1 in 4 Brits have quit after bosses hid company information from them

The research found that over four in five employees wanted their bosses to share more information with them concerning the business, with less than one in ten employees being aware of company progress in real-time and only one in ten believing their boss/ manager is data-driven.

This lack of transparency appears to be building a culture of mistrust, with four in five again saying that they did not trust their bosses who failed to share company data. Over a quarter of employees also believed the dearth of company information provided stemmed from their bosses playing power games. This level of suspicion is creating a vicious circle, with half of employees resorting to their own detective work to discover what’s really going on in their company.

With half of British staff saying that company information had a significant impact on how they contributed to the overall performance of the organisation they worked for, data transparency clearly has a great link to productivity and efficiency. In fact, more than nine in ten said they would rather hear bad company news than be left in the dark.

Despite this, nearly half of the British workforce only get access to key company data four times a year or less.  British industry appears to be adopting a “mushroom management” approach, which involves keeping employees in the dark on company matters.

Paul Joyce, CEO of Geckoboard, comments: “They say no news is good news; however our research shows that this is far from the case when it comes to business management. Without a clear view of the company position, how can we expect our employees to make the right decisions and perform against business KPIs to drive business growth? Ditching the style of mushroom management and instead adopting a clear, transparent data position with staff will not only boost morale, but will help a business get the most out of its employees.”