The way employees are managed needs to change to keep teams motivated, says a global think tank.
A report by the Capgemini Research Institute of more than 500 organisations across the world says there is a ‘clear disconnect’ between what employees want to see in their leaders and what they actually display.
The report found 69 percent of leaders feel their businesses have managed the transition to remote and hybrid working smoothly, yet only 49 percent of employees agree.
Capgemini says little is being done to empower teams to lead effectively, and the way management should be carried out has now changed.
But managers have not all kept up with the changes.
Key attributes for leaders with hybrid working
The research says managers need to get on board with empowering employees in non-supervisory roles, to actively make their own decisions.
Less than half of the employees who spoke to the think-tank believed they were heard and included by their organisations during the lockdowns.
Similarly, the report found besides empowerment, people wanted better access to mental and physical wellbeing initiatives.
72 percent of leaders said their organisations were able to take care of their employee’s physical and mental wellbeing, yet only 49 percent of employees agreed,
The institute also said now more than ever, leaders needed to be authentic and emotionally intelligent, giving employees the autonomy they require.
This would be in the form of employees not feeling as if they were being constantly monitored, and judged on output rather than hours.
This tied into the fact, only 34 percent of employees say that their organizations are actively working to reduce employee burnout.
New style of management needed
The research also indicates that leaders need to show more trust of their people. An overwhelming majority (84%) of employees said employers who trusted them, made them feel empowered. This, the report says, is a key capability that leaders need to develop.
But it found that organisations were not cultivating this. For example, only 34% of businesses are scaling programs to train leaders in the skills needed to build cultures of trust.
Companies are not adapting their practices to prepare for a hybrid or remote workplace
There is much more to training leaders in new skills – firms also need to make sure managers have the right conditions to deliver effective support.
These include redesigning processes and frameworks around hiring and performance evaluations of leaders, to ensure that skills and attributes necessary for hybrid work are adequately considered and rewarded.
Only 33 percent of HR executives say that their organizations have overhauled their hiring practices to attract leaders who are able to lead a remote or hybrid team.
And only 36 percent say they have adapted processes to reward leaders who show they’re able to lead during a pandemic.
Be authentic and credible
Claudia Crummenerl at Capgemini Invent explains: “Our report shows a clear disconnect between the views of upper management and employees across many organisations. While technology has facilitated the rapid adoption of hybrid working, management and leadership practices have in many cases not kept pace.”
She says the way managers now lead should be from a place of authenticity and credibility, while giving employees the ability to make autonomous decisions. She also says a manager’s role has changed to be more about ensuring the health and wellbeing of a worker and the quality of their output: “Organisations need to empower leaders to be empathetic, authentic, and credible in their approach, and invest in building the necessary leadership development infrastructure, as well as the necessary enabling conditions such as steering processes, management practices and policies to support required leadership behaviors, to achieve this.”
Feyaza Khan has been a journalist for more than 20 years in print and broadcast. Her special interests include neurodiversity in the workplace, tech, diversity, trauma and wellbeing.
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