Does the Economic Crash Really Spell the End of Staff Satisfaction and Engagement? (Nothing’s Changed You Idiot)

I recently came across an article interviewing several human capital specialists about the implications of the economic crash for employee management. The gist of their collective views was that the power balance had shifted from employees to employers. Apparently – according to these wise consultant folk – employers no longer need to worry about wether their employees are satisfied and engaged. In these dire economic times, they should just be grateful to have a job.    

 

It goes something like this.  IQ has replaced EQ as the key employee management strategy so employees ‘… just sit down shut up and get on with it’.  Generation Y – you’re in for the shock of your life.  The days of picking and choosing are over.  Don’t expect you’re employer to care about you’re training and development.  Forget coaching and participating – just behoove to your authoritarian masters and be thankful they put the pittance in your bank account each month.  Don’t ruminate about the latest i-thing you can’t afford as you sweat it out in some back room for the man…  (OK – a little bit exaggerated but you get the drift..)

 

I never know how this sort of tripe gets into the pages of my daily city news paper.   As I see it, the balance has changed for those who have lost their job – no question.  But for those still in the job the balance has just become a bit misshapen – contorted.  This is because when after an employer   has decided who to keep and gone through the harrowing process of “disengaging” (i.e. sacking) the unfortunate employees no longer required (who were most likely employed as a result of poor decisions anyway – but that’s another story),  the employer is probably left with less staff to do more work. Now to get these now stressed and torn people to work more productively than ever, the last thing you want to do is reduce their engagement and  satisfaction levels. 

 

The ability to harness employee motivation and creativity  will more than likely be the differentiating factor which separates the winners from the losers in the current economic environment.  Getting your people to work harder at being more efficient, solving more problems and creating new solutions is a recipe for opportunity. growth and prosperity – just the same as it always has been, but even more so right now.  And if you can’t pay them for it properly at the moment, link their efforts to the company’s future prosperity at least so that when it all pays off they will get some reward. 

 

So if you think that getting tough on your staff is just natural and justifiable reaction to an economic downturn – let me tell you – your lawyers won’t care when you’re down at the insolvency court.