One in three UK employees has experience of “toxic” management at work, four in 10 have left jobs because of dissatisfaction with management, and eight in 10 people in management positions have had no formal management training.

The findings come from a report published by Corndell, a strategic skills partner that works with a third of the companies listed on the UK FTSE. And they will further raise the profile of non-financial misconduct as a key issue for business to tackle.

Last month, the UK FCA wrote to insurance companies asking for “information related to incidents of non-financial misconduct in your firm”. And there is a growing realisation that surveillance policies need to be fine-tuned to ensure earlier detection and reporting of such misconduct.  

Pseudo-regulatory requirement

Writing in the FT recently, Global Relay’s director of regulatory intelligence Rob Mason said that “there is a strong suggestion that monitoring for conduct risk will become a pseudo-regulatory requirement”.

Corndel’s Workplace Training Report 2024 gathered information from 250 HR decision makers at large organizations and 1,000 UK employees in December 2023. Other key findings include;

• 50% who don’t rate their manager as effective plan to leave their job in the next 12 months;
• 47% view mental health support and empathy in the workplace are crucial for job satisfaction;
• 46% say a positive workplace culture boosts their performance (this figure rises to 55% among employees aged 18-34).

Results from HR managers’ responses revealed;

• 81% are confident the decision makers in their organizations uphold company values;

but;

• 69% feel bad management is a prevalent issue with their organization;
• 54% think their organization’s leaders have the skills needed to cultivate high-performing teams.

James Kelly, co-founder and CEO of Corndel, said: “HR decision-makers must prioritise finding solutions for toxic workplaces, recognising that empathy, emotional intelligence and mental health support are critical factors in enhancing employee retention, performance, and job satisfaction.”