Do You Know What Your Boss Looks Like?

Sometimes people at the workplace start working a little harder – or at least give the appearance of working harder – when they spot the boss in the vicinity. But what if the employees didn’t even know what the boss looked like? A recent survey at CareerBuilder revealed that one in five U.S. employees wouldn’t recognize their company’s chief executive if he/she was standing in the room with them.

According to the report, a majority of survey respondents – 60 percent – stated that they have indeed met the CEO. The other 40 percent, however, have not. People working in business services, sales and manufacturing tended to be the ones to have encountered the CEO, while many employees in IT, financial services and retail have not yet had the pleasure. A shocking 21 percent of employees do not know what their CEO looks like. Workers in the Midwest and South held the majority of that group, both with 23 percent, while those in the West totaled 19 percent and workers in Eastern regions trailing right behind with 18 percent.

Employees are likewise ignorant of other company leaders and the companies themselves. While a fifth of the survey participants are unfamiliar with the CEO, it seems even more don’t know others at the corporate level. A mere 35 percent were able to name all of the C-level officers at the company, and 21 percent of those who participated in the survey could name some, but not all of them. And how much revenue does a company generate on an annual basis? Over two-thirds – 68 percent – of employees couldn’t answer that.

“Leadership from the C-suite can be a difficult balance,” Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder, said in a press release. “The CEO and, in some cases, other senior leaders are the face of the company both internally and externally. Meaning, they need to find a level of accessibility that allows them to connect with employees, while, on the other hand, dedicate the necessary time for building relationships with outside stakeholders.”

Haefner added that “employees realize their top leaders can’t know everyone on a first-name basis, but they do expect their leaders to be a public symbol that embodies the organization’s values.”

Harris Interactive conducted the survey on behalf of CareerBuilder. It was conducted online between November 9 and December 5, 2011. Survey respondents included 7,780 American workers employed full-time, neither self-employed nor employed by the government.

CareerBuilder has one of the largest career websites with more than 24 million unique visitors, one million jobs and 45 million resumes. It provides resources for various services such as employment branding, data analysis and recruitment support. CareerBuilder is owned by Gannett Co., Inc., Tribune Company and The McClatchy Company, and it, along with its subsidiaries, operates in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia.