Employer bureaucratic? 59.5 percent of professionals and managers say "YES

According to the Xebia survey, 59.5 percent of specialists and executives perceive their employer as bureaucratic, and only 27.2 percent as agile, i.e. transparent in decision-making and quick in implementation. Only 28.0 percent say that their employer's values are defined and lived. At least 42.7 percent can fully identify with them.

The digitalization consultancy Xebia surveyed 350 Swiss specialists and managers from a representative cross-section of industries for its Trends & Benchmark Report 2023. The results showed that many employees feel left out in the transformation process. 71.7 percent of respondents see potential for improvement in corporate culture. 43.8 percent would like to see agile leadership, 40.6 percent would like to see hierarchies dismantled, and 35.7 percent would like more support from management in order to be able to implement the goals.

"The results show that while a transformation is announced quickly, implementation is then often a challenge," says Stefan Widmer, Member of the Executive Board of Xebia Switzerland and Managing Director Zurich. "This starts with the decision of the goals, the selection of the appropriate methods and work tools. In particular, companies that have not prepared this process with a thorough analysis and strategy will not get far with it in everyday operations."

Respond more flexibly and collaborate better

Respondents cited the following as the most important goals of transformation: being able to deal with changing priorities (21.3 percent), better collaboration (18.6 percent), higher team morale (17.8 percent), decentralized decision-making (17.0 percent) and launching new products faster (14.2 percent). They saw agile working methods (32.2 percent) and business agility (18.0 percent) as the most important ways to achieve this. By contrast, 15.9 percent rated digitization as the main driver. Only 9.2 percent considered cost reductions to be crucial, and 8.5 percent restructuring.

"Private and public companies and administrations face similar challenges in this regard," says Christian Eichenberger, Member of the Executive Board of Xebia Switzerland and Managing Director Bern. "Technical departments have been early adopters of modern working methods and platforms. Other business units are following suit, but much later and more hesitantly. But we see the biggest jump in the use of agile methods among business leaders, from 4.4 to 13.1 percent. The topic has arrived at the top management level."

Agile working currently continues to be practiced most in IT departments (42.0 percent), in specialist departments (22.1 percent) and in portfolio management (20.6 percent). This is followed by management (13.1 percent), manufacturing or production (11.4 percent), marketing (11.2 percent) and HR (10.7 percent).

Less than half have a target agreement

Although data-driven decisions are considered an essential aspect of transformation, less than half (42.9 percent) are currently assessed on the basis of a target agreement. The same number (42.9 percent) assess their performance jointly with their supervisor. 21.9 percent are assessed using the OKR method, which includes goals and outcome metrics. 17.4 percent receive a 360-degree assessment. Digital work platforms are now widely used. Most notably Confluence (52.4 percent), Jira (37.9 percent), MS Office (37.5 percent) and MS Sharepoint (28.3 percent). But 18.2 percent still use paper, pen and post-its for their project management.

For the Trends & Benchmark Report, Xebia annually surveys 350 representatives of Swiss private and public companies. They represent more than twelve industries, led by banking and financial services (18.0 percent) and IT hardware and software (14.6 percent). 41.7 percent of respondents work in management positions (management, project or program managers), otherwise in specialist positions.

Source: www.xebia.com