Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends report has found that only half (50%) of UK employees consider their organisations to be effective at creating a positive work environment and only two fifths (42%) consider their employer to be effective at creating meaningful work. The survey also suggests that UK employers are struggling to keep up with the pace of technological change as only a fifth (22%) of UK employees are satisfied with their organisation’s use of technology.

This is a worrying reflection on the quality of leadership of businesses in the UK. When asked for their views on the requirements of leaders, respondents believed that changes in technology (79%), demographics (77%) and the pace of change (73%) were most important. However, only 18% of UK respondents believe that their company’s leadership programmes are effective at developing leaders to meet evolving business and economic challenges. A quarter (24%) believe that how a business is run and organisational structures gets in the way of leaders effectively managing teams.

It seems that many leaders are still thinking they are running the kind of organisations that were successful in the 20th Century. They haven’t grasped the fact that technology has short-circuited the old hierarchical chain of command and Millennial employees have different expectations of work. The Deloitte survey should be a wake-up call for them. (See https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/press-releases/articles/uk-productivity-slump-linked-to-employee-experience.html)