Partner Article

North East employees prepared to take the strain

Employees in the North East are eager to take on more responsibility at work but managers need to have more faith in their ability to do so, according to new research.

The research also reveals that if managers are not prepared to give their employees more responsibility, they risk losing their people to competitors who offer a greater challenge.

The study - carried out by YouGov for Investors in People UK - found that 49% of employees would like more responsibility in their current role. Many managers would also like their people to take on more responsibility, but 13% say they wouldn’t trust their employees to deliver and almost a fifth (19%) believe their people are not interested.

Over a quarter (28%) of managers surveyed believe their people would be concerned about the extra workload if given more responsibility, yet only 5% of employees said it would have a negative impact on their performance and just 3% said it would make them less motivated.

Simon Jones, Chief Executive at Investors in People UK, said: “We often hear from managers that it is tough at the top, but our research shows employees want to share that burden and would relish the opportunity to grow their own roles by taking on more responsibility. This should come as a real ‘win-win’ message to managers in the North East who may find that knowing this untapped resource is available provides them with renewed motivation to delegate responsibility.

“By the same token, it is also a reminder of the dangers of not giving employees clear opportunities to grow. By taking everything on themselves, managers could leave almost two thirds of their people feeling demotivated and half of them could end up looking for a new job. In other words, giving employees the right level of responsibility is vital to driving the productivity of organisations through their people.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .