In a general election political parties go to great lengths to win over floating voters to help put them in office. New research shows that business leaders should be working just as hard to engage a significant minority of “floating voters” in the workplace if they want their staff to stay put and work harder and better.

An analysis of the responses to our 66-point questionnaire reveals that a large proportion of workers are vague about leadership issues – just like floating voters at election time – a worrying finding when it is such a key factor in engaging the workforce.

The floating voters are those employees who give an average score of three to five on a seven-point scale on leadership questions, and in addition who never strongly agree or disagree on any leadership question. “If you average between three and five you are saying you don’t know,” says Dr Pete Bradon, head of research at Best Companies Ltd. “For an organisation seeking better engagement this is a really good group to target.” And it’s a big group. Out of 162,000 employees who worked for companies completing our survey, 54,724 turned out to be floating voters.

“It’s a huge number,” says Bradon. “These are generally people who are good everyday workers who turn up and do their job. They are not unhappy but they are not motivated either.”

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People who feel connected to their company’s leadership will generally feel good about their boss, senior managers and the organisation’s values. They will be inspired by their leader and have a great deal of faith in him or her and the way they run the business. They will be confident in the leadership skills of senior management, think they are good at listening and live up to the firm’s values. They will also be happy with those values and excited about where the company is going.

Those who are disengaged feel negative about all these issues, and, though they are few in number, these are the workers usually already looking for another job.

It should worry organisations that Best Companies research shows that in this third staff category of (neither engaged or disengaged) floating voters, more than one in four (26%) would leave tomorrow if they had another job to go to, compared with just 5.4% of those with a positive opinion on leadership.

People who work for the organisations that perform best in the competition have much clearer views on leadership. Almost 40% of employees in companies that entered but did not make it to the final Best Companies lists have no strong opinions on any of the leadership aspects of their organisation. This compares with 27% for firms listed 11-100 and 16% for firms in the top 10.

And it’s not only the lower ranks of employees who aren’t clear about leadership issues. While team members account for the highest proportion of floating voters on these matters in companies, at 37%, managers and supervisors, who are responsible for communication between the leadership and team members, are not far behind at 31%.

However, most shocking of all is that one in six senior managers in the Best Companies survey doesn’t have clear views on leadership issues. “If you are in a senior management team and you do not know if your peers live the values of the organisation and you are not sure about confidence in the leadership skills of your own management team, that is a bit scary,” says Bradon.

Recent research commissioned by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) showed that a crucial factor in engaging the workforce is staff believing their manager is committed to the company. Consistent effort by senior managers is needed to keep middle managers onside, says Mike Emmott, employee relations adviser at the CIPD.

“Middle managers can be a problem area. They are liaison people. They have to communicate what top management want down the line, but they do not have the satisfaction of making the decisions.”

To feel engaged, employees also need to feel they get sufficient information from the top of the organisation about what the company is all about and where it is going, and have an opportunity to get their own views across.

Visibility is credibility and Emmott advises top management that, to be heard, you have to be seen. “If it is not visible, its impact is substantially reduced,” he says.

It seems that the longer people are with a business the more likely they are to be vague in their feelings towards it, probably because organisations concentrate on communicating their values, mission and leadership styles to new recruits. Our figures show that 30% of staff who have been with a company for less than six months are unsure of their views on leadership, compared with 35% of people who have been there for two to three years.

The figures are bad news for firms, says Emmott. “They affect the bottom line big time. The fact leadership is neglected or people feel unable to tackle it is a weakness and an opportunity lost.”

Improving these figures makes good business sense, as more engaged staff are less likely to be absent from work and will be more willing to go the extra mile. While politicians engage in tactics from kissing babies to appearing in storm-battered villages up to their thighs in waders to win people over, companies simply need to talk to their staff.

All this points to a lack of internal communications, says Bradon. “If you talk to people, they can let you know what they are vague about.”

Putting in the effort on communications could move you from an unranked business to one named as a best company, or improve your standing, as happened to BDO Stoy Hayward which rocketed from 91 to 19 between 2005-06. The accountancy firm had taken advice from Wayne Clarke, now managing partner of Best Companies Partnership, who instigated a series of internal conversations with all levels of staff.

The five mid-sized organisations with the lowest percentages of employees in the “don’t know” category are all top 10 listed companies. Beaverbrooks the Jewellers sparkles with just 5.5% of its workforce being vague on leadership issues, followed by financial services firm Edward Jones (6%); central heating experts Heat (7.7%); charity Sandwell Community Caring Trust (9.2%) and dental health insurers Denplan (9.4%).

It’s easy to see senior management living the company values when they even wear the T-shirt. That’s what Bill McCandless does. He is the managing director of Heat, the only organisation to have no floating voters among its manag-ers/supervisors or senior managers.

Heat took 18 months to draw up its six core values which drive the culture. Valuing the health and safety of staff, putting customers first, looking after its employees, striving for excellence, making a fair profit and a commitment to supporting the communities it works in are not just empty words. Heat staff act on them.

McCandless has a “don’t tell me, show me” approach and believes in treating employees the way he would like to be treated. So do his managers. At the company conference or open forum sessions, the senior team makes presentations and then leads workshops where people are encouraged to voice opinions. Directors are the first to arrive at functions because they organise them. McCandless and his team welcome staff personally, then get behind the bar or flip burgers for them.

“Communication is the key,” says McCandless. “You have to think in the other person’s shoes.”

When Sandwell Community Caring Trust first attempted to become a best company it came sixth. It then looked at the results closely and Geoff Walker, the chief executive, discovered that employees felt leadership was one of its weaker areas. He soon realised why. Managers had so many meetings they were failing to spend enough time with workers.

Walker gave them three weeks in which to organise making 30% of their time a week available so as to visit staff and listen to views, reinforce the values of the company and keep people informed about business developments. “Leadership is example-setting,” he says. “You can’t do that if you’re not there.”

This year Sandwell is setting up a series of 25 half-day sessions to reaffirm its values to staff. It’s an exercise to make sure newcomers, as well as old hands, all know what the charity is about.

Politicians have to wait four years before they can woo floating voters, but company bosses don’t have to delay. They can start now.

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