A new survey from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) has found that management and leadership skills need to be improved across the UK, especially in these tough economic times.
Over the last six months CMI interviewed 500 managers and found that 70% of those interviewed felt that motivation amongst employees has fallen over the past six months and a further 45% felt that their workforce felt less involved in the business.
One of the major reasons for this drop in moral along with the current economic problems are that many managers are under prepared or at the very least under trained to deal with an unmotivated, unhappy workforce. The CMI found that of those interviewed only 20% had received any formal training and it is this that is holding them back as Chief Executive Ruth Spellman argues “there are plenty of managers trying to do a good job, but I believe enabling them to develop that expertise is a crucial thing”.
Spellman also argues that this training must be carried out throughout the business to show that the management are taking action and trying to improve and she says that this should help motivate and improve the loyalty to the business, she comments that ‘If the workforce see management behaving in a responsible way and being supported by the top team, they’re going to respond in a much more consistent and loyal and thorough way. If they see there’s one thing being said on high and that’s not being carried through in practice, that’s not going to get anyone very far’.
Spellman argues that businesses must invest in training and cautions those businesses which fail in training and adequately develop management and their staff maybe left behind, with unmotivated and unengaged employees, as she puts it ‘It’s not an overhead, it’s an investment. I think there’s a bigger cost if they don’t train.’