For the first time the tables have turned. Employers no matter how grand they may be are scratching their heads over how to attract and retain the worthy younger workforce and stay relevant in a suddenly new world order. The traditional baits have gone rotten. There is only one carrot that matters today to worthy candidates. Namely culture. Culture not just on paper, or on the website but actually lived.
Until now, we were acclimated to a system where an employer has an unwritten upper-hand over employees regardless of the fact that they are bound by a fair contract where one party offers the other services and the other offers monetary compensation. The factors that make employees mortified of a bad reputation of having jumped many jobs or being fired Vs the lack of fear employers have of their employees quitting seems to be severely unexplored.
In job interviews, candidates are asked to explain why they want to work with the interviewing company and also why they discontinued services at their previous companies whereas interviewing companies are seldom expected to explain the reason for a high attrition rate or a famously poor work culture in the industry.
The aim of any business is to make profits and grow. But does this warrant an environment of narcissistic managers who feel almost duty-bound to be careless about employee health or to intentionally push organisational stress levels to a steady boiling point? In my career spanning 20 years across at least 5 leading and two mid-sized companies, I have directly and indirectly witnessed leaders who seem to take it as a personal short-coming to see anyone on their team delivering on expectation confidently while managing to balance personal pursuits with work. The goal-post is proactively adjusted to ensure sheer mental exhaustion. Encouragement and rewards, not monetary but by way of verbal appreciation and preference treatment, goes to people who minimise sleep time and ignore personal health. It often means starting to smoke and abuse alcohol to cope or come to work with neck collars despite being on medical orders to take rest or missing funerals and weddings of loved ones.
That senior leader who is a permanent fixture in the office any time of day, night or holiday and scoffs at youngsters who desire work-life balance is the one placed on a pedestal. The list goes on. It certainly seems like a good part of the work-force is in an eternal cycle to somehow complete 1-3 years in a given place of employment to then move to a new place hoping for a more humane culture. The ones who stay on, see their chief accomplishment as being able to survive this system. Whether they chose to themselves remain good souls or to turn into antagoniser-in-chief is a different matter.
How did we allow all this to become normalised? Why is the odd good manager/mentor seen as an anomaly that the people working for need to feel eternally blessed for. (As I have been a few times in my career).
The factors are many but one key contributor to this system is the dearth of opportunity and options. Was. Today this has changed and it is shattering the archaic culture of business slowly but surely. Yes, there continues to be a glaring gap between what companies claim about their work culture and what really is lived out. What is notable however, is the fact that companies are scrambling to spruce up their reputation on the work-culture front. Companies are finding it necessary to culture-wash their offering to clients and talent. What will this mean for the future of work?
For companies aiming to stay relevant, it will become necessary to give absolute power to the HR department to be able to actually live the culture they claim to nurture, as an organisation. An evolved culture will stem from evolved human resources and more importantly senior management, willing to introspect and see the value in shedding some of that old ego and arrogance and gain some perspective on what impresses this generation and what does not.
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