CIPD - Almost a third of employees feel performance management systems are unfair
28 May 2014 10:17 AM
Trust and confidence in leaders
hits a two year low, according to latest CIPD/Halogen Employee Outlook
survey
Trust and confidence in senior
leaders has fallen to a two year low, with almost one third of employees
believing that performance management systems are unfair. That’s
according to a survey of over 2,500 employees published today by the CIPD, the
professional body for HR and people development, in partnership with Halogen
Software.
The CIPD/Halogen Software Employee Outlook survey reveals that as
well as feeling performance management systems are unfair, almost a third of
employees also feel progression within their organisation is unachievable, with
one in five stating that their managers do not effectively communicate
objectives and expectations.
The CIPD is now calling on
managers to step up and talk to their employees about development or risk
losing valuable talent. This is particularly the case in the voluntary sector,
which has seen a rise in employees looking for a new job (27% up from 24%),
compared with a slight drop in job-seeking in the public (20% from 23%) and
private sectors (22% from 24%).
Claire McCartney,
Research Adviser at the CIPD, comments: “It’s not
surprising that job seeking intentions are still high, as employees lack faith
in their leaders and managers. This survey shows a marked increase in negative
perceptions of senior managers, with overall trust and confidence in senior
managers hitting a two year low. Trust and confidence levels are particularly
low in the public sector, and have potentially been influenced by the current
unrest and strike action taking place in this sector.
“The survey also reveals
real performance management and progression issues. Again this is likely to be
linked to the current unrest in that sector related to pay, pensions and
performance. There are also real concerns regarding progression across sectors
but particularly in the voluntary sector, with more employees currently feeling
that career progression is unachievable as opposed to
achievable.”
Donna Ronayne, VP of
Marketing and Business Development at Halogen Software,
said: “With employee perceptions of the job market
improving organisations need to be proactive about their retention strategies
if they want to prevent their best talent from jumping ship. This means
ensuring your performance management processes are clear and consistent and
used to align employees to the vision of the organisation. It’s also
important that your processes be used to strengthen the manager-employee
relationship where regular coaching and feedback are the norm. Use these
processes to identify the learning and development needs of your employees so
that they grow with the organisation and see that career progression is a
possibility. And managers need to be given the tools and training to identify
and highlight those employees that add the most value to the business for
differential reward, and progression.”
Overall, the survey showed that
net levels of job satisfaction* are slightly up on spring 2013 (+42) compared
to (+40). Employees in the voluntary sector continue to be the most satisfied
with their jobs (+48), with however a slight decrease from previous surveys
(autumn 2013: +54, spring 2013: +52). Job satisfaction in the private sector
has shown an increase this survey (+42 compared to +39 in autumn and spring
2013) but is still below spring and winter 2013 levels (+45 and +48
respectively). While job satisfaction has decreased in this survey in the
public sector (+37) but is up on spring 2013 levels (autumn: 41%, spring 2013:
+25).
The CIPD/Halogen Software Employee Outlook also tracks overall
employee engagement via the Employee Outlook Engagement Index, which comprises
a set of measures which are important to understanding the level of engagement
an employee feels towards their organisation. The index consists of 16 items,
weighted and aggregated to give an overall score and is tracked regularly. The
proportion of engaged employees this quarter is 35%, broadly similar to the
previous two quarters (compared with 36% in autumn 2013 and 37% in spring 2013)
but still below the levels of autumn 2012 (38%). Four per cent of employees are
disengaged and 61% remain neutral.
The survey also tracks
employees’ attitudes towards their line managers and senior managers, as
well as the extent to which employees feel under pressure at work. To read the
full findings, download the report from the CIPD website.