Minimum Wage Heroes

The high risk/low wage dilemma of our front line workers is not unique to COVID19 or any other time bound crisis we’ve faced in history. What do we really think about this? And what do we do now?

 - The following article acknowledges the unintentional heroes that our frontline workers are and always have been;

 - Presents the opportunity to think of and position your frontline as the ultimate determinant of post C-19 success, failure or survival;

-  Points out the hypocrisy of the risk/ reward equation that we are supposed to have built our economies on.

 - And presents the reality that the best traits of our frontline workers should almost certainly be intentionally structured and nurtured into our post C-19 companies and economies.

 Headline takeaway: Stronger frontline = stronger company = stronger economy.

 Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on how we all deliver.

Donna Morrow and Lisa MacCallum

 @Inspiredcompanies

#minimumwageheroes

#leadership

#inspiredcompanies

US Marines take an oath at enlistment, to support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies. Medieval knights, police officers and physicians make an oath to protect and serve. All of these professionals embark on their careers knowing they will eventually face at least one, if not an ongoing series of life or death moments.

What COVID19 has made glaringly apparent, is the life or death reliance we now place on food delivery workers, farm workers, food service and hospital staff, cleaners, pharmacy assistants, bus drivers, teachers, postal carriers, emergency workers and first responders… to name just a few. These front line workers, intentionally or not, are putting their lives on the line every day as we shelter in place, work from home and social distance.

Less than a few months ago, these roles were more regularly referred to as “temporary”, “expendable”, “low skilled” jobs. Now however, it has come into clear focus that people who perform these roles are indeed the worlds’ essential employees. Workers who suddenly find themselves in high-risk, very low-paying jobs.

When you think about it for more than a few seconds, this high risk/low wage dilemma is not unique to COVID19 or any other time bound crisis we have faced in history. These frontline roles have held the greatest risk and lowest reward for as long as we can all remember. 

On December 11, 2012 a 22 year old man opened fire in a random act of violence in a Clackamas County Oregon shopping mall. Instead of running for their lives, baristas, sales assistants, mall security officers and cashiers bravely served as shields while they urgently directed panicked shoppers through their stores and out back entrances into safety.

Not exactly what they trained and signed up for.

In May 2019, high school football coach, Keanan Lowe managed to calmly disarm a troubled youth who had brought a loaded shotgun into the classroom at Parkrose High School. No blood was shed and no lives were lost in this narrowly averted tragedy. In fact, the image history is left with is an awe inspiring image of a coach embracing a highly troubled child who, instead of shooting, dropped his shotgun and sobbed openly in the arms of his teacher.

In every community around the world, there are tragedies that didn’t happen because of the courageous efforts of frontline employees. We should now know with great clarity, that not only will they do their jobs, they will oftentimes be the ones who stand between you and a life threatening situation.

What drives people who work on the front lines? At a basic level, many just want to put food on the table and a roof overhead. Some of course, genuinely take these roles because they enjoy engaging with people and serving the community they live in as directly as possible. What else do we know though? Probably not much because we frequently don’t ask.

What we do know from what we see time and time again, is that frontline workers generally speaking, index high for loyalty, grit, courage and a sense of affinity with organizations that stand for something they can feel proud of. This is not new. We’ve all heard the legendary story of when JFK introduced himself to a janitor who was mopping the floor during a tour of NASA’s operations in 1961. The President asked him what he did there for a job, to which he responded, “Well Mr. President, I’m here to put a man on the moon.”

While this is totally inspiring, sadly, the name of said janitor is unknown or at least, never referenced in the storytelling. I wonder if anyone asked.

I’m not sure how you’re feeling right now, but certainly for us, this is a major “OH SHIT” moment.

Stepping back, it seems that we are way overdue as a global community, to rethink and reset how we value, reward and invest in our frontlines. It strikes us that other than just being flat out wrong – it is in direct conflict to some of the key and founding principles of capitalism.

Now, as people who admittedly grew up in middle income households and then primarily in the corporate sector, everything we thought was true and ok about the structure of wages, how you pay, reward and invest in low skilled versus high skilled workers in developed economies suddenly feels, well, wrong.

Not just a little bit wrong. Egregiously wrong.

Thankfully this is not lost on several governments and leaders during the unfolding of C-19. Exploring how to reset our economies to be higher wage economies, is on the agenda of a number of governments. Justin Trudeau’s government over in Canada just today announced up to $3bn in financial support to increase wages of low-income essential workers. Details to follow but, that’s a great start. Down in the Southern hemisphere, Jacinda Ardern’s Government recently ruled out delaying New Zealand’s minimum wage increases despite enormous economic pressures brought on by C-19. She was criticized as politicians generally are – but somehow in light of what we’re talking about here, such criticism feels incredibly tone deaf.

