Many businesses are misaligned with their people, with nearly half of employees not understanding their company’s strategic objectives, according to new research published by The Ludic Group, which claims that the changing nature of workforces and the growing need for a flexible workplace are creating fresh challenges for communication, collaboration and engagement. The research suggests that the impact of technology is causing digital chaos, with businesses struggling to get the communications balance right. With the number of channels and tools increasing almost half of people (44 percent) want to hear more from employers. Perhaps surprisingly, one in five (20 percent) individuals said that their firm has not used any tools or techniques to communicate with them. This lack of communication results in people being disconnected from the business strategy, with only half of individuals (50 percent) reported fully aligned with their company’s objectives and 44 percent not knowing or understanding what these are. Alongside this, people increasingly want to design their own working experience and expect more flexibility from their employers.
Nearly half (44 percent) of individuals would like to work from home regularly, while 6 percent want to hot desk and almost a quarter want to keep their own desk at work. Almost a fifth are not offered opportunities for flexible working at all. This is a significant shift in where people choose to work and how people identify with what work is. However, unsatisfactory levels of engagement have been reported with less than two-fifths, 37 percent, of individuals highly engaged and one in twenty, 4 percent actually feeling disengaged and 23 percent, don’t think their company makes a concerted effort to engage them whether onsite or working remotely.