New research has found that barely one in ten employees feel connected to their business headquarters.
The figures, found in Workplace by Facebook’s first ever survey, show the disconnect between organisations and their frontline staff.
The study also found that only 45% of workers say they share their ideas with senior staff; a whopping difference in perception from the 90% of managers who believe that their staff are empowered to share ideas with them.
From our content partner
Wellbeing initiatives | Benefits communications: get your employees hooked!
With over half (54%) of employees feeling voiceless within their business, Karandeep Anand, VP Head of Workplace at Workplace by Facebook said it’s a long way to go until businesses truly empower their staff.
Speaking with HR Grapevine, he said: “The root cause of the problem is that there’s a major disconnect between those based at company headquarters and employees working elsewhere, which is preventing valuable ideas from rising through the business, limiting innovation and stopping key talent being recognised.
This lack of communication means many employees feel ‘voiceless’ - they don’t feel listened to or valued and as a result, businesses will have employee engagement and retention issues.”
Anand also described the dangers that businesses put themselves in if they don’t allow their staff a voice.
“When ideas aren’t shared, they can’t be used. This is a serious loss for any business and the people working within it.
"While 25% of employees have had an idea but never told anyone, a further 38% have shared their idea – only for it to be ignored."
"In fact currently, only 41% of employees feel an idea they’ve shared is being acted upon. This inaction makes staff feel that their ideas aren’t valued – which only drives further silence.
“On an individual level, it can suffocate talented staff members and leave them feeling unmotivated and unenthused. For the company as a whole, it promotes a negative culture of silence that limits cohesion and damages the sense of a shared vision. Both can be damning for encouraging employees to vote with their feet and move on. Nothing stymies employee engagement and company progression faster than people feeling ignored.”