Businessman and Dallas Maverick’s owner, Mark Cuban, sums up our point of view well in his commentary regarding the return of basketball. As he contemplates safe return of player training programs, games and our thirst for basketball’s entertainment, he has consistently called out lessons learned from the life-saving heroics of essential employees. He says, “It’s not about the mythical goal of “trickle-down economics”, but the lesson of trickle-up economics and the reality that if we don’t take care of frontline employees, there is no economy.”

But let’s move beyond the successful restructuring of our future economies to perhaps something even more profoundly flawed:

Our stereotyped thinking about the leadership potential of “low skilled” frontline workers.

What we are seeing around the world is an outpouring of support for and acknowledgement of essential jobs. We’ve seen nurses, cleaners and emergency workers brought to tears perhaps out of relief that someone is noticing them. Each time we celebrate them, we are celebrating the glorious and instantaneous leadership they are showing when we need them most. But what if we could identify these leadership traits earlier and more intentionally? Proactively develop the frontline into our highest profile executive and governing leaders?

This is not a long shot by any stretch. In fact, frontline experience can be found in the early careers of many prominent and celebrated leaders.

Mark Parker, now Executive Chairman at NIKE, started his career with the Sportswear brand in 1979 as a “Lab Rat,” (though his official bio says Footwear Designer). Howard Putnam started as a baggage handler at Capital Airlines at age 17 and became CEO of Southwest Airlines. Indra Nooyi started her career as a receptionist and became Chair and CEO of Pepsico. Mary Barra started on the assembly lines at General Motors at age 18. Now she’s the Chair of the Board.

Among today’s frontline employees are some of the globe’s future leaders and CEOs. Now that we know definitively and so obviously that the world functions and thrives because of essential workers – it’s time to more intentionally and structurally support their success. It would be a monumental opportunity cost, knowing what C-19 has so abruptly proven, to wait for them to somehow (and miraculously) make it through the myriad of hurdles to make their leadership mark.

The opportunity here is to think of front line employees as the team that will lead your organization’s post Covid-19 revamp or perhaps even post Covid renaissance. Acknowledge the risk/ reward equation we are supposed to have built our economies on. And indeed, think of and invest in the frontline as if they are expected to become the highest profile, most influential frontline executives, governors and C Suite leaders of our future economies.

While no one has a crystal ball to describe post C-19 society, markets and economies, it doesn’t take much for us at Inspired Companies to feel confident that organizations who invest in their frontline through this moment in history will be the ones that emerge with strength. Companies that make decisions now, through the lens of impact on their frontline, including impact on their families and communities, will be the ones that emerge with unstoppable momentum.  They will be the envy of companies that don’t and they will be the beginning of our new economy.

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Note to readers: When we first drafted this article (almost 2 weeks ago) and with the eager intention of being helpful, we had spent most of time initially taking stock of the things companies could/should be doing for their front lines- now more than ever. If you like, an inventory of some of the basics that aren’t necessarily commonplace in all organizations. After we got through the basics and of course the ongoing feeling of gratitude for the globe’s essential workers, we found ourselves consumed by the hypocrisy, injustice and economic misalignment that is faced by these workers every day.

So we tossed the first draft and started again.

If it’s still helpful however – here is the hit list of the basics we had initially in consideration of our frontlines:

Health & Safety. Make PPE required and plentiful. This is a life & death matter. Treat it that way. This is not just a “now” strategy. Start the plan for sustainable worker safety as the new normal.

Healthcare and Sick Leave. Keep your frontline healthy. Provide adequate sick leave and allow employees to take when needed to keep the rest of the team safe. Do as much as possible to intentionally schedule enough hours for workers to be eligible for your healthcare benefits.

Training. Invest in on-the-job training, online training, and experiential learning to multiply the talent capabilities and potential of frontline employees.

Tuition Reimbursement. Develop a plan, identify high potentials and co-invest. Inspire personal growth.

Paid Childcare. Childcare was always necessary to attract the best talent. Now, workers may be isolating themselves from little ones to keep them healthy, all while keeping essential work flowing. Family care has never been more critical.

Mentoring. Align your heroes with senior leaders. Foster coaching, collaboration and shadowing. Show people the path. This is your talent pool. Protect and nurture.

Recognition. On-the spot, now. Don’t wait for previously scheduled performance reviews or big recognition events.

Creativity. Give the frontline free rein to solve problems in the trenches, innovate new solutions. Enable experimentation, take risks and build on learnings. Make it safe for them to challenge convention. IF you need convincing about the payoff – it was not the work of expensive consultants that turned a bankrupt Japanese airline around several years ago. The turnaround of Japan Airlines was driven by the ideas, insights and answers generated from baggage handlers and check in staff.

Compensation. Update and elevate. Don’t skimp on overtime and hazard pay. Continuously reevaluate. Lead the way to expand minimum wage level and restructure internal wage equity.

Rewards. Fill the break room with sustenance, send food baskets to families at home, provide small gestures of gratitude with gift cards, mini bonuses, bus passes, hot lunches.

Make frontline life easier, enabling their continued strength and endurance – and you and your company will go on to live another day.

Donna Morrow and Lisa MacCallum