Listen to the Thunder

There’s a great scene in the HBO television series “Deadwood” that seems like it has no relevance whatsoever to HR and Benefits.  Trust me, I can take anything from popular culture and make it relevant to you.

In this scene, the honorable Wild Bill Hickock tells a woman that he warned her husband not to stick around Deadwood.  The husband didn’t listen and ended up dead.  Wild Bill asks his widow if she can imagine the sound of thunder.  She says she can.  He then gives her the same advice to leave town, but this time, he says it in thunder and….

“Ma’am, listen to the thunder”.

If you work in HR or Benefits, you must pay attention to the GameStop saga of the past couple of weeks.  The people behind this saga are telling you something, and they are telling it to you in thunder.

If you scroll through the WallStreetBets sub-Reddit, you will see a group of people in the millions saying they are doing this because they are tired of being manipulated by the system, tired of being the loser when the system breaks, and that they’re mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore.

It’s the thunderous emotional component of this saga that is relevant to you.  These are hourly workers.  These are the people your business employs.  These are the people who were already struggling before the pandemic, and are struggling even more now, especially if they’ve been furloughed. 

Not a few.  Not a thousand.  Not ten thousand.  Millions.

Don’t be fooled.  This isn’t about stock trading or GameStop or making hedge funds into villains.  It’s the subtext that matters.  It’s what they are really saying underneath the narrative itself.

They want to feel respected.  They want to feel valued.  They want to feel seen.

This is the attitude you are facing in HR and Benefits from existing and returning workforces.  

Now, HR is often thought of as being reactive.  The feds and the state establish regulations and you put policy into place.  A trend appears in the workplace and you react to it accordingly.  An employee comes to you with a problem and you help solve it.

Yet the rules of the workplace are shifting and HR must shift with it.  HR cannot afford to be reactive anymore.  By the time HR reacts, it’ll be too late.  HR personnel must now anticipate what’s coming down the road by keeping an eye on what is happening emotionally and psychologically on a mass scale.  

Not only is it necessary just to remain competitive, but you will gain a competitive advantage in recruitment, retention, and productivity.

So you’d better believe workers are paying attention to the benefits being offered in 2021 compared to every previous year.  If those benefits aren’t being chosen with extremely thoughtful analysis, your workers are going to notice….and you’d better believe they are paying much closer attention that you may think.

If you don’t offer them what they need right now, then they will find someone who will.   That is the lesson of GameStop.

What they need – and now I’ll say it in thunder – is access to the wages they’ve earned when they want them.   Not every week.   Not every two weeks.   Whenever they want.

It costs the employer nothing.  It either costs the employee nothing, or a nominal fee.  

Give your workers access to what is already theirs, or they will go to someone who will.

LISTEN.  TO.  THE.  THUNDER.