Employers need to work on leadership and listening skills, according to an online poll
Canadians overwhelmingly think their bosses need to improve, an online poll by Monster.ca found.
On a scale of -50 to +50, where zero represents a fair performance and +50 represents the perfect boss, 100,000 respondents gave their bosses an overall score of minus three.
“Bosses are halfway to perfection,” said Louis Gagnon, Monster.ca’s VP of marketing. “It’s no disaster but it’s no success either. People… should focus on how to improve their relationships with their employees on a day-to-day basis.”
The areas that respondents felt employers need to improve the most include acknowledging their own mistakes, being a leader, helping employees reach their potential and taking employees’ viewpoints into consideration.
In order to help managers and supervisors improve in these areas, organizations must provide training in interpersonal relationships, communication and leadership. Organizations need to evaluate the current level of expertise that managers and supervisors have and then develop customized training for each individual, said Gagnon.
“It’s extremely key that our employers be able to communicate better. That doesn’t necessarily mean being able to talk better, it also means listening better and being sensitive to people’s non-verbal cues. That's not something we learn in business or engineering school."
Gagnon added that the large number of respondents showed that Monster.ca really struck a chord with employees. “The relationship with the boss really matters to Canadians.”
The HR community needs to realize just how important this relationship is, said Gagnon. Monster.ca conducted a poll earlier this year where 83 per cent of respondents said “liking your boss” was key to job satisfaction, above many other factors including company benefit packages.
One of the ways that companies can help foster and develop these relationships is to organize events that allow people to connect with each other on an informal basis, said Gagnon.
“At the end of the day our people… will be happy if they have good relationships and they won’t if they don’t,” he said.
More results:
• Employees in Newfoundland gave bosses the lowest scores while bosses in Quebec got the highest scores
• Employees in Sciences and Health industries were most satisfied with their bosses while Industrial sector workers were least satisfied
• Men were generally less impressed with their employers than women
For complete survey results, click here.
On a scale of -50 to +50, where zero represents a fair performance and +50 represents the perfect boss, 100,000 respondents gave their bosses an overall score of minus three.
“Bosses are halfway to perfection,” said Louis Gagnon, Monster.ca’s VP of marketing. “It’s no disaster but it’s no success either. People… should focus on how to improve their relationships with their employees on a day-to-day basis.”
The areas that respondents felt employers need to improve the most include acknowledging their own mistakes, being a leader, helping employees reach their potential and taking employees’ viewpoints into consideration.
In order to help managers and supervisors improve in these areas, organizations must provide training in interpersonal relationships, communication and leadership. Organizations need to evaluate the current level of expertise that managers and supervisors have and then develop customized training for each individual, said Gagnon.
“It’s extremely key that our employers be able to communicate better. That doesn’t necessarily mean being able to talk better, it also means listening better and being sensitive to people’s non-verbal cues. That's not something we learn in business or engineering school."
Gagnon added that the large number of respondents showed that Monster.ca really struck a chord with employees. “The relationship with the boss really matters to Canadians.”
The HR community needs to realize just how important this relationship is, said Gagnon. Monster.ca conducted a poll earlier this year where 83 per cent of respondents said “liking your boss” was key to job satisfaction, above many other factors including company benefit packages.
One of the ways that companies can help foster and develop these relationships is to organize events that allow people to connect with each other on an informal basis, said Gagnon.
“At the end of the day our people… will be happy if they have good relationships and they won’t if they don’t,” he said.
More results:
• Employees in Newfoundland gave bosses the lowest scores while bosses in Quebec got the highest scores
• Employees in Sciences and Health industries were most satisfied with their bosses while Industrial sector workers were least satisfied
• Men were generally less impressed with their employers than women
For complete survey results, click here.
