CEOs and senior leaders need to be more visible, say employees

Half of employees want the leadership teams of their employer to be more visible across, according to a new poll conducted by a London-based communications agency.

The research comes at a time when there continues to be a vicious war for talent. It suggests that increasing the visibility of a company’s leadership team could be an effective way to both engage existing team members as well as appeal to new recruits.

The new poll, which surveyed 2,000 British adults, found that 28% of respondents said that the leadership team of their company should be more visible, with a further 20% saying that their company’s management team should be much more visible.

The polling reveals the scale of the yawning gap between what employees want from their leaders, and what they are actually getting from their leadership teams at the moment.

The poll also found that 3 in 4 respondents said that they would prefer to work for companies led by leadership teams who were visible. In fact, 35% of people said that they agreed with the claim that they would prefer to work for a company with a visible leadership team, with an additional 39% saying they strongly agreed with the claim.

The poll was commissioned by thought leadership agency Profile and conducted by OnePoll. Launched in 2023 to capitalise on the increasing demand for executive profiling, Profile runs campaigns to raise the profiles of company leaders in creative, positive, and proactive ways.

Jordan Greenaway, founder at Profile, said: “Company leaders are simply not meeting employees expectations at the moment when it comes to their personal visibility.

“Employees want to hear from their company leaders and managers directly, and they want to feel that they work for a leader with a recognised and respected profile in their industry. For many companies, this can be a competitive advantage when it comes to retaining and recruiting talent.

“Too often, building the profiles of company leaders is mistakenly seen as a marketing or PR effort. This research puts this misconception to bed; it is also an effective and powerful way to boost employee morale and bolster recruitment efforts.

“CEOs and senior leaders increasingly need to see building a public profile as a core part of their job. The age of the anonymous CEO is now clearly over, and visibility now should be seen as an important part of effective leadership.”