Xerox's Morale Problem

Two new pieces of research from jobs site Glassdoor set benchmarks for both “Best Places to Work” and “Highest Rated CEOs.” A review of the data show how far away Xerox sits from America’s top companies. The question that Glassdoor does not answer completely is why Xerox does so poorly. It is probably because the Xerox reinvention has convinced neither workers nor customers.

The rating given to the Glassdoor “Highest Rated CEOs” is more than 80% for the top 50. “Best Places to Work” scores for the top 50 companies are all 3.8 or better on a scale with the best possible rating of 5.

At the other end of the Glassdoor ratings are large companies that get approval ratings well below 3 and CEO ratings less than 40%. Xerox’s CEO Burns has a 27% approval rating, which is nearly impossible to match among the worst rated companies.

CNBC recently framed the Burns rating as somehow pertinent as she is measured against other female CEOs in the Glassdoor measures:

The only woman to make the top 50 list this year is Sharen Turney, CEO for Victoria’s Secret, a subsidiary of Limited Brands. She came in 42nd place with an 82 percent approval rating, one slot above Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus.

As for the other female CEOs in corporate America, it’s a mixed picture. Meg Whitman of Hewlett-Packard made the top 50 list last year, but fell off this year with a 79 percent approval rating. PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi has a 69 percent rating, and Xerox’s Ursula Burns has only a 26 percent approval rating. Ouch. Lockheed Martin’s new CEO, Marilyn Hewson, earned an 82 percent approval rating already, but she is too new to qualify for this year’s list.

The characterization trivializes the extent of the Xerox problem. Burns’s rating is so low that it is not even matched by recently sacked Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD) CEO Louis J. D’Ambrosio. He ran what is widely considered to be among the worst-run large companies in America.

What may trouble employees at Xerox is the illusion of progress that management continues to promote. People who work at the company know better. As Xerox announced full-year earnings for 2012, Burns said:

Throughout 2012, we focused on scaling our services business and adjusting our business model to align with growth opportunities in the $600 billion market we serve. Our fourth-quarter results reflect steady progress.

Actually, the results for 2012 did not reflect that at all. Revenue fell 8% to $6.6 billion. Net income dropped 8% to $1.2 billion. Those numbers do not reflect any “progress.”

If the view employees have of their CEOs rests at all with a perception that these leaders are willing to say how good or bad things are, Burns does not pass the test.