A staggering 40% of Belgian employees have handed in their resignation at some point in their career due to a poor relationship with their boss, while more than half consider giving feedback the most important thing a manager can do.
A new survey by jobsite StepStone spanning 5729 Belgian employees and managers provides a fresh insight into the relationship between them and offers crucial insights to help avoid some of the classic issues.
Consequences of a bad relationship
Although salary and a clear job description are important factors for an employee, the relationship with their manager is equally crucial.
40% of Belgian employees surveyed indicated that they had already resigned because of a poor relationship with their boss.
In addition, 17% said they had already asked to change teams within a company for the same reason.
What do employees appreciate about their manager?
StepStone also asked employees what a manager can do to establish a good working relationship with them.
According to (more than) half of Belgian employees a good working relationship is the result of giving specific feedback on how he/she is doing (58%), a clear and well-defined job description (55%) and frequent one-to-one conversations with the manager (50%).
Head of Marketing at StepStone Belgium Virginie Nazon confirms the importance of these elements, but also adds: “We see that giving feedback to employees is important, but a great manager also asks his/her team members to do the same and, of course, listens to them and adapts if necessary.”
Not only is it more pleasant to work in a constructive environment, but it also increases productivity.
“The importance of a constructive working atmosphere – with trial and error – can hardly be overestimated. Not only is it more pleasant to work in such an environment, but it also increases productivity,” she adds.
34% of the Belgian applicants decided not to start in a certain company because of the recruiter
After the resignation, the next phase of one’s career is finding and applying for a new job. Here, the behavior of the interviewer proves to be extremely important, as he/she represents the image of the entire company.
When asked whether the behavior of an interviewer ever led them to withdraw their application, one in three answered positively (34%).
The main reason was an unprofessional greeting and generaldisrespectful behavior (17%), while also unlawful questions (9%), such as age and whether someone is planning to have children, were mentioned prominently.
Only 2.2% and 2.3% withdrew their candidacy for racist or sexist reasons respectively.
Methodology
StepStone completed this survey in October 2019. Our analysists have screened the data to ensure both the representation and the validity of respondents’ answers are accurate.
In total, there were 5,729 filled in surveys submitted in Dutch, French and English. Among them were 4422 employees and 1307 managers.