Corporate lifestyle

By Niroshan Silva

As we celebrate the festival of lights with grandeur and splendour, a moment of seriousness passed through the thinking process. ‘Intentions and values of life’ kept ringing in my thoughts and I could not but ponder their worth in corporate life.

As much as we are so used to being busy and running a rat race in life, sometimes we may look back and ask ourselves if we have achieved a lot in life and whether it was worth it. ‘Of course it is!’ pops the answer – we need to keep the pedal to the metal, otherwise productivity would drop, output would be less and life as we know it wouldn’t exist.

Then we take time off to visit places of worship that tell us about the value of life and sprit. We nod in agreement and not long after, the race begins, again.

Work life balance and corporate values

This article is a cross between work life balance and corporate values. It begins to ask primitive questions that we all know, yet ignore. It calls for teams to look at relationships, for companies to look at long-term sustainability and families to relook life.

There is no garment manufacturer in the island, no plantation, no industry that doesn’t have the issue of attracting employees. Yet, when a company advertises for an executive, there are over 1,500 applications for 15 positions.

Everyone has an MBA and everyone likes to have the best car in town. The ladder seems far and distant and we keep trying to climb daily. The wants and needs are escalating on a daily basis. Greed and social norms are becoming one and the same. Employee expectations are on a record high.

Many of the emerging economies of Asia have seen this phenomenon before and are battling with its social consequences. The number of suicides in the corporate world, single parents, online affairs, a life of drugs and mental poverty are but a few of the consequences of people not balancing their lifestyles.

Back to basics

Although many use the management phrase ‘back to basics,’ only a few know what that means in life. A young executive in a company wakes up at 5:30 a.m. to catch the 6:30 a.m. bus to get to work and arrives back home past 9 p.m. Many work on Saturday and on Sunday they need to study for a course. Raising a family becomes a cost or time consuming activity.

As society dictates that one should, once he becomes a person with a family now one needs to accumulate wealth for kids and their education if not more. Is this the life we are blessed with? Many don’t have a hobby or have a feel for what it’s like to enjoy the simple pleasures of playing a game with the kids or the family sitting for a meal together.

Can the many employees who live such lives actually take pride in their work? Can such companies be called employers of choice? Will such companies have a future in the ‘talent war’? Will they change or survive? What are the long-term ramifications to society? Do companies have a choice when you consider the competition? Do we need to be the best and the biggest? Does economics of scale actually reduce costs and increase profits? What is our best economic option?

As corporates we function for the purpose of profit and value creation, no matter what slogan we may carry. This is totally understandable and justifiable. Yet, we also need to look at our employees as partners for the long haul and see how we can get the best out of their effort.

Questions

Questions to ask yourself – remember the article is about ‘intentions and values’:

I. Do you know your employees? Is he/she the right person for the job? If we didn’t hire the right person, it’s not their fault they are not performing. Driving them with KPIs isn’t going to do any help in motivating them towards a goal. How many of your employees workout at least three days a week? How many employees have sick spouses – we don’t want to know as we are then obliged to give leave? How many organisations have a full time ‘trusted’ counsellor or a free medical help line outside the organisation?

II. Are we as corporates ensuring our employees have a life worth living? Do you think a club membership would balance his life better?

III. Does our workforce understand the direction of the business? Confidential stuff apart, can you truly say that your employees know the direction in which the company is headed?

IV. Do our employees have the opportunity to suggest better ways of doing something? Companies say ‘yes!’ But dig deep and ask yourself, is that true? There are many CFT teams that gather wonderful ideas that don’t see the light of day. So do you actually believe your employees believe they have the opportunity?

V. While Pepsi is building internal clubs for inclusiveness, Google makes the freedom bring out the creativity in people – what is our strategy to entice our people to be committed? Is it the salary?

Not enough answers

The article is full of questions and not enough answers. That is because the writer believes in the Sri Lankan culture and the home-grown talent of our business leaders. If you ask the questions and dig deep to find the answers, they would surface.

Many reports, such as ‘work life balance in Hong Kong’ by Richard Welford of the University of Hong Kong, say that 82.5% of the sample said they suffered from stress and 75.4% from lack of exercise. As a result the workforce was not healthy physically or mentally to manage the task at hand.

Other countries are seeing the matured state of this prolonged condition. China Daily and BBC reports (September 2010) reports that 32,000 suicides occur in Japan per year; on average 30,000 deaths a year for the past 12 straight years. The Japanese economy suffers a $ 32 billion loss a year as a result.

International Business Report 2010 presented by Grant Thornton indicates that China (at 76%) tops the league with the most stressed business leaders in the world, while being closely followed by Mexico with 74%. Reversing these facts may take a long time. Why do we need to wait till it escalates to unmanageable proportions? Why don’t we start to change now? Be selfish and protect your employees.

(The writer – B.Bus (Mgt) (HRM), MBA, MAHRP, NLP Master Practitioner, BELBIN – is Immediate Past President and EXCO Member of the Association of Human Resource Professionals.)