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Workers lose confidence in employers

           
People Management Online - January 2009

Workers’ confidence in their employers’ ability to meet company objectives dropped significantly at the end of last year, a large-scale survey has found. 

		   
For the two years up to the last quarter of 2008, 84 per cent of the 150,000 employees of UK blue-chip companies surveyed by consultants ETS said they were confident that their firms would meet their objectives in 2009. When questioned again last month, only 57 per cent retained that confidence.

		   	   
Just 41 per cent of employees believed that senior management communicates everything they need to know, compared with 70 per cent when surveyed a few months earlier. And 30 per cent said they feel sufficiently involved with the company undertakes change. The research also found that 37 per cent of respondents feared they would lose their jobs this year.

		
 Betsy Travis, senior consultant at ETS, said the survey showed how quickly sentiment changed at the end of 2008.  
 I believe that employers who act quickly will re-engage their employees and keep productivity and morale high,
She added:
This year is going to be tough, but it’s going to be even tougher if the workforce is demoralised.