IT seems chief executive officers and senior management are not seeing eye to eye on employment satisfaction.
That’s the result of the first annual Workplace Reality Survey held nationally by Hamilton James and Bruce.
The survey found CEOs were clearly out of touch with management in understanding work satisfaction levels, morale, the status of the workplace, employee retention, recognition and reward, workload and stress management, communication effectiveness and company benefits.
The results showed that, while 96 per cent of CEOs believe their management are happy working for their company, only 59 per cent of management actually were happy. And, while 91 per cent of CEOs said employee retention was a high priority in their business strategy, 55 per cent of management disagreed.
CEOs, it seems, are still in the dark as to the reasons why members of their team decide to resign. While 67 per cent of CEOs said a personal situation was the most common reason for management to leave, 48 per cent of managers surveyed said that lack of recognition and reward was the main reason for leaving.
Hamilton James and Bruce surveyed 500 CEOs and 700 senior and middle management across Australia.
Hamilton James and Bruce chief executive officer Allan Marks said that, in order to address the findings, CEOs needed to be better motivators.
“CEOs are simply not paying attention and, as a consequence, they will find that these unmotivated and uninspired executives will leave the company,” he said.
“I hope that these survey results are seen as a gift or at least a ‘wake-up’ call for CEOs to get their motivational factors in order so that they can run a highly successful business.”
With fewer 25-35 year olds coming through the leadership ranks in future years, retaining those excelling managers will become crucial.
p Principal consultant of the WA management consultant firm KNIPE management, James Miller, explores ways CEOs or senior management can recognise expectation gaps and identifies strategies to address them. See page 25.
