017 Gallup survey of the US workplace found 67% US managers who say they don’t like talking with employees, which mirrors the 67% of US workers who say they’re not engaged at work. That figure comes from the most recent, annual in-depth report of more than 31 million workers across US industries.
Only 13% of respondents in the Gallup survey said that their company’s leadership communicates effectively with the rest of the organization. Those employees who did report having conversations with their manager in the previous six months about their goals and successes were 2.8 times more likely to be engaged at work.
“Organizations are realizing that more frequent, ongoing conversations may be the missing link in performance management, but there is a huge caveat: Managers have to understand how to have effective performance conversations with employees,” the report read. “Unfortunately, Gallup research suggests that many managers struggle in this area.”
37% of business time is spent correcting mistakes.
W. Edward Deming
Engineer/Author
Painful as the interactions may be for managers, Gallup’s research found that employees do, in fact, want to have conversations with the people they report to at work. The organization suggests manager’s check in with employees individually at least once a week. Workers want relevant feedback on their performance, clear discussion of goals, and the freedom to approach their manager with questions.
60% of business failures are due to poor communications.
Peter Drucker
Page 235, “How to Treat Your Employees Like a Dog”