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Only 5% of employees see HR as a CEO skill - 17-08-2009 |
Only 5 per cent of employees in the UK believe HR plays a fundamental part in business survival strategies, according to a new survey from the European Leadership Programme (ELP).
Further, more than one quarter (27%) of employees see HR as the least important skill for a CEO to help lead their organisation out of the tough economic climate in one piece, despite 42 per cent of respondents claiming that their CEO needs more HR support within senior management.
Ashley Ward, serial CEO and founder of ELP, said in conversation with Abeceder:
“In times of economic crisis, there is more pressure than ever on CEOs to get it right. The core elements for business survival – people, strategy and financials – must all be equally represented. When one starts to lag behind, an organisation can enter dangerous territory.
“Organisations need to keep investing in HR. After all, employees are a company’s number one asset, ” continues Ward. “Your team may not recognise the role that HR plays within the company every day but they do realise when it’s lacking and their motivation wanes. As a result, any cost-cutting should be definitive and swift. There must be frequent communication to employees which puts a hard stop to any speculation about continual drip-feed redundancies. Uncertainty is a recipe for despondency and failure.”
Financial aptitude was rated as the key skill for business survival by 32 per cent of employees and three quarters (75%) of respondents believe their CEO has this in hand. Yet, if the business were to run into financial difficulties, only 53 per cent of employees think their CEO could proactively manage the situation.
ELP’s survey revealed that only one third of employees (33%) in the UK are confident their CEO has the right skill-set to lead their organisation out of the recession unscathed. However, although the majority of CEOs (85%) have redefined their business plan to survive the downturn, almost half of employees are not confident the right changes have been made (45%).
Nearly three quarters (72%) of respondents indicated the main change that they have seen within their organisations has been general cost cutting. In addition, CEOs have looked to implement an aggressive new business drive (57%), make redundancies (44%) and reduced social budgets (41%). A shorter working week has only been introduced in 4 per cent of companies as a cost-saving solution.
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