Bad attitudes send staff running: Study

It’s been said that attitude is everything, and when it comes to staff turnover, it seems that’s pretty close to reality. Poor attitudes of supervisors will send workers running if you’re not careful, as a Development Dimensions International study demonstrates.

• Most employees (55%) have considered leaving a job because of their manager
• Four in 10 employees have left a job primarily due to management

“If staff are going to turnover they’re typically turning over because of supervisors,” said Deaconess Health System’s in-house manager of leadership development, Sam Rogers. The most recent employee engagement survey at Deaconess brought up communications as the key staff concern besides pay and benefits, proving good leadership is just as important as good compensation.

As a direct response to communication pitfalls, Rogers and his team have trained about 300 managers in the past 18 months in soft leadership skills.

“Communication is something that is always going to be an issue people bring up about their leaders, so that’s something we constantly work on,” Rogers said.

It seems trust of leadership is at the root of significant workplace issues around the world. A Leadership Pulse global survey last year identified what they called a ‘trust gap’, finding:

• 64% of employees rated their level of trust of leadership as moderate at best
• 91% of employees said it was highly important to have leaders they trust, but only 48% of leaders agreed
• 87% of leaders said they always or often acknowledged their own mistakes, but only 19% of employees said this was the case with their own leaders

Poor management is as significant as disengagement and a perceived lack of purpose at a company, said Jim Haudan, CEO at Root Inc. “In short, people leave when they feel beat down in a dead-end position with a bad boss and there's nowhere to go or grow," he said.