Being made to feel valued, important and respected by their bosses is as good as a pay rise for British workers, new research shows. A poll by accountancy technology firm Sage, found 57% of employees at small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) believe that their boss taking time to ask how they are feeling is just as important as getting a pay rise.
As bosses continue to struggle to keep hold of staff amid the twin pressures of “The Great Resignation” and rising costs putting pressure on potential pay rises half of workers (50%) say they are currently thinking about quitting their jobs and 27% say they don’t feel valued by their employer.
With SMBs contributing 61% of UK jobs and 52% of GDP, high-flying entrepreneur Charlie Gladstone believes the key to growing the UK economy lies in a positive working environment. He said: “If people are happy, they are productive and productivity is the key to any successful business.
“This whole notion of reprimanding and screaming at people to get them to perform is a deep-rooted issue within the business industry which is too far focused on the idea that you need to be cruel to get respect. I believe in gentle leadership and not being a ‘Trump style’ boss. He bossed the whole nation as terrible employees and look where that got everyone. Eroding trust to ultimately show you are the big dog only breeds an unpleasant atmosphere.”
Charlie, the great-great grandson of Liberal Prime Minister, William Gladstone and self-appointed Chief Happiness Officer, says being a nice boss doesn’t mean you have to adopt a ‘hippy manifesto’ to build an organisation that is happy to come to work. The 58-year-old father whose businesses include a shop and an AA award-winning village pub. says: “I’m not saying we should all subscribe to a hippy manifesto, but humans need praise and encouragement like they need oxygen.
“Someone recently said I should employ a Chief Happiness Officer, which I thought was frankly nuts until I stopped to think about it, and really, it’s simplicity at its finest. My ethos centres around the fact that every person is someone’s mother, sister, daughter, brother, or uncle- just because I am the ‘big cheese’ does not make me any more important than anyone else.
“If businesses, big and small, want to survive this power shift within the workplace, people must come first.”
The Sage research also showed a quarter of employees (26%) would feel more valued and less likely to quit a job if their boss regularly checked in and asked about their day, while one in nine (11%) value a boss knowing how they like their tea or coffee made, alongside a competitive salary.
One in 12 (8%) would feel more valued by a boss who remembered their pet’s name. Eton educated, Charlie, runs a portfolio of 20 businesses from micro-operations to those turning over £10million per year with his wife Caroline, including reinventing their 1997 mail order clothes and furniture business Pedlars into multiple shops across locations including Selfridges, Oxford Street and Japan.
The family of eight with six dogs in tow are now into their 9th year of running The Good Life Experience Society, which runs multiple small festivals and events across Wales and Scotland. Charlie adds: “I want my legacy to show that I focused on giving people the tools to succeed at work and when they come to my funeral, they will say, ‘I only worked with him for seven years, but it was the best education’.
“But I also think we should tell the truth more in business. It hasn’t always been easy, it’s been a real slog to get to where we are today and like many other bosses, we took a huge knock during Covid. The problem is, you don’t hear leaders talk about that all that much, they tend to focus on all the positive success, which is a missed opportunity if you want to humanise the workplace.”
His first taste of being a small business leader came at university when he began directing plays and running a club night, called Play Pen, which sold out to 300 people at a time. Charlie says: “That early introduction to a people-facing business which sole purpose was to provide a good time and happy memories became my introduction to marketing and promotion. I tell my children now – do the same at school, put on a charity night or direct a play and that will give you a true experience of being an entrepreneur.
“I hadn’t given my career much thought back then, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. I worked incredibly hard to get into university because I was far from academic but once I was there and started to put my own twist to things, it gave me a true sense of direction and my first taste of being an entrepreneur.”
Accountancy Software experts, Sage, has recently launched Sage Membership which gives customers exclusive access to content and insights from business leaders, like Charlie, from different walks of life from around the world.
