That is the question I ask in my first meeting with company executives. Invariably, I get a yes answer. The questions get progressively more difficult. When I hear, "yes" I always ask to see the evidence. That is usually where the conversation pauses and it may be where the "deer in the headlights" phrase become business meaningful.
Truthfully, most executives do believe people are their organizations most valuable assets, they just don't know what to do about it.
What does your organization do or not do to validate that statement?
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The concept of "employees are our greatest assets" is a myth if there are no measurements to offset the fact that they only show up as an expense. Otherwise without facts, it is a slogan with little merit. One way to get at the truth is to ask employees if they are treated as valuable!
ReplyDeleteGreat question and probably timely as the job market and business climate continues to struggle. Having been in management for over 20 years, I gave benefit of the doubt to everyone however, with an employee with past sucesses, I tended to work harder to develop and retain than someone who performed marginally or simply had exhibited less value during their employment with me. In today's world, it seems that performance has less influence on whether or not employee's are retained or developed to continue helping the company and more to do with economics, M&A, etc. Unfortunatley, this creates a market of both companies and workers that have little loyalty towards one another. Interestingly enough, it is this look-out for-me on both sides of the equation that fosters short-term business focus and unethical behaviors - largely the root of most of the economic problems we are facing. Rules and regulations are increasingly focusing on governance and involvement of management as well as impetus to instill a culture of compliance. How well a company is able to achieve this goal is in my opinion, largely dependent on looking out for someone other than yourself - the model just isn't aligned with the goal.
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