Microsoft flags communication gap between Indian employees and their leaders

A recent Microsoft study has underlined the communication gap between the Indin employees and their leaders in the organisations. 

Nearly 2 out of 10 employees (17%) feel that they are not being heard by their managers on workplace issues, while 66% believe that their leaders do not take priority over building a workplace culture, the research said. 

The Microsoft’s report called ‘Work Trend Index’ further showed that about 65% employees feel that messages from their leaders don’t make it to them, while 67% of frontline managers say that their immediate managers do not effectively communicate to them.   

Additionally, 23% of those in non-managerial positions said that they didn’t feel valued as employees, while 65% and 64% wished more was being done by the company to deal with physical exertion and mental health respectively.   

“Over the last two years, our frontline workers have borne the burden of the pandemic like no other segment of the workforce. Even as we continue to endure pandemic uncertainty right now, frontline workers are standing up to the challenge of keeping the wheels of the economy running,” said Rajiv Sodhi, COO, Microsoft India.  

A few positives through technology   

However, the report also showed that 86% of frontline workers felt bonded to co-workers owing to the stress brought on by the pandemic, while 88% of frontline workers said they were excited about the job opportunities that technology would create in the near future.  

Some of the technologies that the respondents feel could help them the most were Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality, real-time updates, managing schedules and outside communications.   

About 64% also felt that tech could reduce stress, the same number also said they value technological tools over mental health support and wellness benefits.  

Indian frontline workers cited Covid protocols, high workloads, managing needs of customers and long workdays as top reasons for their work-related stress.

The report took inputs from around 9,600 full-time and part-time frontline workers across 8 industires and markets, between October 28 and November 19, 2021. On an average, about 1,200 frontline workers were surveyed in each industry. 

This Work Trend Index Special Report survey was conducted by an independent research firm, Edelman Data x Intelligence, among 9,600 full-time or part-time employed frontline workers across eight industries and eight countries between October 28 and November 19, 2021. A total of 1,200 frontline workers were surveyed within each industry. The industries include automotive, communications, energy, retail, financial services, healthcare, hospitality and manufacturing.