It’s a widely held view that training and marketing budgets are among the first to be cut during a downturn. Now, new research suggests that cuts in training and internal communications budgets may have led to workers thinking that managers haven’t sharpened their skills during the recession.
The survey of more than 1000 UK working adults* conducted by Communications consultants, Cadence Market Strategy, shows that fewer than one in ten workers say that their managers or bosses have improved their skills during the recent downturn to make them more able to support and motivate staff.
The survey comes on the back of a raft of recent research which shows that support from management is perceived to have fallen during the recent tough times.
“Our research shows that workers think their managers have not improved their skills during the downturn but in practical terms, during the recession, managers will have been developing some of the best skills they will ever develop,” said Dan Doherty of Cadence Market Strategy.
“There is clearly a mismatch in perceptions. While managers may have had less formal training they would have been learning new ways of managing, different ways of coping with stress and team insecurity and managing the relentless pressure from above to achieve more at less cost. It may be that the comparable cut back in internal comms spend has led to staff being less aware of what management have been up to and there’s been less celebrating of success.” continued Doherty.
Cadence encourages companies to look hard at what development is taking place and seek out success stories and make sure everyone gets to know about them. “Not only is it good for internal communications, it is a good way of differentiating your organisation and letting potential customers know that not only are you open for business, you are a dynamic organisation too.” Doherty added.
Cadence Market Strategy designs specialist internal and external communications programmes and helps organisations to become an ‘employer of choice’ – and often first choice in their markets. For a full breakdown of the research please contact dan@thecadenceTeam.com or call 020 7043 8847.
