Monday, May 11, 2009

The Link Between Communication and Employee Engagement

Communication is always an area of difficulty for organizations, and a recent review of survey answers found showed low scores related to communication from senior management to employees. In fact, only one-third of current employees (33%) felt communication extremely or very effective. Workers in industries such as Machinery/Equipment (17%), Petroleum/Petrochemicals (18%), transportation (21%) and Trucking (26%) also scored poorly in this area, although the nature of the workforce in these industries contributes to the communications challenge. Even with communications options available, only 17% of workers in the Computer-/Electronic Equipment industry were positive about communication from senior management.


Luckily for some organizations’ senior management, employees – especially ones in jobs where communication via email and other methods is limited or non-existent -- can still perceive leadership to be effective, even without desired levels of communications. Over half the employees surveyed (53%) indicate they see evidence of effective leadership from senior management. Food/Beverage/Restaurants (61%), Trucking (75%) and transportation (53%) scored high relative to how they assess communications. However, less than half of employees in the Computer-/Electronic Equipment (47%) and Petroleum/Petrochemicals (36%) industries thought senior management showed effective leadership.

Source: Insightlink 4Cs Employee Feedback Database, August 2008

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