Owner’s Concerns v/s Employee Concerns
The
corporate dynamics today has taken a complete new turn. Companies are spending
huge amounts of money and resources on employee engagement and training,
largely focusing on employee retention and efficiency enhancement. Overall spending by businesses on workplace training and
development has increased by 12% last year, according to a new study by a
leading consulting firm. In spite of these efforts taken by the
management to attain one common goal- growth, business owners are still finding
it difficult to chug the engine and the workforce bogies faster towards the
envisaged destination.
Blessed are
the businesses that do not need to constantly face the following “chicken first
or egg first” scenario.
Business
Owner: “I am more than willing to give what my people want, if they deliver
what they have promised.”
Employee: “I
am more than willing to perform if I get what’s promised and all the resources
I need to do the job.”
Take the
recent case of a French video game offering players the chance to become a
virtual employee of steel manufacturer ArcelorMittal and fight against a giant
robot representing the owner, the Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal. While one
could argue that this is the extreme representation of the gulf (and resulting
resentment) between a company’s leadership and its employees, it’s also true
that more and more businesses are dealing with the challenge of making these
two forces focus in one direction.
Where lies the challenge?
A business
caters to the following needs of its owner and the employees when it is a
progressive small firm. (i.e. owner is synonymous with the business he runs).
When this
business grows and becomes big in terms of scale of operations and geographies
start expanding, the needs it caters to the owner and employees also change.
This may
seem like a natural change. Notice the possibility of the common needs that get
catered to drastically reducing i.e. the common purpose the business serves is
only as a source of income. If this expanding gulf between the employees and the
owner is not attended to the chances of realizing the envisaged goals become
further bleak.
Can you
imagine what would happen to a chariot where each horse pulls in a different
direction driven by its own set of motivations?
Why this challenge?
As a parent,
they say, one of the most challenging relationships to manage is the one
between a teenage child and the parent.
Why is that?
Frictions
start developing when the needs that get catered to through this relationship have
a minimum level of overlap. Similarly, when a small boutique company progresses
and evolves into an SME and eventually to a corporate, the purpose it serves to
these two sets of stakeholders also starts to differ drastically. And the last
thing the chariot of business needs is these horses applying forces in
different directions.
What are the common assumptions that must be avoided?
“Can’t
they see the numbers? It’s common sense that we must be as frugal as possible
at this hour!”
No, they
can’t see it. And what’s common sense to you is business acumen to others.
Instead focus on how you could be a story teller who can inspire them to rally
behind you and help overcome the tough times.
“They
are not operating at 100% of their efficiency. If they did I would be in a
different orbit.”
Even a F1
driver cannot give his best if the environment is not competitive and the car
he drives has glitches. The owner’s job is to make the environment competitive
and to put in a system that doesn’t allow mediocrity.
“Management
seems to be totally divided or confused about certain strategies. I wish they
knew better.”
Running a
business is more like sailing a ship from one continent to another. Ambiguity
is the name of the game. Trust the captain to do his job at the deck.
Diligently do your work at the belly of the ship.
So what needs to be done?
How
effectively a leader can manage these situations is directly proportional to
the number of opportunities he/she creates for the involved parties to get into
each others’ shoes. Some businesses believe that this is
the role of the HR function. However,
successful organizations recognize that while the HR function plays the role of
facilitators of such opportunities, it’s the leaders who take the
accountability of tapping on these opportunities. The opportunity could be a
town hall, storytelling sessions, skip level discussions, anonymous surveys,
one-on-one discussions, or any other form of engagement activity. The key is to
make this a part of the system and put in enough measures to ensure that
mediocrity doesn’t creep in to the execution of the same.
(The author of the article is Rajesh Shetty, Senior Consultant,
Acumen Business Consulting.)
About Acumen:
Established in
2000, Acumen Business
Consulting is a management consulting firm dedicated to deliver business
success to organizations
globally. The
company focuses at providing
practical and implementable solutions to bring about a
transformation in organizational strategies, people and processes.
Built with a
strong team of professionals, the company was incepted with an objective of making organizations work smarter, be more sensitized
towards employees and the business environment; which in turn maximizes their
profit potential.
Acumen has conducted over 110
engagements across India covering industry verticals like Manufacturing, Real
Estate, FMCG, Telecom, Automotive and Pharmaceutical, both domestic and international.
