Industry body the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has found that 72 per cent of employers feel there is a lack of leadership and management skills, as well as too many managers having an inflated opinion of their abilities.
Following the findings, taken from the Employee Outlook survey of 2,000 employees, the CIPD is calling on the government and employers to recognise that even a marginal increase in capability amongst the eight million managers in the UK would have a big impact on productivity and growth.
The survey also shows that eight out of ten managers believe that they think staff are satisfied or very satisfied with their performance. Only 58 per cent of employees feel the same way, revealing the reality gap that the CIPD says exists.
Ben Willmott, head of public policy at the CIPD, comments, ‘Leadership and management capability continues to be an Achilles heel for UK plc, despite mounting evidence that these are “skills for growth” essentials.
‘Our research shows almost three in ten people (28 per cent) have direct management responsibility for one more people in the workplace, and yet only just over half of employees are satisfied with their manager.’
Willmott adds that all too often people are promoted into people management roles because of their good technical skills without ever receiving adequate training.
Further findings reveal that 61 per cent of managers claim to meet each staff member at least twice a month to discuss workload, a finding contradicted by the statistic that only 24 per cent of employees share the same feeling.
Some 75 per cent of managers say that they always/sometimes discuss development and career progression as part of one-to-one meetings, while just 38 per cent of employees say this.
‘Government needs to play a bigger role in building demand among employers for investment in the leadership and management skills that are central to its efforts to support economic growth and transform public services,’ Willmott says.
See also: Leadership in question
