The Me Too movement (see twitter #MeToo) at the end of last year provided some sad examples of widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace. Starting in Hollywood with public revelations of sexual misconduct allegations against Harvey Weinstein it has made bad behaviour in the workplace topical and subject to recent public debate. Total Jobs in the UK also ran a good post called: 'Who Trumps the list of scariest bosses'. See the reference at the foot of this post. There are no surprises for guessing that the current US President topped their list of who was the scariest celebrity boss to work for.
We liked the Total Jobs post. We also very much support the 'Me Too' movement in seeking to make changes that clearly are badly over due. At this time in January, many candidates will be thinking about the year ahead and, of those, a good number will be thinking about moving job. From an employer point of view; many of recruiters and HR teams will be thinking about manpower requirements and perhaps also worrying about who they might lose over the coming year and what it will cost to replace them.
There are many reasons why staff leave an organisation. But 'Bad Bad Bosses' is as we will detail below, one of the biggies. You may not be able to change the nature of your business, or its fundamental economics. But you can change this. If you are minded to...
There is plenty of research out there about the influence of a manager (or boss) on their staff. Including how manager behaviours can affect staff attrition. We will cite just three. The Job Board, 'Monster.com' who are clearly interested in why candidates might use their services, did some research and found that 32% of employers said they had a "horrible" boss, with only 15% saying they have an "excellent" one. In the UK, 'Approved Index', did a survey that showed 42% of employees had left a job because of a "bad boss". Gallup have also looked at this, and they found some 50% of the 7200 adults they surveyed had left a job; "to get away from their manager".
Hopefully the point is now made. Your managers may just be a major reason why you are losing staff and needed to recruit more. Here are some of the things candidates fed back on why they felt their manager/boss was bad and which contributed to their leaving.
Managers who routinely lie.
Managers who cant admit they are wrong - ever
Managers who are quick to blame but rarely reward
Managers who micro-manage
Managers who flirt (or worse...)
Managers who call staff when they are on holiday
Managers who have clear favourites
Managers who are not interested in others (i.e. they staff's) views
Managers who start rumours and gossip about staff
Managers who constantly change their minds
Managers with bad tempers
Managers who won't discuss your future advancement
Managers who are clearly self-absorbed self-centered
Managers who manage by fear
This is a long list. But there is an upside. As an example, The Gallup survey showed that overwhelmingly; employees advise that getting along with their manager helped their motivation (74%). A third also said; getting long with their manager was even more important than job satisfaction. So getting it right can really pay off.
A last point. It's an old HR adage that: "people quit their bosses— not their companies". Maybe this year, you could spend some time and money on some good training programmes for your managers.
Notes
https://www.totaljobs.com/insidejob/trumps-list-scariest-bosses/
To save you having to click though, and in response to requests, here is the list of the top five scariest bosses that employees wouldn’t like to report into (it's a UK survey):
1. President Donald Trump (54%)
2. Lord Alan Sugar (44%)
3. Rupert Murdoch (26%)
4. Sir Alex Ferguson (25%)
5. Piers Morgan (25%)