Clearly, industrial relations is going to be an issue both sides of politics will be pushing their particular view on in the lead up to the next federal election.
However, most small to medium business owners I talk with are fed up with the politicians “positioning” and point scoring off each other and would rather just get on with their business.
Funny enough same goes for most employees.
Yes it’s true that both employers and employees want their respective interests to be looked after and yet neither party can achieve what they want without the other.
That’s right…profound isn’t it?
Yet as I travel around the country I hear regularly that one of the chief concerns of business owners’ inability to attract and retain quality staff.
And when I listen to the employees their common theme is, it’s hard to find a good employer of choice – an employer that will treat them as human and not just a resource to be used up and thrown away when no longer needed.
Sure it’s true that in certain industries there is the perennial problem of skill shortages. This makes the economics and operating environment of certain industries more challenging than others.
Yet since we live in a free enterprise economy the business owners and employees can make choices to change their situations.
Employers can choose to stay or leave challenging economic & operating environments. And regardless of whether one chooses to stay or leave an industry then surely one needs to accept the personal and leadership responsibility associated with that decision.
Employees can choose to stay in their current roles or they can choose to educate themselves and prepare themselves for opportunities that will surely come.
It was once said that the definition of success is when opportunity and preparedness meet.
You see an opportunity could pass right in front of you, however if you are not prepared then you cannot take hold of it and enjoy the associated success.
There will be further structural adjustments throughout the Australian and world economy in future years.
How will you choose to position yourself or your business?
Employers and employees can choose to prepare or not.
As a practical matter one way employers and employees can prepare is that they can begin to see things from the perspective of a WIN WIN.
For instance, we all recognize that business owners want to maximize their return on investment from their business.
Conventional wisdom is that one of the inputs to doing this is tightly managing costs. Wages and salaries are a cost so I must ensure there are no cost blow outs.
This conventional approach typically sees employees as “human resources” to be used up. It is often inflexible, based on seniority and does not reward staff for their contribution to the bottom line.
Whereas….
Unconventional wisdom sees employees as active contributing assets (not costs or overhead) that can assist in profitably running the business and eliminating inefficiencies and maximizing the customer experience and the profit per transaction.
These businesses are flexible; fast acting; entrepreneurial in their approach and willing to share the profits of the company in proportion to contribution to the bottom line.
This whole area of employee reward is a huge topic and it is not my intention to deal with it here other than to say that it is my astute observation that much of the political debate concerning industrial relations would in fact be a non-issue if employers would start treating their employees as real valuable people (and not just give lip service to staff being your most valuable “resource”).
Practically this means having clear job descriptions for every employee and a clear understanding of what is expected along with measurable performance indicators on the inputs and/or outputs to each role.
Remember that which you monitor and measure is that which will get done.
Employees on the other hand would do themselves a great service if they would recognize the power of true partnership and actively engage (& be seen to be engaging) their brains while undertaking their daily jobs. This might mean, fro example, going the extra mile to get the up sell or cross sell.
Good employers would recognize that it is good business to motivate and incentivise their staff to do this.
The end result of a business with a healthy “culture”; good communication between workers and management; clear concise performance expectations; innovative employee rewards programs is a business that, all other being equal, will thrive and prosper.
What type of business do you own? Or work for?
Perhaps your business is one of the 63.6 % of businesses that pay a staff member more than the business owner takes home each week.
Are you willing to deal with the hard issues and accept responsibility where needed?
What actions do you need to take?
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This column was compiled by Paul Wright from excerpts originally published by Damien Parker, Publisher of the
subscription only Positive Business Newsletter & Information Service. The Right Team, Sales Strategists & Business Improvement
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