“74% of employees believe they are not reaching their full potential”. Results of My Survey

Hello Everyone,

I would like to share with you the answers given to my survey, which I asked for your comments a few days ago. It has not been a week yet, but I think the results will not change much in the coming days. Thanks again to all the participants.

I think the results of my poll should be considered only as general information, both because I am not a very professional survey maker and because of the low number of people participated in my survey.

This is the first time I've done this kind of survey on LinkedIn, and I had a hard time choosing the right words for my survey, as there were some restrictions (such as the question being 140 and the options being a maximum of 35 letters). I ask you to expose my shortcomings.

The 74% rate is truly a shocking majority that could raise concerns about the effectiveness of any company. According to research in the USA, https://www.charities.org/news/4-ways-bring-out-your-employees%E2%80%99-potential 74% of employees feel that they can do more for their companies,  they are not reaching their full potential. If we think that businesses are only as effective as the sum of the people who make them up, you can see that we are talking about a serious loss of performance here.

There could be many reasons for this. I have given you four options, which I think would be the most popular reasons, and I would like to share the answers given here, together with the profiles of the people who participated in my survey.

I asked this Questionnaire both in Turkish to my friends in my Turkey and in English to my non-Turkish friends living beyond Turkey. You can find the answers for both groups here.

Comments of my Turkish friends answered survey in Turkish,

Total Participants >110 People

·        35% of the total participants think that "employees have difficulty in finding time to participate in development programs and trainings that will improve themselves". Perhaps some employees may think that such programs will not help their own development. I first wondered if the improvement of the Growth Mindset in employees could be effective here. If you haven't read it yet, I recommend reading Dr Carol Dweck's Growth Mindset book. It was a book that was at the top of my list of books that influenced me the most.

·        This is followed by the group that thinks that "managers do not give enough importance to the development programs and trainings of their staff" with 26%. This group may be considering their companies and managers to have this type of KPI. I would like to tell you about a good practice implemented at Intel. Every quarter, one full day is reserved as Learning Day for all Intel Staff, and that day is reserved exclusively for training and self-improving programs and team activities. I would recommend you try it.

·        Third, with 20%, comes the group that thinks that "companies do not or cannot allocate enough budget to create such development programs". I think that the recent macroeconomic difficulties may be effective here.

·        Finally, there is the 20% group who think that "employees have difficulty in finding tailored development programs suitable for their & their company needs". Although my Turkish participants saw this option as the lowest burden, my friends from abroad thought this option was the primary reason. I'll leave you to comment here.

Also, my friends who participated with their comments have very good observations.

·        My Friend Vatan Computer Deputy General Manager Mr Alpay; There is too much content & open source, the problem is that the employee's motivation to learn or their belief that if they learn whether it will have an impact on their development or result. I wonder if this is linked with “Fixed Mindset” too?

·        My friend Senior Educator Mr. Erol; "I've always been one of those who believe that if we fix the managers mind & priorities, a lot of things will get better.

·        Mr. Tamer; stated that learning slows down with age.

·        Mr. Ibrahim; mentioned the importance of companies to determine their targets correctly.

When we look at 20 senior managers, no Intel, (CEO, General Manager, VP) votes of large domestic and international companies from Turkey who participated in the survey "Insufficient Training Budgets in Companies" and "Lack of Tailored Development Programs & Trainings for the Needs of the Company and Staff" received the most votes in the answers.

On the other hand, 6 HR managers and senior trainers who participated in our survey chose that the Managers did not prioritize such programs sufficiently in the past.

The participants in Sales and Marketing and other roles mostly chose the lack of Time and the lack of tailored development training / program for their Needs.

My friends who participated in English Survey from Dubai – America – Europe and Asia; Total Participants >45 People (10 Intel employees)

·        49% chose "lack of tailored development programs for themselves and their companies' needs". You may have noticed; this is quite a different result from the Turkish respondents (20%).

·        This is followed by the group that thinks that the managers do not give enough importance to the employee development programs and trainings that improve their staff with a rate of 20%.

·        Thirdly, 16% thinks that employees have difficulty in finding time for development programs and trainings to improve themselves.

·        Finally, there is the group thinks that companies do not or cannot allocate enough budget to develop development programs that develop employees with 16%.

I would like to share the information of the participants who participated with their comments.

·        My friend Dr Grida; He mentioned that although the lack of training and program for the needs of the companies is the main reason, it is costly and quite difficult to fulfil.

·        My friend Ferhad Patel & My Friend Colin MacHale; mentioned that the answer is a combination of all options, and this combination may differ by industry and even between organizations in the same industry.

·        My friend Essam; That all 4 options do not apply especially to large companies. He stated that he chose the options by considering start-ups and small businesses.

·        My Friend NT: Fair observation but the article suggests that it's the employer’s responsibility to help employees reach their full potential .... a company's resources are a supplement.

Similarly, I looked at the votes of people in different positions within this group.

Most of the top 10 executives (only 1 Intel) chose "lack of tailored development programs & trainings to meet the needs of their companies and staff" as their primary concern.

My friends in Sales and Marketing Tasks also mostly chose the lack of tailored training and development programs for their own needs, followed by the group that thought that companies did not or could not allocate enough budget to create such staff development programs.

I wish that 2023 will be a year when our senior managers will devote more time, more budget to the development of employees and set aggressive goals for this, on top employees will make more efforts to reach their full potential, and the growth mindset will peak in all companies & employees.

Best Regards