Rethinking employee managament strategies

I currently live in a relatively small but densely populated economic hub. The dense population and inadequate infrastructure means that the average person here spends any where from 2 to 8 hours commuting to and from their jobs on a daily basis.

Add to this the rising costs of gas, food, accommodation and other basic amenities, it makes even the best paying jobs seem inadequate.

The question I then ask myself is this, in our uncertain Global economy, with Enterprises constantly seeking out means to manage Operational Expenditure - of which a significant portion is staff cost - shouldn't we be rethinking our employee management strategy?

Now these are strictly my thoughts and not those of my employer.

In my opinion, the first step would be an objective evaluation of employee job descriptions to weed out excesses and redundancies. Then objectively ask the following questions:
 - Do all staff have to converge at a single location to perform their jobs?
 - Isn't there a way we can leverage technology to create some flexibility around who exactly      needs to be using office space and resources?
 - What is the running cost of office space in the business district? Add to that the cost of power, cooling, water, office supplies, subsidized lunches, and all what not. How about turning that cost into income by subletting some of those assets?

A critical evaluation of critical business processes with the intent to re-engineer those procsses to as much as possible minimize bottle necks and inefficiencies could create great insights into redundancies in business processes and staffing needs. Eliminating such redundancies would significantly reduce staff cost while increasing operational efficiency.

Secondly, design a Performance Management Strategy that is suited to organizational goals, this initiative should be driven and approved by Executive management and in my honest opinion, no off the shelf application is a silver bullet to solve all performance management problems. A system needs to be built and customized to specific organizational needs.

This system needs to be based on the corporate strategy with clear indications for employee management, onboarding and disengagement, benefits and a customized rewards system. Properly designed and implemented, a system like this will serve as a check and balance for both remote and local employees making it possible to keep a tight reign on employees regardless of their location.

The end product of this is an objective system which works, increased employee productivity and satisfaction because lets face it, our generation is an ambitious one, we want to feel like we are in control of our destinies, tell us what we need to get the corner office and I assure you it will get done!

Technology has given us so many options, we need to start rethinking the norms of employee management and open our mind to the numerous possibilities that exist.

Comments

  1. Great thought B! for all their money making craze i wonder why Nigerian organisations have not latched on to this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know someone else who espouses this theory and is making it work with his company in Nigeria. Between the two of you, this could be a full consulting gig that could be preached to corporate Nigeria and can turn business on its head. That, or you come and start to teach the business model at BIU's business school.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Who is this person, I am happy to bounce more ideas off him/her. BIU has a business school? How can I get information on it?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Essay: How I spent my Easter Holiday.

How to Spot a Jerkazoid

Authenticity. A Pathway to Success