Bosses need to know the names of their employees wife and kids

Almost half of bosses do not know the names of their employees’ children, according to a survey conducted by Yorkshire leadership development specialists Azure Consulting.

The statistic was among those which emerged in the survey, which asked employed people to tell them about the information their employers knew about them, in relation to their lives outside of work.

And the Wakefield company has warned that those employers who are more detached from their staff risk reduced productivity and greater turnover of employees.

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30% did not know the name of the employee’s partner, while 48% did not know their children’s names.

While 84% said their boss knew where they lived, other knowledge was not so widespread.

• 36% said their boss did not know what outside interests they had
• 40% said their boss didn’t know what their partner or spouse did for a living
• Only 14% said their boss knew the occupations of their parents

Sue Alderson, Partner at Azure Consulting, said: “The diversity in what bosses know about their employees is quite broad. It’s quite interesting to see that 14% know what their employees’ parents do or did for a living, but 40% didn’t even know what their spouse do for a living.

“The reason this is important is that the levels to which an employer is engaged with their team can have a huge impact upon the success of the business. Engagement with employees leads to, among other things, higher levels of commitment from loyal and dedicated staff, and businesses which benefit from this have been shown to outperform those with low commitment by up to 200%.

“Additionally, it leads to better retention of employees, reducing the financial and time costs involved with regularly having to recruit to replace leavers. Staff who are proud to work for a business and have job satisfaction also contribute greatly to its long-term success and are more likely to be innovative and responsive to change.

“So, the findings of this survey are very interesting, because bosses who score lower in terms of how well they engage with their employees are potentially missing out on many of the benefits of doing so.”