Non-verbal signals key to understanding employee needs

By William Ouma

In last week’s article, I analysed two of four employment situations that employees can find themselves and the possible interventions to be made on the employer’s part. Today, we analyse the remaining two, which focus more on stability in the face of given unhappiness.

In unhappy but stable employment situations, the employee’s expectations are higher than his current outcomes, so he is dissatisfied, but because he feels he has no viable alternatives, he will not leave.

This situation is normally enhanced during times of recession or economic downturn because there are more qualified people available than there are employment opportunities.

What an employer does at such times could easily come back to haunt them. Power is fleeting and people generally do not forget.

An employer needs to carefully analyse which employees are strategic to their plans. I once heard a television pundit articulate an interesting concept in negotiation Ò that of position vs. interest.

A star employee whose son has just been admitted to university might start agitating for a promotion due to the increased financial responsibilities. The employer might be at a loss as to what to do since the promotion is unlikely to be sanctioned by the board at that particular point due to strategic considerations.

If, however, he knew that the real issue of concern is the ability to pay school fees, he could very well work out an arrangement for school fees subsidies or other such facilities to alleviate the financial burden.

On the edge

The employee’s position was that he wanted a promotion while his real interest was in being able to afford his son’s education. An employer is best advised to understand what the employees’ real interests are vis-a-vis the positions being articulated.

Remember that alternatives can be either real or perceived. A point will come when even the alternative of staying at home is more preferable to continuing with that employment situation.

In unhappy and unstable employment situations, the employee believes that his outcomes with his employer are lower than both his expectations and his alternatives, making it likely that he will try to escape the situation soon. This is the worst place for an employer to be in.

It is hard to miss because more often than not, it comes out in the form of reduced productivity, lethargy in mobilisation and contagious discontent. Such an employee is in all probability attending quite a number of interviews and completing all sorts of job applications.

Such situations are difficult to salvage and are often the result of months or years of a deteriorating employer-employee relationship.

Interestingly, however, this situation can occur across the entire competence spectrum from the very talented employees who feel undervalued and unappreciated; to the middle curve — the proverbially ignored middle child who wonders what they have to do to scrape that glass ceiling; to the underperforming employees who perceive that the reason for their poor performance is specific to that organisation and who feel their interests will be best served elsewhere.

Of particular interest is the middle section who form the bulk of an organisation’s workforce and can be considered to be the mainstay of an organisation. This is because the top cadre is perpetually inundated with offers and have learnt to appreciate their market value while the lower cadre is always on borrowed time.

The middle part is the section where careful planning and management can breed the kind of loyalty that the employer will be reaping for ages to come.

In conclusion...

So what is an employer to do in the face of such complicated employees? Include human resource management as part of the strategic plan. Do not let it happen by accident. Consider where your organisation is going and who you need to take you there. Look at the environment in which you operate and consider what the needs of your workforce are today and anticipate what they will be in future.

Plan ahead and don’t wait for waves of discontent and resignations to hit you before you react. As one of my bosses used to say Ò Ïit is much easier, and cheaper, to keep a client you already have than to win a new oneÓ.

The same thing applies to employees.

An interesting thing for employees to remember, though, is that the equation works both ways - it could be the employer who is reassessing whether they are really happy and stable with you!

— The writer is a Manager, Audit, Deloitte Kenya.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Deloitte Kenya.