MANY firms are poorly equipped to combat recession because they fail to make the best use of their workers, it was claimed today.
A poll by The Work Foundation found that 40% of workers had more skills than their job required while 65% said the main characteristic of the organisations they worked for was “rule and policy bound”.
Some 40% said they had little or no flexibility over their working hours while 20% of graduates felt they were in jobs which failed to make use of their talents.
Ian Brinkley, co-author of the Knowledge Workers and Knowledge Work report, and associate director at The Work Foundation, said: “So far in this recession employers have been reluctant to lose the skills, talents and experience of their workforces.
“Yet at the same time they seem to be failing to make the most of them. Many people could be doing more, but are denied the chance to do so.
“To keep job losses to a minimum, organisations should be taking advantage of opportunities to give people more responsibility, move away from rules and procedure-based workplace cultures and re-organise work and use new technologies to give individuals more flexibility over hours.”
