I feel fairly confident that I’m not the only person in the world licking my lips in anticipation of the British Lion’s forthcoming and inevitable thrashing of Australia. Before I contemplate the rugby and a celebratory beer or two, it’s worth a quick thought about the concept and make-up of the Lions. Players who like nothing more than knocking very large lumps out of each other when they represent England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, all of a sudden come together and revel in the shared experience that is the quadrennial Lions.
And, all around us, sharing is big news, big business even. Whether this cultural shift has been driven by the prevailing economic times or by the essence and nature of the internet, conspicuous consumption has been replaced by collaborative consumption. Look around and any number of examples come to mind. We may like the look of purchasing a foldaway Brompton or having the chance to emulate Sirs Chris and Bradley at retailers such as Evans, but more and more people are making temporary and shared use of Boris’ bikes. Although automotive sales in the UK are faring well, so too are car sharing services such as Zipcar – with 750,000 users already signed up, the company estimates it will have 30m worldwide members by 2030. A service such as Zopa enables individuals to invest and borrow money from each other, so avoiding banks. The organisation has already facilitated some £270m in loans from its 500,000 members. From open source computing to handbagsfromheaven.co.uk, sharing is the new black. (I believe the handbags are available in other colours too).
Whether we’re sharing professional information through LinkedIn, personal insights through Facebook and photos through Pinterest and Instagram, it’s unlikely there has ever been such interest in and enthusiasm for sharing and collaboration. And this is shared information we inherently trust – we check out next year’s holiday via the views of fellow travellers on Trip Adviser and we are increasingly listening to and believing other job hunters through channels such as Glassdoor before we move from one organisation to another.
But how has the concept of sharing taken off within an employment context? There are positive and apparently less positive examples around. An interesting piece of research from Deloitte Access Economics in Australia earlier this month suggests a clear correlation between the satisfaction certain people have with their employers and their ability to collaborate within the workplace. More collaboration means more satisfaction. This seems consistent with research last year from McKinsey’s Global Institute which concluded that organisations which introduced social networking techniques to enhance employee interaction or collaboration, saw productivity increases of between 20% and 25%.
However, according to Bloomberg this week, certain US retailers appear to take sharing less seriously. In the 1950s, CEOs made 20 times the salary of the average worker in their employ. This became 42-1 in 1980 and 120-1 in 2000. Organisations today such as JC Penney and Starbucks have seen this figure rise to an eye watering 1,800-1. Some people’s share seems less equal than others, it would seem.
The Midlands is seeing the attempted development of an engineering skills cluster or employment collaboration on the back of Jaguar Land Rover’s impressive successes of the last two-three years. Executives from the firm have been visiting Germany, European home for engineers, in order to understand the importance and benefits of such clusters, with primary manufacturers both providing the impetus and life blood for engineering suppliers, as well as benefitting from their specialist skills. However, one of the impediments to such sharing in the Midlands is a relative engineering skills shortage. So, just as JLR grows and expands, it is increasingly poaching such talent away from the very suppliers it needs to help shape and encourage future growth. Employee sharing for smaller engineering components players probably feels a little one directional right now.
However, for TMP, perhaps the key application of sharing within an employee context is that of contribution. Does an organisation both enable as well as recognise the contributions made by its people? Does it outline just how important they are and just how specifically what they do contributes to that organisation’s overall objectives? TMP’s increasing exposure to the importance and deliverables of the EVP suggest that the role of contribution is perhaps the most critical retention and engagement driver for many organisations facing both attraction and tenure challenges.
Putting aside factors such as remuneration (and putting aside pay increases is emerging as a major factor impacting on employee morale), getting your people to genuinely feel they are sharing the heavy lifting and making a real contribution to an organisation’s success and direction of travel will be a major influence in whether they choose to stay or look for that recognition elsewhere. And for some organisations, it may already be too late – according to Edenred, this month, the UK has the most – 48% – of employees seeking to move jobs right now. And over two thirds of UK firms have not taken any steps to address a potential skills shortage in the labour market over the next two years, according to research from Cranfield School of Management last month.
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 