High Cost of Status Quo, Unhappy employees

1. New Employee Survey Makes you Say "Duh!"

2.  Perfect Labor Storm Warnings

3. Employee Engagement Surveys

4.  Leading Others Seminars for Supervisors and Managers

5. Managing to Excel for front-line supervisors

6.  Speaking Schedule

7.  New Book: Coming Job Boom

8. Quotes from the Hire Authorities

Sometimes surveys and white papers just state the obvious. Such is the case of what I read in the 2008 World of Work report published by Ranstad.

I'm still sifting through the charts and graphs for the juicy tidbits but statements like "people become less "picky" in a down economy" makes you think "duh." The report then suggests "that economic well-being is beginning to overshadow emotional well-being in today's uncertain workplace environment." (Ditto on the duh!)

Some employers might greet this abrupt change in employee sentiment with a sigh of relief. They might even consider that the pendulum is swinging back from free agency toward employee loyalty. A few might even celebrate a better bottom line bolstered by less turnover and higher retention.

In the words of the Lone Ranger,"Not so fast, Kemo Sabe." (For you boomers and traditionals, you might find this link fun to read. For our younger readers who may have no idea who The Lone Ranger and Tonto are - - - click here. But I digress.) My reason for raining on an employer's parade is: even with this drop in employee expectations regarding everything from compensation to training, there has been NO increase in the number of employees who agree that "in the current economy, people are staying in jobs they hate just to have a job." In fact, 73 percent of employees are still willing to jump jobs when a better opportunity arises - especially if they are unhappy. Admittedly this number has declined from a high of 81% in 2006 but it still means that 3 out of 4 unhappy employees will still leave a job given the chance.

That's both good news and bad news for employers. The good news of course is that with a slowdown in hiring these unhappy employees may not have any place to go. The bad news is, of course, that these unhappy employees have no place to go! Yes, that's great news for retention and turnover metrics but horrible for productivity and morale.

When asked to comment on productivity changes in the workplace, 22 percent of employees agreed that it decreased compared to last year - a 47% increase - while 17 percent of employers agree productivity decreased. And for those employees and employers who felt that productivity increased, 25 percent fewer agreed this year compared to last year.

When it came to discussing morale, only 51 percent of employees felt company morale was excellent or good. The remaining 49 percent not on board carries a high price for organizations.

A very effective model at "pricing" the cost of what I call Work Ethics Deficiency Syndrome (or WEDS) is called the Cost of the Status Quo.

The Cost of the Status Quo, created by my good friend and colleague Judy Suiter of Competitive Edge, Inc., examines the life cycle of an employee. In the 1st stage, an employee is generally Highly Motivated but Not Yet Competent. Costs associated with Stage 1 employees include those associated with recruitment, selection and training. Most managers agree with the costs to hire a new employee: from a low of ½ annual salary for entry level, low-skilled positions to multiples as high as 20 times annual salary for senior executive positions.

After some training and on-boarding, usually 3 to 6 months, the employee is acclimated to the job and moves on to the 2nd stage: Motivated and Competent. This is the most profitable and productive stage for both the employee and employer and where retention should be focused.

Unfortunately, many employees over time slide into a very high maintenance and less productive stage called Demotivated and Competent. A good friend and colleague of mine, Judy Suiter, describes these employees as "retired on the job" and do just enough not to get fired. These unhappy employees require a lot of manager time which only adds to the cost and loss of productivity. Worse than the effects of their individual unhappiness, they work hard to recruit other workers to join their "team." This creates a grass-roots effort to become "unemployed while still collecting a paycheck."

If the employee stays in the Demotivated and Competent stage long enough, they eventually enter the end-stage of the employee life cycle: Demotivated and No Longer Competent.

These 3rd and 4th stages bear enormous costs to any business. For instance, let's assume an organization has 100 employees and 30 percent of the employees are operating at only 70 percent of their potential.

At an average monthly compensation of $4,000, the Annual Cost for Doing Nothing is $1,008,000!!!

So that takes me back to my earlier "duh" moment --- the cost of employees becoming less "picky" is nearly irrelevant when you consider the hidden cost that the unhappy and not very productive employee carries in an organization.

A first step in stemming the high cost of the demotivated and unhappy employee begins with finding out if your organization has a problem or not. The easiest way to do this is with an employee engagement survey. The low-cost and high effectiveness of online employee morale surveys nips that contagion of WEDS from spreading. For more information about employee engagement surveys, call us at 800.803.4303.

Despite my sarcasm about my first read-through of the report, I'd be remiss if I didn't also commend the Randstad World of Work report for the outstanding analysis on the differences in generational perceptions and their concept of Employership™: "creating an organization where employees want to work, where customers want to buy and where investors want to invest." It's nothing that many of you didn't know already but it's a critical reminder about how important company culture is in order to create a unique competitive advantage. Watch for more on how different generations see the workplace differently in the weeks to come.

Song now available for easier viewing on YouTube.

Read more about skilled worker shortages in the NEW Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 (soft and hard cover versions)

NEW Chapters! Generational Conflicts in the Workplace, Managing the Future Workforce, Attracting Young Employees in a Seller's Job Market plus hundreds of new facts, trends and stats.

To order Perfect Labor Storm 2.0, call 800.803.4303. Discounts for orders of 10 or more. Specify hard or soft cover.

Employee Engagement is the level of commitment an employee has towards the organization. The primary behaviors of engaged employees are: speaking positively about the organization to coworkers, potential employees and customers, having a strong desire to be a member of the organization, and exerting extra effort to contribute to the organization's success.

Web based employee surveys are created with simplicity in mind that allows you to design and launch custom employee surveys in order to gather and analyze the feedback from your staff.

The Leading Leaders Seminar is an assessment-based management development program. Rather than focusing on a single theory of management, this seminar addresses universal leadership principles as well as key management competencies which support the vision and strategy of the organization.

The Leading Leaders seminar is designed specifically for managers and executives. The seminar provides comprehensive feedback using our exclusive Leading Others Development Report, an understanding of fundamental leadership principles and key management competencies, and a series of exercises and activities that reinforce essential people management skills.

A manager's time is precious. Too often, formal training tries to accomplish too much. Managing to Excel works from the premise that if training is to succeed, learning objectives need to concentrate on just a few key behavioral change goals.

Excel is a collection of 12 half-day off-the-shelf workshops, each dedicated to the development of a single critical competency. These 12 competencies group in four distinct clusters:

Administrative Cluster: Managing Your Job
Communication Cluster: Relating to Others
Supervisory Cluster: Building the Team
Cognitive Cluster: Thinking Clearly

June 10-11 - Workforce Trends That Will Change the Way You do Business, TEC FL, Pensacola.

September 8 - Electrical Generation Systems Association - "The Perfect Labor Storm"

7. Hot Off The Press! "Coming Job Boom" - Buy Today!

Ira recently collaborated with Bonnie Kerrigan Snyder on a new book, The Coming Job Boom. Bonnie is the author of The Public School Parent's Guide to Success. The Coming Job Boom is the "ying" for the "yang" of The Perfect Labor Storm. While the Perfect Labor Storm is beginning to make managers feel like storm chasers looking for qualified workers, high school and college students must be smiling at this Upcoming Job Boom. For those young workers with the right skills and motivation, the job market will make these kids feel like - well, like kid's in a candy store!

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