INFORMATION BLACKOUT: New Survey from Geckoboard Reveals “Mushroom Management” Policies Leave Employees In the Dark About Company Performance

Four in five (80.8%) employees believe their managers could offer
more information regarding the company’s performance and say a lack of
data is leading to a culture of mistrust

      Over half (50.9%) of employees are resorting to their own
detective work to discover what’s really going on in their company

LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–U.S. and U.K. employees are experiencing an information blackout at
work, causing nearly one in four (23.3%) employees to head for the door,
according to new research released today by KPI dashboard specialist, Geckoboard.
The research found that over four in five (80.8%) employees wanted their
bosses to share more information with them concerning the business, with
less than one in ten (9.7%) employees being aware of company progress in
real-time. `

According to the research
study, conducted in August 2015 among 2,000 employees in the U.S.
and U.K., companies seem to be adopting a “Mushroom
Management” approach, which involves keeping employees in the dark
on company matters.

This lack of transparency appears to be building a culture of mistrust,
with more than three in four (76.3%) saying that they did not trust
their bosses who failed to share company data. Over a quarter (26.9%) of
employees also believed the dearth of company information provided
stemmed from their bosses playing power games. This level of suspicion
is creating a vicious circle, with half (50.9%) of employees resorting
to their own detective work to discover what’s really going on in their
company.

With more than half (54.5%) of employees saying that company information
had a significant impact on how they contributed to the overall
performance of the organization they worked for, data transparency
clearly has a great link to productivity and efficiency. In fact, more
than nine in ten (93.9%) said they would rather hear bad company news
than be left in the dark.

“They say no news is good news; but our research shows this is far from
the case when it comes to business management,” said Paul Joyce, CEO of
Geckoboard. “Without a clear view of the company position, how can we
expect employees to make the right decisions and perform against
business KPIs to drive business growth? Ditching the style of mushroom
management and instead adopting a clear, transparent data position with
staff will not only boost morale, but will help a business get the most
out of its employees,” said Joyce.

About Geckoboard:

Based in London, Geckoboard is a leading provider of real-time KPI
dashboards for businesses of all sizes. More than 3600 companies
including Nike, Dow Jones, and BBC use Geckoboards to monitor
performance and provide employees with visibility into critical business
metrics. Cloud-based with no on-site installation required, Geckoboard
offers pre-built integrations with 60+ tools including Google Analytics,
Salesforce, Zendesk, Mixpanel, Github, Intercom and Google Sheets.
Geckoboard is backed by Index Ventures, DN Capital, 500 Startups, as
well as several prominent angel investors. For more information, visit www.geckoboard.com.

Contacts

For Geckoboard
Kari Straley, 415-215-6423