According to a study conducted by CIPD – an authoritative body on HR and people management – a rising trend of disconnect between senior managers and employees at the workplace has been observed. An alarming 1 in 3 employees have reported that they do not trust their senior managers very much, and instead relay all their concerns to colleagues and their immediate supervisors.

The mentality of ‘us and them’ has seeped into many offices and has the effect of choking motivational and engagement levels of employees. On the contrary, employees on senior management positions insist otherwise, and rate the trust levels significantly higher than relatively junior employees.

How to resolve this disconnect?

This disconnect can be sorted out quite easily. According to the study, employees require senior management to possess the following qualities

  • Approachable
  • Communication
  • Consistency
  • Straight talking
  • Honesty and integrity

Employees value managers who admit their own mistakes and treat staff with respect.

These traits which the study highlighted are not exactly difficult to incorporate at the office. One doesn’t need a degree in behavioral psychology to create such an environment. After all, it only requires a change in the behavior of managers.

An environment of trust between junior employees and higher ups is absolutely critical to the continued success and growth of a company. The lack of this trust can easily spell disaster in the long run because employees will be unmotivated to continue. Their most obvious reaction would be to search for a job elsewhere to seek a more fruitious relationship with their employers.

Does it boil down to only paychecks?

Most employers have a common misunderstanding that it all boils down to paychecks and employee benefits. But that isn’t always the case. This is because employees are concerned with an important question: Can management properly address the problems of the workplace and clamp down on them by taking appropriate steps?

This concern is more pronounced in companies with employees in excess of 5000 people. The perceived gulf between the two groups can result in an inefficient staff which suffers from low morale.

Seeing problems through a different lens

It always helps if both management and staff try to see things through the lens of the other. Research has shown time and time again that both employees and employers approach problems at the workplace quiet differently.

From the perspective of an employee, the top sources of stress are inadequate staffing, low pay and uncertain job expectations.

Employers and management see things differently, for them the sources of stress are the lack of balance in work and life and inadequate staffing. Another primary point for stress is how the use of technology has extended their ‘availability’ beyond working hours.

Additionally, employers do not place the same importance towards the culture of work as employees do. This disconnect has repercussions throughout the workplace.

At the end of the day, the task of improving relations between the staff and management falls under the exclusive domain of employers who should understand the stress factors that are responsible for marginalizing their employees.