Since the recession ended, companies have been forced to adapt to a new business environment and a new way of thinking about survival. Many tried-and-true methods of staying competitive and maintaining a healthy, engaged workforce have become obsolete. Now, more than ever, it’s imperative to take action to address threats to your productivity.
The first step to overcoming a challenge is to clearly identify it. So we want to know, what is the top threat to your business today?
Let us know by voting in our poll.
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Our leadership is not poor for the most part. Our area of weakness is Conflict / Resolution. Once we can better educate our managers on employee engagement and not distruction, it is my opinion we will see less turnover.
Poor Leadership: Somewhere along the way, leadership lost its focus on valuing employees. I’m not talking about “touchy-feely” pandering, but rather inspirational leadership and team building. During difficult economic times employees are repeatedly told they’re not doing enough, not producing enough, not sacrificing enough. All the while corporate executives are positioning the company for world leadership in the industry by purchasing competitors and manufacturing plants around the globe. I’m not decrying executive vision or global expansion. However, the continual devaluation of individual workers takes its tole on retention and employee morale.
One thing to consider is culture. The dot.com workers demanded flex hours,casual clothing and free Mt.Dew. Then came the building/development boom and young professionals in the engineering industry had similar traits. Working beyond 40hrs was an issue. The young ‘professionals’ liked their playtime. Over the past 3 years we have kept our company benefits but stressed the need to get higher billable hours. 90% utilization for these folks in a 40hr workweek is not asking too much. However the casual workplace fostered a more casual work approach. When times were good billable was there without focusing on your work for a few straight hours. To keep revenue we all bid lower to get the work. Trying to get them to do their work in less time has been a culture change. Those that look to move to a new job can’t find one to accomodate their old professional life. I think this is reflected in surveys but not recognized. That being a reason 75-85% of survey responders indicate they will change employers if given the opportunity.
For our company – it’s retention in top talent. We try to go above and beyond in employee incentives (health care, paid lunches, free uniforms, etc…) – but at the end of the day, more and more employees only care about pay in tough economic times. I can’t blame employees for trying to maximize their earning potential…
Employee Engagement or rather Disengagement! It is such a shame that in the tough times, companies tend to think their employees will never leave them, no matter how bad they treat them, no matter how long they go without a raise, etc., since the job market is bad. No matter what the economy is like, all employees deserve to be treated with respect. Why is respect a thing of the past? I see employee disengagement all over now, like never before. Hard working, dedicated employees should be appreciated, given a pat on the back (it doesn’t always have to cost money)… When and if the economy does get better, companies are going to loose their good/loyal help because of being underpaid, under appreciated, disrespected, etc. They will simply move on to bigger and better and nicer. Anyone agree?
Also, what I’m hearing a lot lately is how the cost of everything has gone up (gas, food, clothes, even cable tv…), but of course salaries are not. Some have not received a raise in years. Even if a company is doing well, employees seem to feel beat up… Hopefully things will change around for the good.