10 September 2019 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal
At least 90 per cent of workers believe that the manager-employee relationship is an important factor to remaining in their current jobs, according to research by two workforce consultancies.
The Global State of Managers report from the Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated and HR adviser Future Workplace, examined how nearly 3,000 employees in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Mexico, the UK, and the US graded their manager's effectiveness across five factors: communication, competence, empowerment, professional development, and support.
The study found that seven out of 10 employees worldwide (69 per cent) believe that they could do their boss's job better, despite nearly the same number of workers (71 per cent) grading their boss's competence at a 'B' or higher.
Bosses also received high marks (B or better) for their communication skills, people management skills, and ability to handle performance-related issues (all 67 per cent). The older the employee, however, the more critical they are of their boss: baby boomers and Gen-Xers graded managers more harshly with a C, D, or F for overall people management skills (37 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively).
Worldwide, the employee-manager connection remains critically important: 70 per cent of employees said their relationship with their manager was an extremely or very important factor when deciding to remain at their current job, while 22 per cent agreed that it is somewhat important. Millennial (79 per cent) and Gen Z (73 per cent) employees felt strongest about the importance of the manager relationship for retention compared with Gen-X (66 per cent) and baby boomer (62 per cent) counterparts.
Nearly seven out of 10 people think that they could do their boss's job more effectively. While bosses worldwide were well regarded by their employees, these same employees think they could personally manage even more effectively. Younger millennial (73 per cent) and Gen Z (70 per cent) employees were the most confident that they could do better.