Unclear growth path, reporting to the bad managers, and lack of recognition, no access to learning and development tools to upgrade skillsets are troubling India Inc employees the most. Nearly 50% Indian employees cite bad work culture as the most worrisome workplace elements at their organizations. This was revealed in a TimesJobs Survey done on more than 1000 professionals across different sectors. Shedding more light on overall state of work culture in India Inc., 52% employees rated their workplace as ‘bad’ while only 20% rated it as “good”. The remaining 28% employees felt that their company is working towards building a strong work culture.

"An engaged and motivated workforce is crucial in today's hypercompetitive environment to ensure success. So a dissatisfied employee is a liability that no organization can afford. With the advent of multiple engagement platforms such as webinars, R&Rs, AMAs, TJ Social Connect, JobBuzz and TechGig.com organizations need only chose the most suitable tools to create an atmosphere of positivity and productivity within their workforce." Says Nilanjan Roy, Head of Strategy, Times Business Solutions.

About half of surveyed respondents (47%) said they were unclear about career growth path in their organizations. Among the dissatisfied lot, nearly 60% employees felt that their workplace offered limited opportunities for career growth. 

And about 30% said a bad boss or reporting manager was the most unpleasant thing to face at the workplace. More than half of the employees who said they are unhappy with their reporting manager also stated unclear vision of the manager as the most annoying trait which hindered their growth, followed by favoritism (30%), rigidity (25%) and lack of domain knowledge (11%).

Nearly 22% of the surveyed employees said they felt a lack of learning and development opportunities and almost 70% of these stated they have no access whatsoever to learning and development tools to upgrade and upskill themselves.  Another 16% were upset about the lack of recognition at their workplace.

On further probing what limited their career growth, 68% employees cited external factors while 32% blamed their personal reasons.  Among external factors, 35% attributed it to monotonous work and lack of challenging assignments. While about 33% felt biased a reporting manager limited their career growth. Of those who cited personal reasons as the biggest roadblock to career growth, nearly 20% blamed it on deteriorating skills sets and 12% on their own attitude towards work.

Of the employees who raised concerns about the lack of recognition at the workplace, 70% said they don’t feel valued at work. In fact, 30% claimed they have never been appreciated for their contribution to the workplace while 50% said they are appreciated only sometimes. Sadly, of those who said they have never been appreciated, 35% have spent 2-5 years at their current organizations.