Sunday Times Live (Johannesburg)
Leadership holds key to happy workers
Nov 14, 2010 12:00 AM By MARGARET HARRIS
There is no simple answer to what makes a company a good place to work, but there are issues that can make a big difference in how employees perceive their employer.
David Conradie, a director at Deloitte Consulting, which runs the Deloitte Best Company to Work For Survey, believes much rests on how the executive leadership behaves.
Some of the issues he highlights are:
- The executive leadership holds the line management responsible for the retention of staff.
- Low performers are not tolerated. If they are, high performers will begin to question why they should put in the effort, and morale across the company suffers.
- Senior leadership lives the company values.
- The executive committee takes responsibility for the company's human resources.
- Another issue that can make a difference is having a strong culture of open communication. Conradie says companies that consistently perform well in the survey have open communication.
In recent years, flexibility has become a bigger factor, with most employees preferring to reduce their hours and their pay to achieve a better work-life balance, says Conradie.
Though it usually is not at the top of the list, money cannot be ignored and will become a much bigger factor, he says, when there is relative inequality - either internal or external. In other words, if two people in the same organisation doing similar work earn very different salaries or there is a big difference in pay between different companies.
Vicki Marais-Swanepoel, managing director of PAG, says the global recession has made money a much more important employee motivator than previously.
"Globally, breadwinners, particularly sole breadwinners, have been placed under considerable pressure to meet bond repayments, car repayments and the like. It is not surprising, therefore, that the need for self-actualisation has become far less important - a 'nice to have' rather than a necessity."
Conradie says that, in the push to save money, many companies have forgotten to take care of their people.
It is not only the people going through the pain of retrenchment that have been badly treated. Those left behind are often expected to be grateful for still having a job. "The people left behind after retrenchments are under enormous strain, and they are usually the key talent. There is a tendency among companies to lose sight of their importance," he says. For those left behind, the company has become a bad place to work.
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http://dreamlearndobecome.blogspot.com This posting was made my Jim Jacobs, President & CEO of Jacobs Executive Advisors. Jim also serves as Leader of Jacobs Advisors' Insurance Practice.
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