Recently, StepStone shared its research on the impact of COVID on the relationships at work, and how the crisis had a severe negative impact on the employees surveyed. Today, the Belgian jobsite highlights the mental well-being of situation of nearly 250 managers & HR-professionals and hopes to provide further info on this crucial topic.
A major conclusion, compared to the previous study held in 2019, is the higher number of managers saying they have nightmares (23% now) & have sought mental support (19% now). Additionally, StepStone sheds a light on the potential practical consequences and shares some insights on the hiring process.
Being a manager: a stressful and not always liked job
In 2019, StepStone did a first study on the relationships & mental well-being of both employees and employers in Belgium. Back then, 46% of managers attested to not liking being a boss. This number has unchanged and is at an almost identical 45% this year. Additionally, almost 6 in 10 (58%) would say this job is stressful (vs. 34% in 2019), while 6% would avoid their direct reports if they saw them outside of work (vs. 4 in 2019).
However, 8 in 10 of all managers surveyed feels confident dealing with their report’s work problems (and 6 in 10 for personal problems). Another 63% would say that they trust their team and employees in it. The number of managers having received no managerial training at all, has also declined marginally – from 40% in 2019 to 37% now.
More nightmares and more mental support being sought after, according to managers
With 22% of managers (and 42% of employees) stating that the relationships between themselves had decreased (severely) since COVID, it should not come as a surprise that the answers for questions on mental well-being had been impacted negatively:
- 23% of the managers surveyed regularly have nightmares about employees, which is an increase vs. 14% in 2019.
- 19% have already looked for mental health help vs. 6 % in 2019
While the relationships having worsened since COVID will have an impact on these results, a growing awareness of mental well-being in the last two years might play a role here, as well.
The practical consequences for managers – resignations, reports to HR & changing teams – remain stable
The mental consequences might be on the rise; the practical consequences seem to remain stable when comparing the results to 2019’s:
- 10% of all surveyed managers have already resigned due to their relationship with a direct report, which is similar to the 11% in 2019.
- 11% of managers have already requested to change teams, due to the same reason, versus 10% in 2019.
- 29% of managers have already reported a direct report to HR due to the same reason, while this was 31% in 2019.
A potential explanation for a lack of increase here could be the importance of job security during the COVID crisis, dissuading managers, as well as employees from changing their professional situation.
A bad first impression: HR-professionals and managers as the reason for not joining a company
A final point of comparison would be the role of recruiters & managers within the hiring process. No less than 98% of the surveyed managers have already hired someone. However, 19% of them felt ill-prepared due to not having received recruitment training beforehand. The remaining 81% of them said they felt they knew what to do, thanks to either having been present in the hiring process before (54%) or due to their training (27%).
Nevertheless, 4 in 10 of the employees and jobseekers surveyed said that they had already withdrawn their application specifically due to the behaviour of the interviewer. The main reasons stated were:
- Unprofessional greetings and generally rude behavior by the recruiter/manager, according to 51% of those who had already withdrawn their application.
- The lack of preparation for the interview by the recruiter/manager, according to 28% of those who had already withdrawn their application.
- Asking illegal questions during the interview (e.g., the interviewee’s age and if they were planning on getting pregnant), according to 25% of those who had already withdrawn their application.
Methodology
StepStone completed this survey in November 2021. Our analysists have screened the data to ensure both the representation and the validity of respondents’ answers are accurate. In total, there were 2,031 filled in surveys submitted in Dutch, French and English. Among them were 1,731 employees and 244 managers.