Poor Work Culture Costs Kiwi Businesses

Poor Work Culture Costs Kiwi Businesses $2.6 Billion

Poor work culture and a lack of workplace leadership are costing the New Zealand business sector more than $2.6 billion a year, according to new figures released today.
Kiwi companies are flushing money down the toilet through low productivity, with research showing less than half of employees trust their bosses, and one in four workers simply don't care about their jobs.

Culture & leadership expert Paddy Steinfort says it's astonishing that businesses are allowing so much money to be wasted at a time when financial pressures are greater than ever.

“These figures suggest employees are spending a significant amount of time at work second guessing, resisting or even undermining their work team's plans instead of implementing them, which hits the bottom line severely in unproductive wages” explains Steinfort.

Steinfort, Managing Director of Leading Teams and a Co-ordinator of the Leadership Special Interest Group of HRINZ, specialises in performance improvement programmes for corporate teams as well as elite sports teams in the Olympics, NBL and Super 14.

"To put this in context, imagine a rugby team where only seven of the 15 players are sticking to the coaches' game plan or listening to the captain,” says Steinfort. “And worse still, four of the 15 players don't know which tryline is theirs, or don't even care."

"That's what's happening here. Except while rugby teams may lose a few points, businesses are losing millions of dollars. The cost of one unproductive team alone to the average New Zealand business is around $140,000 every year."

The two separate independent online surveys of 1500 employees from across New Zealand found:

Less than half (45%) of all employees have trust and confidence in their leaders at work
Less than half (47%) of all employees feel their leaders' management style improves their productivity
More than a quarter of employees under the age of 40 aren't clear on, or simply don’t care about, their organisation's goals

Ian Morrice, CEO of The Warehouse, which employs around 8,000 people across New Zealand, had the following to say. “I’m pleased to say that our own research and results compare favourably with the NZ benchmarks, with over 70% of TWL team members having confidence in the leadership of their organisation.”

“That’s why at The Warehouse there are three things we constantly focus on: building an overall culture of performance, building the skills and capability of our leaders and managers, and making sure that everyone is very clear about our strategy and goals.”

Steinfort says a structured, focused approach like that implemented at The Warehouse is vital in the current financial climate to ensure maximum return on salary expenses.

“Our experience with both sports and corporate teams shows us that simple, relatively cheap investments like these from leaders minimise the huge costs of unproductive team cultures.”

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