EMPOWERMENT A JOKE, EMPLOYEES SAY
The majority of workers feel unmotivated, dislike
their employers, suffer helter-skelter management and
believe "employee empowerment" is an empty promise, a
new U.S. survey suggests.
The grim news came from more than 1,500 workers and
managers surveyed by Kepner-Tregoe, a Princeton, N.J.,
management consulting firm.
Survey results startled Kepner-Tregoe president T.
Quinn Spitzer so much that he hired renowned pollsters
Yankelovich Partners to verify the project.
"The vitriolic response was amazing. People really
wanted to talk about their job," Mr. Spitzer said.
"And what is particularly interesting is that lots of
managers corroborated what workers are saying -- that
they are not recognized financially for good work, for
instance."
The survey highlights include the following
results:
-- 63% of workers say their supervisor does not
know what motivates them to do their best work.
That doesn't bode well for employers in today's
increasingly competitive marketplace. Apathetic
workers are less productive.
-- 60% of workers say they are not rewarded or
recognized for good job performance. Fifty-one per
cent of managers agreed. Both sides (63% of
workers and 58% of managers) say poor work, on the
other hand, draws immediate response.
-- Almost half of workers say their peers are
miserable with their jobs. In contrast, more than
two-thirds of managers -- 67% -- believe workers
"are glad to be part of the organization."
-- Empowerment is a joke in many companies.
Workers still feel their input is not valued.
Thirty-three per cent said their employers "never"
valued their ideas. Asked to rank the company's
priorities, both managers and workers said
"employee morale" came last.
-- Almost two-thirds of all employers reject formal
performance reviews. A similar number of managers
say such reviews are not necessary.
-- The latest business trend, team projects, are
often a burden. Forty-one per cent of workers say
their team assignments are "unrealistic or unfair."
Eighty per cent of their managers disagree.
Mr. Spitzer's conclusions: "Workers don't like
their companies, and there is a very fundamental social
change going on in this country regarding workplace
relations."
The survey suggest that the re-
engineering/downsizing trend makes people unsure how
long their jobs will exist. Wage freezes, commission
caps and benefit cutbacks whittle away at compensation
packages.
Meanwhile, many of the largest employers post huge
raises for top executives and record profits for
shareholders. The result: a very alienated work force.
"They see companies putting lots of money into new
initiatives that benefit the company but nothing is put
toward employee development," Mr. Spitzer continued.
"The workers hear the verbiage about how 'our people
are the most important asset we have,' and they want to
throw up."
-- Scripps Howard News Service
