Stat of the Week: The State of the American Manager
If you want to improve your organization, you’ll need to start by improving your managers. Don’t take it from me—here’s what a leading management consultant has to say:
“Most CEOs I know honestly don’t care about employees or take an interest in human resources. Sure, they know who their stars are and love them—but it ends there. Since CEOs don’t care, they put little to no pressure on their HR departments to get their cultures right, which allows HR to unwittingly implement all kinds of development and succession strategies that don’t work.”
The above comes directly from Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup. It’s an excerpt of his introduction to a fascinating and highly revealing report about managers. And I imagine Clifton’s advice is a pretty safe bet. After all, this is someone who’s not only in charge of one of the world’s top management consulting companies, but also oversees his organization’s own team of managers in dozens of offices across multiple countries
But without evidence, even Clifton’s perspective is just an opinion. And let’s not forget what Gallup is known best for: the data. Take a look at several of the report’s statistics related to workforce engagement and employee–manager relations:
Across teams and industries, the variance in employee engagement scores is at least 70% due to managers.
Only 30% of workers feel engaged at work.
Unengaged and disengaged managers cost the US economy over $319 billion annually.
A mere 18% of current managers possess the talent required of their jobs.
Yeah, it’s definitely time to pay attention to your managers.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be exploring this topic in greater depth, offering more insights, data, and best practices from Gallup and other workforce management resources. Subscribe here so you don’t miss a thing.
