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Ukrainian Company Leaders Not Communicating With Employees on Financial Crisis Issue

5 декабря

New research on how Ukrainian employees react to financial and economic problems in Ukraine was conducted in November 2008 by PRP Ukraine with its partner InMind. According to the results Ukrainian employers do not spend enough time to communicate with their employees on global financial crisis issue. Only 30% of employed Ukrainians during last month received information about current situation from their company leaders, in the same time more than 37% didn’t get any information on this problem at all.

The main goal of the research was to analyze employers’ communication policy during the crisis and to evaluate working Ukrainians’ awareness about global economic crisis influence on their company and personal life. According to the results Ukrainians are more pessimistic regarding financial crisis impact on their families than on the companies they work for. Thus, 80% of Ukrainians expect that next year economic problems will negatively result on their family well-being, and about 67% expect current economic and financial problems in Ukraine will have a negative impact on the company they work for. As a result, 37% believe their company will have to lay off employees and more than a half (52%) expect their company will have troubles in meeting its goals.

But the information Ukrainians rely on to make conclusions regarding economic crisis impact on their company doesn’t come from their employers. 58% stated that didn’t receive any relevant information from their employers at all or received just a little.

The research confirmed a communication abyss that exists between employees and employers thus 45% want their leaders to communicate more about current economic and financial crisis and its consequences. Extremely significant is the fact that about 43% could not answer the question about the employers’ role in informing their workers. It could be explained by the lack of experience and low level of internal communications development. The research demonstrates that almost the same situation of information vacuum and no clear vision on ideal company leader’s role in terms of information exists as between white collars so blue collars.

“This research shows that company leaders in such a challenging time have a great opportunity to consolidate their strong position of trust and leadership. Company leaders should pay more attention to internal communications and informing people about the situation both in company and on the market. Unfortunately, sometimes company leaders forget that employees play a vitally important role in forming and protecting in stable times so in crisis. At the same time there are leaders who understand the need of investments in internal communications, and find forces to be open and trustful with their teams in these complicated times, so in that way company leaders will enhance their company's standing and head off any inaccurate rumours or fears that are all too common in fast-moving crises such as these. Leaders should remember - company's reputation is built on how they behave in unstable crisis times”, - Nataliya Popovych, President of PRP group, said.

The similar research was realized in the USA by Weber Shandwick agency with the assistance of KRC Research Company in October 2008. According to the results, Americans also have extremely pessimistic view on global economic situation - the survey shows that 70% expect that next year current economic and financial problems in the U.S. will have a negative impact on the company they work for. Of those, 26% believe their company will have to lay off employees and 62% said their company would have troubles in meeting its goals. Americans as Ukrainians feel that their company's leadership should be communicating more about current economic problems - 71% of Americans stated that.

Nevertheless, in contrast to Ukrainian employees, Americans incline to trust their leaders - 86% say that senior executives or management were seen as “believable” and “trustworthy” sources on the topic. To compare, only 54% of Ukrainians feel they can trust their leaders. Ukrainians incline to trust their co-workers and colleagues (68%) and direct supervisors (66%). The lowest level of trust exists towards external audiences – clients and business-partners (37%).

“The data we have from this research is very important and relevant to current global situation, since the research was held in a proper time and quickly – this is the latest information about how the global financial crisis affects working environment”, - Yuliya Masienko, research and development deputy director of InMind, noticed.

Survey Methodology

The survey in Ukraine was conducted by PRP Ukraine with InMind, between 10-21 November. The representative survey of adults aged 16 and older, from 6 cities millionth, with sample controlled by sex and age. The margin of error for the overall sample (n=602) is +/- 4 percentage points. The margin of error for the employed sample (n=347) is +/- 4.4 percentage points.

The national representative survey of adults, ages 18 and older, was commissioned by Weber Shandwick and conducted by KRC Research in the USA, between 3-6 October. The margin of error for the overall sample (n=1006) is +/- 3.1 percentage. The margin of error for the employed sample (n=514) is +/- 4.4 percentage points.