Glenda Daniels
Loyalty to a company, together with lifetime employment, is a thing of the distant comfortable past. This worldwide trend is particularly pertinent in South Africa where retrenchments are rife. More than one-million jobs have been lost over the past decade according to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).
But managers still want loyalty even in the age when downsizing and “rightsizing” are the key words in the workplace. Gayleen Baxter, managing director of Kelly, says if you want loyalty, build it yourself.
She says that one of the forgotten things about loyalty is that managers used to inherit it. But over time managers developed a sense of entitlement. They felt they could depend on loyalty. “But in the new century, it’s just not there any more. That’s no surprise. Companies have downsized and rightsized. Cut and trimmed. All for good business reasons.”
The harsh lesson for the downsized generation of the 1990s is rife streamlining which creates new challenges for thirty- and fortysomething managers at organisations where loyalty is felt by the security guard’s dog and that’s about it, Baxter says.
But no one, not even business schools, teach managers how to build loyalty. “Perhaps it’s not on the syllabus because modern, lean and mean organisations think they can do without it,” she adds.
According to the latest American Staffing Association conference in New York, companies are struggling to understand a new generation of staff who score top marks for skill and zero for loyalty.
This can be seen in the steady rise in absenteeism, which across United States businesses is up 14% since 1996, Baxter says.
“Of course, you can simply sack the offenders. It requires lengthy procedures locally, but in the States dismissal can be a two-word process: ‘You’re fired!'” But firing skilled workers incurs substantial recruitment and training costs.
Therefore, Baxter says, even in the highly competitive US business environment, they are looking at “prophylaxis the prevention of undesirable consequences by early proactive intervention. This is fancy jargon for trying to rebuild a little organisational loyalty so would-be lead-swingers feel happier on the job.”
A good starting point, apparently, is the occasional kind-hearted gesture. “If there’s a lull in work pressures, let a couple of team members leave early or take a longer lunch. Extend the favour to a couple more staff the next time around so the entire team starts to develop a soft spot for the old firm,” Baxter says.
In South Africa retrenchment has become a way of life. Cosatu’s fight over privatisation is directly related to job losses. This, according to political analysts, does not inspire confidence in the workplace for workers. One in every eight jobs has been shed in the formal sector since 1994.
According to a report by economist Mike Schussler: “No developed country has made so many jobs redundant over any seven-year period since the great depression. On a per job ratio, South Africa has destroyed more jobs than any other developing country in modern history.”
The recent Medical Research Council report on Aids deaths says that pandemic is already responsible for 40% of all deaths among the most economically active section of the population (those aged between 15 and 49).
This means that a serious shortage of skilled labour will take place in a few years time.
Baxter says that an insightful few won’t wait for the crisis to break. She says that those with any sense will begin to “work on a new culture in which loyalty is once again nurtured, with the intention of retaining more staff and recruiting less in years to come”.