More Than Half of Companies Fail To Cut Out Dead Wood

New research from management consultancy, Hay Group, reveals that 52% of organisations fail to address dead wood in their organisations.

The findings, show the public sector to be the worst culprit, with 62% of civil servants claiming that their organisation does not deal effectively with underperformers.

In the private sector, technology fared worst, with 58% of professionals in the technology industry saying that their company is failing to address the issue of under-performance.

The healthcare (53%), telecomms (52%) and manufacturing (52%) industries also saw more than half of employees dissatisfied with the way their company deals with dead wood. Even in the most effective sector in this area, pharmaceuticals, almost half (45%) of employees were critical of their companyís ability to deal with underperformers.

Ben Frost, Hay Group, said: ìProductivity is a management issue. If UK plc is to succeed in an increasingly competitive global economy, companies must address productivity across the whole of the workforce.

ìImproving and maintaining productivity needs to be be at the top of the boardroom agenda.

The study also revealed more bad news for staff motivation: just 42% of employees believe that their company has a fair system for evaluating employeesí performance.

Again, the public sector fared worst, with 62% of public sector employees believing that their organisation does not have a fair system for evaluating employee performance. Other poorly rated sectors included financial services and manufacturing, with 58% of employees believing that their company does not have a fair appraisal system.