Member Article

One in three would like to swap their boss

Almost one in three employees would swap their manager if they could – with nearly one in four claiming they could do a better job themselves given the chance. The poll, conducted for Investors in People by YouGov, found that poor communication was a major bugbear for employees, with nearly one in three (32%) saying their manager was poor at communicating with them.Honesty ranked as the second most important quality amongst managers, but nearly a fifth (19%) of employees believed that their manager had, at some stage, claimed credit for their work. The research also revealed that the most popular type of manager is someone who delegates (43%), followed by someone who is firm but fair (24%), and someone who looks after employees’ careers (11%). Commenting on the findings, Ruth Spellman, Chief Executive of Investors in People (UK), said, “The fact that almost a third of employees would like a new manager should make bosses sit up and take notice. With good communication ranked the most important quality of a good boss, managers need to focus their efforts on setting clear tasks and targets for their staff, and linking an employees’ role to the organisation’s overall mission.” The survey also found that long-term employees are considerably less happy with their managers than newer recruits, with nearly three quarters of new recruits (74%) claiming to be happy with their bosses – a figure that dropped to 67% after three years with the same organisation and 62% after six years.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .