Bill Goodwin
bill.goodwin@rbi.co.uk
Business performance is suffering because managers are failing to
keep IT staff informed about business developments, a study has
claimed.
Eighty-six per cent of UK technology staff surveyed said they first
heard about important developments in their companies not from
their bosses, but through rumours picked up around the
office.
This compares to an average of 67% of staff across all industry
sectors who said they heard about company developments through the
rumour mill.
Research company ISR, which carried out the survey of 40,000 staff
across Europe, said poor communication meant that employees felt
left out of decision making and were less inclined to put in the
extra effort needed to make the organisation a success.
"High-tech companies do not perform as well [at communicating] as
companies in other sectors. There are a number of reasons for that.
It is probably because they are quite lean, and they do not have
large communications departments," said Yves Duhaldeborde,
executive director at ISR.
Managers in high-tech companies tend to communicate by e-mail,
rather than taking the time to speak to people in person, he
added.
Less than 50% of employees in high-tech companies said they were
happy with the information they were being given by managers about
the performance of their businesses, compared to 59% among
companies in other sectors.
Companies that fail to communicate to their staff perform worse on
the stock market than those with good communications, ISR
said.
ISR tracked the performance of 57 multinational companies over two
years. In companies where an above average number of employees said
they were kept informed of developments within the business, share
prices rose by an average of $7.80 (£4.13). In companies where a
below average number of employees felt they were kept informed,
share prices declined by an average of $8.10.
"This research shows that managers in the UK have a lot to learn.
Employees care about their manager's ability to communicate and
want to know as much as possible about their organisations," said
Duhaldeborde.