Time to Trust the Workforce

It's Time to Trust the Workforce. .

I've never undedrstood why companies can  demand total commitment from their staff when their policies communicate total distrust and disrespect for those same staff. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy it seems for them starting with their approach to hiring. Then they reinforce their low expectations by treating their staff as ones to be distrusted, disrespected...and finally they create incentives to reward those who merely obey.

Don't get me wrong. Of course your trust will be abused. Or it's misplaced. Or a limit's reached with someone's ability to honor your trust, respect, and commitment. Stuff happens; people change. Maybe the timing's not right and it's nothing to do with you or your company. Maybe no one's cared enough to sit down and explain a better way.

But when you create trust issues with your staff...it's not going to be long before your customers will have trust issues with your products, services, prices, policies...ie your brand.

And I use the term 'create' as opposed to the more passive, possessive term of 'have'. It's your decisions as a manager and leader that create the problem. There's no victims here, only volunteers. Or small-c creators.

Jeffrey Pfeiffer at Business 2.0 inspired this riff with a worthy post titled: It's time to start trusting the workforce (hard copy title). It's a great read, comprehensive, logical, realistic and fair. Here's a couple of lines that caught my attention:

.. I don't see why everyone seems so obsessed with shareholder rights, who, given average portfolio turnover, often don't own an average share for even a year, when we can be so cavalier about the rights of employees who have much more personal capital and economic well-being at stake.

Power's the crux of the issue. Power and the options that it's possession offers. Employees have more at stake...and fewer options, sometimes. Unfortunately, so many companies fail to create policies that make best use of vested interest by their workforce. Rather than point out the shared interests and common goals...they take the easier route, the route of divide and conquer, to use this vested interest as a means to merely control, not inspire.

Too bad. Even with limited options, workers still have choice.

Without rights and protections, workers won't stay for long. But give them the oppotunity to make things better, aided by rights and protections to get ther voices heard, and they're more likely to and become more loyal to their organizations.

As a leader or manager you have the choice: give them the opportunity to make things better (make your brand better) and give them a means to have their voice heard...their personal capital and economic well-being that binds them now serves to inspire them.

Thats with the ones who stay. Everyone has choices now.

Comments

[Kimber]

Ummm...employee loyalty? Long term employee loyalty is dead. I don't know a single person in my generation (35) who hasn't been laid off at least once. We've had long term employee loyalty beaten out of us. I am loyal to my employer of today but tomorrow, that could all change.

[zane]

Sad, it’s so true. I don’t get it: why companies behave that way. I mean I do. But…it’s unbelievably unnecessary (except for bonuses for a small number) and ultimately very destructive for their company, their soul and the social fabric. I digress…

You’ve got a great blog. I’ll give you a shout and a link in the next week.

Thanks.