Dive Brief:
- Almost 40% of professionals feel some level of unalignment with their company, according to Slack and GlobalWebIndex's survey of 17,000 international knowledge workers, those who work with data and conduct information analysis.
- Aligned workers, by comparison, agree with their company's vision, values and operating principles. Almost 90% of those workers have a clear understanding of their daily contributions to the overall business strategy, according to the report.
- Disconnected from their company's vision, unaligned workers are more likely to report a hierarchical structure and rigid routine at their company, according to the report. More than half of unaligned workers feel their companies lack the tools, structure or systems to adapt to changes.
Dive Insight:
When there is a disconnect in communication, employees struggle to align with the business, which impacts morale.
The report's findings work in Slack's favor and its push for enterprise-wide collaboration. Four in five knowledge workers say collaboration tools help them understand their company strategy.
Slack wants its platform to serve as a collaboration hub, eliminating communication hurdles. When barriers are broken, employees have a better chance of interacting with leadership and bottom line execution.
Historically, and especially in IT, professionals were unable to see how their work impacted the bottom line. The disconnect between process and finished result demands a new way of looking at things.
Thales Aerospace CIO Kevin Neifert, formerly with Raytheon, asked his employees to gauge the return on value through the eyes of the CEO, he said speaking at a Gartner event last year.
Employees had to determine whether or not something would concern the CEO or what they would deem was relevant for the company's overall success. The practice emboldens employee decision-making by figuratively positioning them in places of leadership.
