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NOVEMBER
2001
New
Challenges Face Today’s Workplace
GIVEN
THE UNCERTAIN NEW WORLD in which we live, many employers
have scaled back profit projections, postponed capital spending
decisions and announced substantial layoffs. Employees who
once stood around the water cooler talking about the workplace
may now be speculating about their next place of work.
It’s
time, we believe, to start restoring confidence in the workplace
and sanity to the economy.
Widget
companies, in other words, need to resume selling, manufacturing
and distributing widgets. Their sales representatives need
to get back on planes, so they can call on customers. Their
finance people need to sign off on the engineering department’s
plans for a new plant. Their marketing gurus need to launch
new advertising campaigns, convincing the public there’s
never been a better time to buy widgets. And their HR professionals
need to acquire precious human capital before the competition
does.
Economic
Viewpoints Differ
On the
encouraging side, a survey conducted by A. T. Kearney’s
Global Business Policy Council following the September 11
terrorist attacks found that two-thirds of CEOs and senior
executives from the world’s largest companies still
intend to maintain global investments at the same level as
last year. That is despite the fact that 95 percent see greater
economic uncertainty around the world.
Less
encouragingly, increasing numbers of employees are concerned
about their own futures.
Monster.com,
the world’s largest job board and candidate registry,
has reported a record number of résumé postings
– in no small measure a reflection of the rising unemployment
rate. Even though the happily employed are under-represented
on any job board, it is still surprising to learn that only
seven percent of recent Monster visitors believed their jobs
to be secure, while 36 percent believed their jobs could be
“the next to go.” (Results are based on nearly
15,000 responses to an online poll, conducted September 17-24.)
With
U.S. joblessness hovering around the five-percent mark, the
level of paranoia found in the Monster survey is incredible
indeed. Unless they are facing the direst of financial conditions,
few employers are likely to lay off a third or more of their
workforces.
The problem
is that if 36 percent of workers (or even 26 percent or 16
percent) believe their heads to be on the chopping block,
too few employees are focused on getting widgets out the door.
All things considered, a fearful workforce is not a productive
one.
Who’s
at fault? Certainly, recent events have not helped. Some might
add that the news media’s tendency to spotlight isolated
layoffs and plant closings leaves the impression that they
are more prevalent than is actually the case. And many employers,
uncertain themselves as to what each new day may bring, end
up communicating that uncertainty to their workers –
directly or indirectly.
Some
Constants Won’t Change
Pundits
of all persuasions say that life will not be as certain or
predictable as it was a few short months ago. But it is equally
true that human nature will emerge from the current crisis
essentially unchanged.
Ordinary
work can provide a haven from the grisly scenes on the evening
news, and the fact is that most employees would like work
to get back to normal. Corporate managers can do a lot for
their companies, not to mention the global economy, by taking
advantage of these fundamental truths:
- People,
in general, want to work. Work provides a sense of purpose.
Work makes people feel productive. Work pays the bills.
So do your best to create a positive environment that helps
people feel good about working there. If times are tough
in your particular organization, discuss matters openly
and ask for employees’ help. Avoid unnecessary anxiety.
If shrinkage is required, it’s better to take one
or two big bites out of the organization than to nibble
it to death.
- Your
best employees will continue to go the extra mile. They
are the people who make a difference in your company’s
performance, and you want to do your best to recognize and
reward them. If there is no profit to share this year, or
if their stock options are underwater, it’s likely
that a good compensation consultant can suggest creative
solutions. If pain-sharing is the name of today’s
game, reassure your top performers that gain-sharing follows.
Belief in a light at the end of the tunnel is usually enough
to help the tough get going.
- Most
other employees will strive to be about average. It’s
the Bell Curve principle. If you could, in effect, shift
that curve to the right by increasing average performance,
productivity would rise accordingly. As a result, the entire
organization would be better prepared not only to weather
the current downturn – but also to increase market
share and emerge from the downturn in stronger position.
- A
few won’t be up to the task. There always will be
a bottom 10 percent. While their presence may be tolerated
during good times, it becomes a drag during bad. But even
at-will employers need to be careful with mass layoffs.
The two recognized reasons for firing people are documented
poor performance and lack of work. Thus, while you can close
a plant for lack of orders, you can’t fire everyone
over 50 years of age because they earn the most. If you
seek to lay off poor performers, statistically they should
be of different ages, races, sex, etc.
- The
early bird will get the worm. Top performers, by definition,
are in short supply. And yours is not the only company trying
to capture those select few. Your executive search firm
can help identify high-caliber individuals who are ready
to make a move if the opportunity is right. In general,
these superstars have succeeded in their chosen professions
by having highly honed instincts, and they can smell indecision
at a hundred paces. An appalling number of employers are
victims today of rejected offers because they took too long
to extend them, causing candidates to become disenchanted
and look elsewhere.
Beefing
up the Management Team
As this
newsletter noted in a previous issue, most management teams
have one or two weak links. At no time in the last several
decades has the need been so great for management teams that
can function at 110 percent. In other words: No Weak Links.
The challenge
facing such teams is to:
- Stop
any hemorrhaging caused by lost sales;
- Build
business at least back to prior levels;
- Gain
market share at the expense of timid or disorganized competitors;
- Be
firmly positioned for the coming recovery.
Are there
line or staff executives at other companies who might be able
to make a significant contribution to that task through their
fresh perspective and creative thinking? It may be the best
of all possible times to conduct a discreet search.
Even
though economic recovery now appears postponed until the second
or third quarter of 2002, it will come. If history is any
judge, some organizations will be prepared for it –
while others won’t.
Preparation
means trimming fat without cutting away the bone, strengthening
the organization as opposed to weakening it, and letting everyone
know that it’s back to work – with renewed commitment
to building a better future. That’s a demanding but
achievable task.
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