Only one in nine HR professionals rate line manager communication in their organisation as “good” or “very good”.

According to Melcrum’s global survey of 712 HR and corporate communication practitioners, the biggest problem areas are felt to be: managers’ skills at communicating upwards the views and concerns of their team (51%); managers not acting as leaders (52%); and not knowing their employees’ needs (49%).

However, the research also shows that only 21% of HR and communication professionals actually measure the communication performance of line managers and only 29% have communication competencies defined for their managers.

Stephen Urquhart, at Siemens Power Generation, said: managers “need to have performance objectives, measures and rewards that are based on setting results for the business, but then also on being available to their employees, being good role models, and those softer hygiene issues”.