What does the future hold for the creative industry in the UK?
This month, the University for the Creative Arts hosted an event for creative and cultural leaders at the UCA Creative Business School campus in Epsom. The key discussion points of the event were about leadership and skills, as well as the impact that AI will have on the industry. The stats shared painted a shocking picture:
- Fewer than 20% of employees have a very high degree of trust in their direct supervisors/senior leadership.
- A recent survey by The Chartered Management Institute revealed a staggering 82% of UK managers are ‘accidental managers’ – people promoted into management based on their performance in their previous role, without formal training to prepare them for managing and leading people.
- An earlier CMI survey found that across all sectors, 1 in 3 UK workers have left a job due to poor management or a toxic workplace culture.
- Shockingly, 33% of managers have never received any formal management training.
Are you an ‘accidental manager’? How much do your staff trust you?
Given this lack of trust, recognition and support in the workplace, it’s no surprise that the UK ranks 33rd out of 38 European countries for employee engagement. Research from Deloitte has found that productivity issues can be directly linked to engagement challenges. So what’s the answer? Do we need to train our managers to make us better, happier and more engaged employees? Or is there more to it than that?
Some takeaway insights:
- Managers need training. Some managers are great at people management and some are great at their jobs. But, our managers need to be great at both. UCA are looking at how they can actively support managers within the creative industries but, the issue seems wider and more fundamental than that.
- Is flexibility key to engagement? A 2023 Lancaster University study found that UK organisations with meaningful flexibility experienced 27% higher engagement rates compared to those with rigid work models. Having said that, some studies show that too much flexibility can lead to alienation and a blurred work-life balance. So where’s the sweet spot?
- Engagement grows if employees are connected with a company’s mission. So, should creating a highly engaged workforce be an integral part of the mission for companies?
- Are we authentic with our values? Research from the UK’s Involvement and Participation Association showed that companies with clear values, that are genuinely embedded in the workplace, have 20-30% higher engagement scores. However, research by Durham University Business School showed that where these values were not matched by leadership behaviours or business practices, lower engagement scores were seen. We must be authentic and practice what we preach!
Thank you!
It should be said that this isn’t just a challenge for creative and cultural industries. It’s a much wider issue the UK must address to stay competitive in the future. And this is all before we got on to the subject of AI. Thank you to Alli Gibbons and Andy Coley for the stats in this article as well as UCA for the invite to the event.
