While “accidental” may not be a word employers would like to use to describe their management levels, research shows that nearly all people promoted to management positions come with titles and no training.
A survey of 4,500 workers and managers in the UK by the Chartered Institute of Management found that despite a quarter of the workforce holding managerial responsibilities, few have received training for the job.
In fact, a whopping 82% of bosses are “accidental managers” According to CMI research– A quarter of them hold senior leadership positions.
While it’s not a new problem, there has been a surge in staff being promoted without adequate training since the start of the pandemic: the institute estimates that in 2019, around 68% of the UK’s 3.4 million managers, or around 2.4 million people, were Got into trouble. this category.
Perhaps not surprisingly, more and more leaders are promoted for being good at functional or technical aspects of their jobs but are never trained on how to manage people, which has a negative impact on workers’ daily lives.
The impact of “accidental managers”
Most importantly, a decline in management quality leads workers to dislike their jobs and subsequently quit.
Overall, employees who described their managers as ineffective reported higher levels of job satisfaction (27% vs. 74%), job value (15% vs. 72%) and motivation (34% vs. 77%) than those who described their managers as effective. %) is severely reduced.
That may be why half of the employees surveyed who believed their managers were ineffective planned to hand in their resignations within the next year. In contrast, less than a quarter believe their manager has an effective resignation plan.
What’s more, one-third of the 2,018 workers surveyed have left their jobs due to poor management.
On the other hand, the impact of being promoted without adequate training on the managers themselves should not be underestimated.
According to CMI research, one in five managers is not confident in their leadership abilities, with many struggling to sensitively deal with the multiple issues that team members face at work and at home.
As a result, one-third of managers expect to leave their jobs within the next year.
“Compared with those who did not receive formal management training, those who received formal management training were more likely to trust their teams, more willing to lead change initiatives, and more willing to condemn bad behavior,” the researchers wrote.
Catch-22 issue
For business leaders, putting untrained managers in charge of their employees not only causes them to lose their best talent and team members through resignations, but also damages their company culture, according to CMI research.
Less than a quarter of employees with ineffective managers believe their employer has a good company culture, and few would recommend their organization as a good place to work.
Ultimately, as research shows, once mismanagement takes root in a company, it’s difficult to get rid of it.
This is because when untrained managers are promoted, companies end up creating a “Catch-22” situation, where managers are afraid to express their concerns about their incompetence to superiors, and employees are equally afraid Faced with a bad manager – this cycle leads to employees quitting rather than speaking out, which can lead to ineffective (or even toxic) management worsening.
Research shows that one in five managers said they wanted to raise concerns but ended up not doing so, with 41% worried they wouldn’t get enough support from their superiors.
The researchers concluded: “In some cases, ineffective managers may be the reason why employees are reluctant to report suspected misconduct or bad behavior, effectively discouraging potential whistleblowers from raising reputational or financial risks to senior management. alarm.”
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