Let's Talk about the Human Cost of Hiring/Firing
To some, it seems like the odds are stacked heavily against employees. In good times, companies expect them to put in extra effort to accelerate growth. In bad times, companies are quick to terminate "unnecessary" workers. Too often, the human cost – a family's loss of food, shelter and education – is largely ignored.
On September 3rd, at 1pm ET/10am PT Linkedin is sponsoring a *live* webinar to discuss the realities of modern hiring. (Sign up here to get reminders and attend.) CAREEREALISM founder and CEO, JT O'Donnell, will be moderating the event and I'll be participating along with headhunter and author, Lou Adler.
If you can't make the live event, please sign up anyway and save the link; it will allow you to watch later, at your convenience.
This Slideshare was part of my original article on the subject, which motivated JT and LinkedIn to organize this live event. In it, I confronted the shocking practice – to me – of companies announcing record profits as they simultaneously terminated employees.
I know there are no easy answers. Companies operate in a free market system, one that has been drifting for years towards short-term results. No single firm controls this system, nor has the power to change it overnight.
My fear, however, is that this continuing shift towards short-term results, left unchecked, will result in a system that is so far out of balance that it topples over. We are coming up on the fifth anniversary of the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers, and some days I feel like we haven't learned anything from the experience.
One word: loyalty
It really all comes down to loyalty, and whether or not anyone thinks we should continue to value it. Should employees, companies and investors be loyal to those who earn their loyalty, or is loyalty a hopelessly outdated concept?
If loyalty disappears, we all will be living in an increasingly unpredictable and volatile world. It will be early impossible for anyone to plan for the future, and all of us will suffer.
You, of course, may disagree. Lou and JT may disagree. We'll find out next Tuesday, and I hope that we all gain some insights from the event.
What Do YOU Want Us To Discuss?
When you sign up, please suggest questions that we can discuss in this live session. For example...
- Under what circumstances does a company owe loyalty to its employees?
- If a company shows loyalty to employees, what sort of loyalty should employees offer the company in return?
- Do you have any ideas for creating win/win relationships between companies and employees?
I hope you can join us on Tuesday.
UPDATE (11:30 a.m. ET): To help me prepare for next Tuesday, Adam Grant just sent me a very interesting piece of research by Wayne Cascio, Strategies for Responsible Restructuring. Here's a quick excerpt that really caught my eye:
One group of firms, by far the larger of the two, saw employees as costs to be cut. The other, much smaller group of firms, saw employees as assets to be developed... The downsizers see employees as commodities - like paper clips or light bulbs, interchangeable and substitutable for each other... in contrast, responsible restructurers see employees as sources of innovation and renewal. They see in employees the potential to grow their business."
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Bruce Kasanoff (@NowPossible on Twitter) is author of the free online career guide, Simplify Your Future. Click the "follow" button below to see more of Bruce's articles on LinkedIn.
Well expirienced Elektrical Engineer,from Cruise ship operation and Seismic reserts for Hydro Carbones.
11 年This is a reality in manny company,s when so caled finansial "experts" are hired and the company do not see theinportance of the human asset.
Digital & Business Development Manager at Business Services International Pty Ltd
11 年The perspective of loyalty can be different for both the employer and the employee. A successful relationship can only be established if both the sides are showing loyalty in their own respective way. As an example of a benefit of loyalty, there is a company that I know of that used to treat their employees well. The increments, the bonuses and as well as the medical insurances were given out. Somewhere down the line the owner of the business took an advice from an “expert” on financial cost cutting that is where things started going downhill, despite the said company doing really good in this economy due to the nature of their business, started implementing those ideas. They claimed that some steps were necessary in order to get through recession, now this could have been believable had not the sales figures and profits been common knowledge to many of the employees. The company stopped increments and cut down bonuses as much as 40% and the medical insurance was no more, it did not happen at once but gradually all the benefits were taken away. Now for the interesting part Is that despite all this, the employees believed what the boss had told them since many had been a part of that company for years, in short even when getting job offers from other companies they were reluctant to leave, this went on for about 2 years, some left that company, many held on. The end result was that in a span of 2 years, all the talent had left the company and now that company has a hard time hiring new people to replace the old “higher paid” ones. The strategy to kick out the old employees in favor of more recent graduates did not work well and till today, I continue to see the how the company continues to decline. If let’s assume for a moment that the company was in a real recession, it was the loyalty that kept people clinging to them despite other opportunities available to them, If the loyalty Is shown from both the sides – then only truly we can move forward in an environment where we can nurture professionally.
empleado en sanatorio americano
11 年The project is interest front you'me
Independent Living Specialist at DAWN Center for Independent Living
11 年Very well stated! I know the dollars-and-cents cost from a cousin who is a professor of business psychology. I also know the human cost from my own experience - and how much my family - and so many others - has also suffered. Business leaders, policy makers (politicians), and consumers all need to decide what kind of world we want to live in.
Creates Businesses for Emerging Markets
11 年Can we be connections Bruce?