Employee confidence in businesses dropping due to handling of COVID-19 crisis

Around the world as the COVID-19 crisis continues, more than half of employees’ confidence in their company is falling due to how their organisation is being run and how much time their bosses make for staff.

This is according to research from people and culture platform Culture Amp’s emergency response surveys, which found that 59 per cent of companies witnessed a decrease of their staff stating that their business leaders are doing an effective job and making effective decisions in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also, 57 per cent of workers said that their leaders are not available to speak to.  Just under half (47 per cent) of businesses are seeing a decrease in the number of employees who believe business leaders provide a sense of stability.

Communication within companies is also waning, as 50 per cent of organisations saw a drop in employees receiving timely communications from their company about the pandemic. As well as 55 per cent seeing a decrease in the number of workers who feel like they are staying connected to their colleagues.

Office relationships seem to be damaged due to this issue as 53 per cent of businesses have seen a dip in the amount of staff who feel like “they are being treated fairly by their colleagues”.

Nick Matthews, general manager and vice president, Culture Amp EMEA said:

After such an intense few weeks and months, leaders may be tempted to take their foot off the gas as workplaces settle into something approaching a new normal. However, what is required is the exact opposite. This is the time for leadership to increase their focus and strategic nature of their communications and people strategies.  Without the support of an enthusiastic and engaged workforce behind them, senior executives will find it more difficult to enact any strategic pivots or launch innovative initiatives to support their organisation through the post-Covid landscape.

It’s crucial for company bosses to find ways to foster and strengthen connections with their workers, whether they are returning to the workplace or still working at home, since that requirement won’t happen as naturally or effectively as it did when employees were co-located previously.

In order to obtain these results, Culture Amp spoke to 11,000 employees worldwide.

 

 

 

 

Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.