Employees are looking for the unadulterated truth when it comes to receiving messages from their employers, according to recent research completed by Towers Perrin in the US.
The survey of 1000 workers reveals that almost a fifth don’t believe they are generally told the truth by employers, with 51 per cent saying employers try too hard to “spin” the truth.
The data suggests the older you are and the longer you have worked at a company, the more likely you are to be cynical about their messages.
“Although two-thirds of workers aged 35 and younger believe what their company generally tells them, only 44 per cent of those aged over 50 were similarly believing,” the survey says.
It says scepticism also seems to increase the longer the employee is with the company, with 59 per cent of employees with less than five years service believing company communications, compared with 48 per cent of those with more than five years service.
Towers Perrin Australia principal Steve Schubert says few executives are comfortable telling employees the simple truth that they don’t know when business conditions will improve.
He says the survey findings are particularly significant for employers trying to communicate on something as important as company superannuation.
“As more and more companies outsource their superannuation to master trusts…there is an even more pressing need for transparency and employee confidence in corporate communication,” Schubert says.
He says it is likely there is more trust in communications about pay and conditions because they are usually communicated through personalised statements that tend to be more concrete and easy to verify.
“The challenge is to maintain the quality and integrity of these communications because they are fundamental to job satisfaction and performance,” Schubert says.
