Earning : Can we secure it?

Much has been written about how our world has changed post COVID19 and the impact it has had and will continue to have in the coming years. It feels as if one fine day we woke up straight on the sets of Inception, Contagion, Minority Report, and a multitude of spy films all rolled into one. We are beyond pinching ourselves to find out if all this is real. 

2020 in usage was a fast-paced cricket match for us, but this has turned out to be the slowest unending period for us in terms of suffering, Health, Economy, Jobs, Education, Relationships and everything which we built within us as part of our existence.

The biggest fear among the larger populace is the insecurity of jobs. Many have lost their livelihood, and many are expected to lose in the coming months with worsening of Pandemic globally. Every other day we come across articles about professionals trying to pick up their careers after being shown the door. These are employees who have tirelessly worked across various offices and delivered results. Now they are faced with uncertainty without being at fault. Companies too are up in arms saying this was the only way they could save / close the business as it was not their fault too. Mortgages, School fees, Rents, Car loans, Medical bills are now swords hanging on people’s heads which is leading to depression, frustration and even breakdown in relationships. 

So, what went wrong here. Is it the Pandemic?. Is it lack of Preparedness by Companies? Is it lack of strong governance?. Well, all these surely are causes but I look at our systemic failure this unprecedented event has exposed us with respect to Job Security. 

As someone managing a medium to large team, I feel responsible towards the employees who keep the business robust and strong through their contributions. Without their smooth workflow business will surely collapse and objectives wouldn’t be met. But if faced with revenue pressures caused by COVID, it becomes extremely difficult to hold on to your teams after a point. You are forced to trim and restructure, knowing well that this situation will improve over the years and it would be difficult to put a team together when needed. 

As leaders, should we look at learning from this pandemic and rewire our employment policies with respect to the terms and conditions we hire employees under. Most and I mean 90% plus companies hire employees on an exclusive basis where they are barred from working on or with any other business. Companies feel the Salary paid to an employee is akin to exclusively taking over their rights of professional services. He/she is not allowed to engage in any other form of employment or business which would give them a second source of income. 

I can completely understand why companies tow this line. They are worried that an employee will start focusing more on his other (economic) interests whilst being paid by the company exclusively for its business functions. We need to have a relook at this. If we are hiring employees for a particular role, we are clearly setting his JD’s and JR’s including KRA’s. So, if he/she is delivering his KRA’s without fail and achieving business objectives, should the company be bothered about what else he or she is doing to create wealth. This needs to be debated but something which needs to be done before it’s too late.

This would have been a very tricky and brow raising question to ask ourselves pre COVID, but with this pandemic now we are seeing professionals who have lost their jobs finding it very difficult to rebuild their lives especially with the financial burdens they take upon themselves when their job was supposedly secure. Employees should feel proud of their workplaces whether they are working there currently or not. They should not feel cheated and let down especially when they were delivering business results. If they were allowed to juggle multiple earning opportunities without compromising on employee commitments to business, most of them would have hedged their employment risks. This thought would surely open many conversations but whatever the outcome it certainly will benefit both the company and employee.

Secondly companies need to insure employees against loss of employment due to natural calamities like this pandemic. This will ensure companies are not dipping into their reserves to pay employees during the golden handshake or the pink slip. Quite a heartburn when the business is already tight on earnings. The format of payout (sum insured) from the insurance company could be as follows:

- Under the scheme when an employee loses his/her job:  Employee is paid their last drawn ‘basic pay’ for half of the total time period he/she has worked in a company. For example, if an employee has worked for 5 years in a company and if he/she is given a pink slip owing to an event like a Pandemic, then he/she will get their last drawn basic pay for the next 2.5 years. 

This scheme also can be facilitated by companies and premium towards the policy can be cut from the salary whilst being employed. I am not getting too much into the mechanics, but I feel there is an opportunity for Insurance companies and industry to come together to put the same in place.

All of us are faced with uncertainty and given the backdrop we are also expected to take tough decisions which can have unintentional negative ramifications on employees. If we can look at tweaking our systems and minimizing exposure of employees to earning insecurity, I think we can build teams who are ready to face challenges and also create companies which people look up to.

Everyone is busy taking life insurance to ensure their families are not left in the lurch, if for any unfortunate reason they lose their life. But what about losing a primary livelihood when living. It is worse emotionally to see family suffer whilst living than the comfort of knowing they are taken care of once dead. Worth a thought.