Three Reasons to Treat your Employees Right
I am dismayed when I hear about some organizations who appear to be blithely exploiting the employer advantage in the current labor market. While understanding that business is not for sissies and hard decisions need to be made, I believe some leaders including HR pros are being short-sighted and will pay later for short term gains achieved at the expense of their employees.
Three Reasons to Treat your People Right
1. Employees Less Than Impressed
We have many indications that employees are unhappy with recent treatment: stories of workers resigning without notice, sobering reports of unfair practices, and several recent surveys indicating that a majority of employees are considering leaving their jobs this year. Workers in unhappy circumstances hear this mantra: Just be glad you have a job. Well, employees may agree that a crappy job is usually preferable to no job. But when the economy rebounds and opportunities increase, how many unimpressed workers will stick around?
2. Political and Legislative Trends
Let’s just think about:
EFCA, EFCA-lite and Son of EFCA, and other EFCA permutations under discussion.
RESPECT Act: incarnations could have significant impact on your ability to stay union-free. Your front-line supervisors are your front-line defense, and if they are as disillusioned as other employees in this CareerBuilder survey, you’ll want to stay on top of attempts to re-introduce this act.
NLRB appointments: Craig Becker and union lawyer Mark Pearce on the NLRB changes everything according to employment attorney Ronald Mason, making EFCA, RESPECT and many other points of labor law very relevant again.
3. It’s the right thing to do.
The public is fed up with corporate greed, lack of transparency and accountability. People want ethical leaders who are true to stated values and treat people right. As this former union organizer says, to avoid unionization, communicate clearly, act consistently, and most of all, follow the golden rule! We should treat people right ALL the time, not just when forced by changing market conditions.
In summary, the effects of the economic and political climates are coming together in what could be a perfect labor storm for HR and management. Now is the perfect time to make sure you are doing right by your employees. If you don’t, the message is that you are aligning with the old, hated way of doing business. And you increase the chances that people will flee as soon as they have the opportunity, while back at the shop HR bargains with our new friends, the union.
photo by: SeeMidTN.com
And the #1 reason: it’s better for business. So many studies have shown that happy and engaged workers lead to higher customer satisfaction, profits and stock prices.
Amen, amen, amen. Makes sense all around.
I absolutely agree. I would have made #3 the first point. When you do the right thing, the other pieces should fall into place.
No matter the economic circumstances, a true leader should always treat their employees as they (the employer) want to be treated (golden rule). You reap what you sew – a couple of years from now we will be reading about companies that survived this economic time with questionable personnel practices but will not be able to cope with the lack of quality employees. Wanna bet these same employers will be pointing their finger of guilt at some outside reason instead of looking at the three fingers pointing back at them??
Penina, obviously I agree with you. But if businesses don’t already agree from an ethical/values basis, I hope they will take notice of points 1 and 2.
Bob, too true. And even good and great companies have to stretch to figure out how they can do the best job of treating people right during such difficult financial times. E.g., is it preferable to lay a small number of people off versus reducing everyone’s pay and benefits? Or perhaps your organization might decide the opposite approach is better. Though there are no easy answers, I think involving your employees in the decisions that affect them (at an appropriate level)during tough times can help. And of course, communicating openly helps, as does being consistent, predictable and human.
I also absolutely agree. I wish we lived in a world where #3 would have been the logical first point, but it does seem that the financial disadvantages to doing virtually anything will always need to be the first point to be compelling to most senior leaders and decision-makers. Thanks for the encapsulation of why companies should care more about engagement.
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