According to a poll from the European Leadership Programme (ELP), 27% of staff see HR as the least important skill for a CEO to help lead their organisation out of the economic downturn but 42% think their CEO needs more HR help from senior management.
Ashley Ward, founder of ELP, said: "Organisations need to keep investing in HR. Afterall employees are a company's number one asset. Your team may not recognise the role HR plays within the company every day but they do realise when it is lacking.
"As a result any cost-cutting should be definitive and swift. There must be frequent communication to employees which puts a hard stop to any speculation about continual drip-feed redundancies. Uncertainty is a recipe for despondency and failure."
The survey shows 32% employees think financial aptitude is the most important skill needed for business survival and 73% are confident their CEO has this in hand.
A third of respondents are confident their CEO has the right skill-set to lead their organisation out of recession unscathed but 45% are not confident the right changes to the business have been made.
