The Herman Trend Alert
December 7, 2022
The End of the Remote Work?
As you have probably gathered by now, I draw my material from a wide variety of sources, including original interviews---and sometimes even my readers. When he saw the announced topic for this week, one of my long-term subscribers, Michael Dziak, CEO of Informed Expectations, wrote me his thoughts. I will include Michael's perceptions as well as information from a number of other sources and my own insights.
First, How We Got Here
Not to belabor the obvious, but during COVID, to get the work done, many companies begrudgingly resorted to allowing their people to work from home. Most of those companies were not particularly excited about it, but they saw teleworking as an alternative to work grinding to a halt. They pushed their people to get more work done and rather than pushing back, their loyal workers put their shoulders to the grindstone and soldiered on. Post the worst of COVID* most employers tried to get their employees back into to their offices, triggering the Great Resignation. Currently, in some sectors, the tables are turning and especially in some of the tech job markets, people are being laid off, faster than they are being hired. Logically, that would lead to a Buyers' Market for talent.
Something has Definitely Shifted
According to a spokesperson for the ManpowerGroup, a leading staffing firm, companies are less concerned that their return-to-work policies will create turnover, because they believe they will have less difficulty refilling those positions. Moreover, with layoffs in the tech sector becoming more prevalent, we are seeing employers more likely to say goodbye to employees who are saying "no" to return-to-work mandates. These employers are shooting themselves in the foot. Here's why:
1. Turnover costs a lot in recruiting, training, and onboarding.
2. The loss of intellectual capital, especially in customer-facing positions is a huge hit.
3. You are laying off people who know how to get things done in your organization and hiring new folks who will likely have a learning curve to become as productive as their predecessors. And actually, there is a lot more to lose.
What is Going to Happen
In my new book Experience Rules: How Positive Experiences Will Drive Profit Into The Future (now available on Amazon), I include a recruiting concept I picked up years ago from Future of Work consultant Kevin Wheeler, he called it "Tiering Candidates." The idea is that you rate candidates based on the difficulty to recruit their position and their value to the organization. So, what is going to happen is that employers will "tier" their employees. Those employees who are difficult (or perhaps, impossible) to replace will be considered Platinum employees who get basically whatever they want. Easily replaced employees will not be so lucky; they will return to their workplaces or risk being terminated.
Will Tiering Employees Work?
The answer is "maybe." And if it does work, that action will not be without cost. (See the three factors I outlined earlier in this article.) My preference would always be to find strategies that can work for both employers and their workers. But wait, there's more!
Michael Brings Up Two Very Important Points to Remember
First, allowing employees to work remotely "always amplifies pre-existing organizational issues. Trust, communication, accountability, teamwork, stress, and other cultural issues should ideally be addressed before the program begins, or during the organizational preparation and training phase." But his second point is even more important because it is a recurring problem for employers that attempt fundamental change or want to launch new initiatives in the ways they are doing business. The culture is simply "not ready." That fact is why 80 percent of the quality initiative failed and why employers are now insisting that employees come back to congregate workplaces. As Michael puts it, "Without effective organizational preparation (recalibrating the culture, making the case for change, and training on new processes), programs are prone to failure." It's not rocket science, Folks, this is simply Leadership 101. You are not going to succeed with major organizational change if you do not prepare the culture. In the words of mangement icon Peter Drucker, "Culture eats strategy of breakfast."
Struggling With Any of these Issues?
Michael or I would be happy to help. Drop me a line at joyce@hermangroup.com for a free consultation.
* If you think COVID is completely gone, think again. There are new variants now for which we do not have vaccines. However, that topic is another Herman Trend Alert for another day.
Next Week's Herman Trend Alert: Dubai: Supporting the Future of the Planet
Greetings from Dubai where I am working with the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) to plan the 20th Anniversary Celebration for The Association of Professional Futurists and learning about the many initiatives that the DFF is backing. Not only do they work with associations like the one I belong to, but they also fund start-ups and especially research which points the way for founders to thrive. If you wanted to be known as the country in the world that is most future-oriented, you would do exactly what Dubai is doing. With the vision of Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum and the direction of the CEO of the DFF, Khalfan Belhoul, Dubai has successfully positioned itself to lead the world into the future. However, you'll need to read next week's Alert to learn the whole story---and why you should schedule a visit.
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