Most employees would not recommend their managers, survey finds

Although management is as important as ever in today’s fast-changing work environment, manager effectiveness has declined since 2020, and businesses have made it a top priority this year.

“Manager effectiveness is one of the biggest drivers of engagement, productivity and retention,” said Natalie Baumgartner, Ph.D., chief workforce scientist for the Achievers Workforce Institute. “However, supporting managers in this continuously evolving world of work requires a different set of tools than ever before. From managing remote teams to supporting flexible work, as employee expectations change, organizations must train and empower managers to create the conditions for their teams to thrive.”

Three key findings emerged from recent research by the institute:

• Most employees would not recommend their managers. Less than one-third of employees would strongly recommend their managers to others, while 14% would not recommend them at all.
• Manager effectiveness drives business results. Effective managers have employees who are more engaged, productive, committed and resilient than the average worker.
• Ineffective managers actively harm their teams and organizations. Employees who say their manager is not effective are 56% less likely to be engaged and 51% less likely to say they are productive at work compared to the average respondent.

“Although a significant percentage of employees would not recommend their managers, effective managers have been shown to drive superior business outcomes by fostering engagement, productivity, commitment and resilience in their teams,” Baumgartner said. “On the other side of the equation, ineffective managers actively hinder team performance and organizational success.”

The levers that HR leaders can pull to improve manager effectiveness are clear — regular, high-quality contact; frequent, meaningful recognition; supportive, empathic coaching; and clear, consistent professional development. These are inputs and outcomes that can be trained and measured.

Related: What does the future of employee retention look like? It’s in the hands of managers

“Imagine for a moment if every single manager in your organization was effective at engaging and motivating their employees,” she said. “What would that mean for business goals and company culture? The fact is that all managers want to be effective, but many are simply not trained or resourced appropriately. Use the data and insights from this report to craft a manager empowerment program with regular training, the right metrics and sufficient support, and you will see just how quickly this kind of manager uplevelling has an impact on frontline employees and organizational outcomes.”