One might think this is an obvious relationship – that you don’t need to do a study showing that if workers are happy, the company performs better. But actually, it’s not that obvious. Traditional management theory treats workers like any other input – get as much out of them as possible and pay them as little as you can get away with.
Alex Edmans
Exercise 1:
Complete the text with the most appropriate words from the table (the words appeared in one of the previous lessons):
decompress, underlings, employee turnover, output, paychecks, drive, bottom lines, stock options , loyalty
Exercise 2:
Below there are sentences or clauses taken from the text. Complete the gaps (A-G) while reading:
1.One of the rules that Ricardo Semler encourages strongly is teamwork and partnership
2.Every six months Semco employees have to get rehired
3.That was the moment when the most democratic company in the world was established.
4.The Semco staff have no set working hours, no dress code, no desks or offices.
5.Employees consider job satisfaction to be one of the key elements to their life.
6.Moreover, his motto was “You either work hard, or you’re out.”
7.Employees get immediate feedback on their actions and thus they know what exactly they’ve done to achieve the company’s goals.
According to the Employee Engagement Report 2011 conducted by BlessingWhite only 31% of employees in the world are truly engaged in their jobs (the study involved 10,914 workers worldwide). What does it mean that they are truly engaged? Well, BlessingWhite divided employees into 5 segments – the Engaged, Almost Engaged, Honemooners&Hamsters (rather satisfied but not contributing enough), Crash&Burners (contributing but rather dissatisfied) and the Disengaged. Why are those findings so important? It’s easy, the research found that, in comparison to earlier studies, more people are now searching for new opportunities, thus the more engaged the employee is the bigger the probability that s/he is going to stay with the organization, which decreases the (1)__________. (A) _______________. So if the organization gives them an opportunity to apply their talent, develop themselves by means of training programs and develop their careers, it is more likely to retain its best employees.
How to make our staff happy? How to utilize their (2)__________ and earn their (3)__________? Let’s have a look at one organization that changed its structure completely – Semco.
When Ricardo Semler took the company over from his father in 1980 it was facing bankruptcy. He was 21 back then and at first he accepted everything as it had been so far. (B) _______________ .It wasn’t only his employees that had to apply this motto, Semler practiced as he preached, but the only result of these actions were problems with health that he started experiencing. Therefore, he decided to change something. (C) _______________. According to Semler if you want people to think in a creative way and to innovate, you can’t apply military rules, as he calls them, in a business. And so in Semco all meetings are open to every staff member, which allows for exchange of ideas and dialogue. Semco (4)__________ choose their own bosses who, later in the process, may be recalled from the position if the staff do not feel they perform well enough. (D)_______________, which is based on his view that only a really arrogant person would assume they can do everything by themselves. Another amazing thing is that Semco treats its employees like adults… Every company does, you would probably say here. Well, no. (E) _______________. They decide how big their (5)__________ are going to be, when to take their holidays (which, by the way, are mandatory) and for how long. They are treated like adults and are expected to behave like adults. The only thing that actually matters is performance and (6)__________. (F)_______________, namely explain why they’re valuable for the organization, which is additional motivation for them to learn, innovate, be creative and contribute. The fact that employees may participate in a program of sharing the profit and (7)__________ may be considered additional motivation for the staff to constantly improve and develop.
Ricardo Semler: „Everybody knows what they are doing here, why they are here and how they are contributing to the final result.” (G) _______________. And, actually I could go on and on from total transparency of what everybody earns, through lack of a permanent CEO (everybody can try to be one) to long term sabbaticals to (8)__________.
One might say that this cannot work, the (9)__________, however, say something opposite. Since Ricardo Semler took over the company, in the period of 14 years between 1980 and 1994, the company’s profits increased five times and its productivity – seven times. I think it proves the point.
Glossary:
input – wkład
to get away with – wykręcić się, wymigać się
to rehire – zatrudnić ponownie
dress code – zasady dotyczące ubioru
consider – uważać
worldwide – na całym świecie
in comparison to – w porównaniu do
retain – zatrzymać
to face bankruptcy – stać na skraju bankructwa
to practice as you preach – stosować się do własnych zasad
therefore – dlatego
to recall – odwołać
mandatory – obowiązkowy
go on and on – kontynuować
transparency – przejrzystość
lack of – brak
sabbatical – urlop naukowy
Have a look at what Ricardo Semler says about his organization:
More English for HR at www.s-teem.pl
Key:
Ex. 1
(1) employee turnover; (2) drive; (3) loyalty; (4) underlings; (5) paychecks; (6) output; (7) stock options; (8) decompress; (9) bottom lines;
Ex. 2
(A)Employees consider job satisfaction to be one of the key elements to their life.
(B)Moreover, his motto was “You either work hard, or you’re out.”
(C)That was the moment when the most democratic company in the world was established.
(D)One of the rules that Ricardo Semler encourages strongly is teamwork and partnership
(E)The Semco staff have no set working hours, no dress code, no desks or offices.
(F)Every six months Semco employees have to get rehired
(G)Employees get immediate feedback on their actions and thus they know what exactly they’ve done to achieve the company’s goals.
