76% Indian workers can’t communicate openly with top executives: Facebook WorkPlace

About 76% of Indian workers do not feel like they can openly communicate with their C-suite, according to a study by Workplace from Facebook. 

The study, “Deskless not Voiceless,”  shows the disconnect between managers and workers. 

Around 95% of frontline employees felt their company had internal communication barriers and lacked the tools, means and the context to share new ideas with employers. Additionally, 24% working away from the head office said that they did not feel connected to their headquarters. 

The study was based on data from more than 1,200 business leaders and frontline employees in Indian businesses with more than 100 employees. 

Workers in India are required to report all ideas to the managers before sharing them with the top executives, which is one of the biggest hurdles in communication. Workers also do not have access to real-time digital collaboration tools, with 76% of them requiring to rely on formal conversations in order to communicate. 

From the perspective of the business leaders, 61% respondents stated that they see value in nurturing the thoughts and ideas of their frontline employees and 95% agreed in seeing an overall value addition that the workers bring to the company. 

However, only 66% of business leaders had visited their frontline workers over the past year, with the gap being considerably higher in on field industries such as architecture. 

The disconnect also had a direct impact on innovation within the company with 98% saying that they had a good idea to better their company, however, more than a quarter (27%) said their ideas were lost internally. 

Only 35% of the ideas stemmed from the frontline and managers also seem to notice that there could be a potential problem with 62% of the business leaders admitting they are worried that frontline staff would quit if they aren’t listened to properly. 

 “We know that deskless workers – who many times are the first and only touchpoint with customers – are untapped sources of insight and knowledge. To combat this, businesses must focus on engaging with their entire workforce, especially those who don’t sit in HQ,” said Luke McNeal, Director, APAC, Workplace.