Yesterday I wrote a post about what our expectations should be of the businesses we work in, especially as they strive to become more productive. I think to no one's surprise, the end of the paternalistic employer-employee model has come. In a month when IBM can transfer a significant chunk of its business to Lenovo AND announce it will reduce headcount by close to 10,000 people, there are no more assumptions about lifetime employment - so goodbye gold watch.
But if we are letting our hair down and re-establishing a dialogue between the employees of firms and the firms themselves about what constitutes the working contract, we should start off with some honesty on both sides. As firms become leaner and meaner, as they compete on a global scale, as they strive to become more productive, their needs for employees are changing. The type of skills they need will change, where those people are in their careers and where they are geographically will change. The mix of skills they need will change frequently as well. Yet I don't hear too many CEOs out talking to their work force and the generation in college today giving them advice on what the future is going to look like. Many CEOs and business leaders will talk about greater foreign competition and the need to become more productive. Some will talk about cost cutting or the need for new workers with new skills. But I've yet to hear a business leader lay out a vision for what the relationship and dialog between the senior management team and the people who make up the work force should be. What should we expect as employees? What do you need from us? We're a lot smarter and more flexible than you might think.
Let's put ourselves in the CEO's shoes for a moment. She needs a workforce that can be rapidly re-organized, is flexible, who can cross disciplines and adjust to a rapidly changing environment. She needs business processes that are adaptable and flexible. She needs smart, productive, fast workers who are willing to build new cultures as frequently as necessary. Employee loyalty would be great if we could get it.
What do those workers look like, and how do we find, compensate and keep them? First, tell them the unvarnished truth: competing in the global economy is tough, and requires a lot from the employees. Defining one's self by a job title might not be the best approach when existing job titles are disappearing and new ones are appearing very rapidly. People who can work effectively in cross-functional disciplines will be more valuable. This means they understand the business as a whole, not just one part of it. It also means they need to be able to communicate and make themselves understood by people they may not work with everyday. We need employees that can build bridges and trusted relationships with business partners, vendors and customers. To move quickly and effectively, there's got to be a trusted relationship with these other parties. Holding them at arm's length and trying to extract the "best deal" is a losing proposition in the long run.
We've got to do a better job educating our work force on what it means to be more productive, what skills and talents they need in order to be successful in the new competitive environment, and we need to invest in them - provide them with the training and education necessary to give them the tools they need. We also need to expect more from them by raising our expectations and giving them more responsibility. The top-down approach to management takes too much time.
The organizational structure of most businesses (and the definition of most organizational structures and positions) was first established by the railroad industry over 120 years ago. You can, as they say, look it up. However, we don't set our watches by Amtrak anymore, and we need to find new models for how we organize for success. When are our business leaders going to tell us what we already know? Current expectations, promises and business models are outdated. Let's establish a new contract - employer and employee. We'll be as flexible, as willing to change and to learn, as management will be to educate and to demonstrate and communicate a new vision. Demonstrate trust in us, we'll build trust with our business partners and customers, and we'll thrive.
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