We only realise the importance of being able to work when we no longer have a job. Work is important. Never forget that.
Work provides us with far more than just financial security. It gives us purpose and meaning. If done well it gives us a sense of achievement and a sense pride. When we reflect on our achievements, we gain confidence. If this cycle is repeated often enough, it leads to successful careers and confident individuals.
We acquire skills, knowledge and experience. Combined these become our most saleable asset in the labour market. Economic mobility, social mobility and success are linked to how strong our skills are. Never stop learning, never stop improving, work hard and you will be your best protection against unemployment.
Martin Luther King encouraged us to see the importance of work as far more than a job description or a title, it is and must be a sense of pride:
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”
There is nothing more depressing than seeing the ghosts seated behind a desk in state departments shuffling paper, void of energy, passion and hope. As leaders it is our responsibility to see every function as important and every person fulfilling it as worthy. This is the way we build great organisations; we start with ourselves, then those around us, there is no other way.
As leaders, when we need to restructure, we must continue to see the person as worthy. Before we can truly lead others, we must seek to understand the complex relationship they have with work. In helping them to deal with their sense of loss, their sense of exclusion, the sense that they are no longer wanted, and to hold their hand as they tentatively embrace an uncertain future – then we truly become great leaders. I have never met a great leader who did not care and who was not kind.
“Your staff don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”
It is not so much the process to be followed, (Section 189 is relatively simple), but the empathy and emotional intelligence with which one manages the process. You can manage an awful situation with sensitivity and by keeping the affected individual at the centre of the process or you can treat them as a payroll number you simply delete on your keyboard.
Marikana is perhaps the most extreme example of where a company’s HR Department can lose touch with the sentiments of their staff. Know your staff and sense the mood of the organisation.
In my experience, and there are many examples, businesses begin the slow decline to acrimonious staff relations and ultimately business rescue when they fail to care for their staff. Staff who are present become disenchanted and demotivated. They withhold vital effort and skills. This you will never measure or monitor.
The way you treat staff is the way they respond. Treat them badly and those that can leave, usually your most talented as they are able to find alternative employment. Those that remain, do so for the wrong reasons; they simply can’t find alternative employment, they simply go through the motions. In no time you have a sub-optimal performing organisation.
I have seen an organisation shed talent, institutional knowledge and when forced into selling the new owners had no continuity and no intellectual property to work with. It began with the CEO buying a brand-new Mercedes and parking it in front of the staff canteen while a large retrenchment process was underway.
One of the most disconcerting memories I have of restructuring was of a father of four who lost his job. After being retrenched, he came to see me every morning for seven months in the hope there was a vacancy. He would wake-up every morning, make breakfast for his wife and children, see them off to work and school respectively.
To see him slowly lose his self-respect, lose his financial independence, lose his self-esteem in a patriarchal society now that mom as the sole provider was to watch a slow steady erosion of a human. To get out of bed in the morning and have nowhere to go day after day after day. To have no money to spend on anything let alone transport meant he walked nine kilometres to see me to spend. To have no work to exercise your skills. To see the sunken eyes and the drooped shoulders meant I had to do something, not to help him, but to save him.
I approached the factory manager who created a post as a cleaner in the stores. When I informed him, he sobbed, hanging on my shoulders until he gathered himself. His recovery was as swift as it was remarkable. After a few months was striking with the unions for better coffee in the canteen.
His neighbour who had also worked for us was retrenched at the same time. He sat on the side of the road every morning in all-weather for months on end waiting for a day job as a casual labourer. After a few months, he simply gave up, losing all hope. He slipped slowly and unwillingly into a life of drugs and delinquency. Petty crime and regular jail time became his tragic routine. After less than a year he died of TB. Work matters. Never take your job or your career for granted. Never.
Many of my clients are battling with what I call the Rs;
repurposing
restructuring
reengineering
redeploying
retrenching
redundancy
If this is the case, you need to have a very clear process of how to go about this.
The process we follow is to review your business to ensure it remains fit for purpose. The purpose must have a commercial rationale. Then follow the four Ds; Discover – find out whether your reason for being still exists, Dream – create a vision of future success, Design – put in place the steps to achieve your dream, Destiny – review and reinforce so it becomes part of the organisation’s DNA.
Only once you have a clear plan should you consider redundancies and retrenchments. We offer an outsourced HR service. For further information regarding this contact us at info@saige.co.za or call us on +27 (0)87 550 3374.
Well this is new. My staff are scattered all over the paddock as I slide my bowl of porridge aside making place for my laptop. Here we go, google – “How to manage your team while working remotely?”. Not only is this new, but it is here to stay (for the foreseeable future at least). Managers, employees and the like are going to have to adapt. Quickly.
It is ok to feel vulnerable and take time to listen, reflect and let it all work out – to reach out and find one another. Today, right around the world, leaders, managers and parents are all scrambling to make sense of so, so, many things. Having your staff working agile, remotely, WFM, whatever the term is, is not something many of us have experienced before. That’s fine. Embrace the change and use it intuitively to find a way to better your productivity, enhance your business outcomes and motivate your employees.
I introduced remote working at my previous company twenty-five years ago. Initially it was “seat of the pants stuff”, but it worked out well in the end and I have never looked back. Hopefully you will find some of the experiences I share useful.
Here are my nine tips to working from home:
Understand what it means to work.
What is it that you do, exactly? You started out as a clerk at a law firm. You were drawn to the law because you find the complexity and intrigue of drafting contracts appealing. Now you have a department with twenty staff. You are a manager. There is a vast difference. Do you know what this means, particularly given the current lockdown and post-corona workplace? Find that. Write it down. Analyse it. Study it. Reflect and work out what your new priorities are.
Measure the right things.
Yup its that simple. Measure what matters. Measure the right stuff and you create magic. Measure the wrong stuff and, well you get what you measure – the wrong stuff.
Many years ago, I recall sales staff being measured on whether their cars were clean and well serviced, their petrol slips were in on time and their sale sheets were up-to -date.
Guess what? Great administrators. Clean cars, petrol slips in on Fridays and sale sheets up-to-date.
Measure sales against target. Guess what? You get sales against target.
Work out what your business needs most, and measure that.
Manage by objectives [MBO].
Manage outcomes not processes. If your best sales rep is setting sales records sitting in a cabin in Montague why drag them to office to see if their car is clean? Stop it. Now.
Set your staff an objective, clear and concise. Define the standard required. Set a timeframe. Ask them to repeat it so they are clear about what you require of them. Get them to keep you appraised of their progress. Make sure they have resources to achieve their goal. Let them achieve their goals. Go. Celebrate. Thank them. Gratitude goes a long way and gets you results ungrateful leaders never experience.
Do not be afraid to delegate.
Did you become a manager to feed some poor issue of self-esteem? Do you love having an office full of fearful staff you can laud over while fueling your ego? Well the terrible news is: a virus just upset your life.
Yes, you may be trying to rekindle your desire for power by checking your staff are online and measuring their time sheets. This will have a negative impact on your business. It results in lost talent, unmotivated employees and measures the complete wrong thing. Measure their objectives and delegate their tasks. You do not need to check up on them at all times, nor do you need constant reporting back. Let go.
Don’t motivate, Inspire.
Why would you send out emails at 22h00 expecting an immediate response? Why would you keep a young parent on the phone until twelve at night and expect loyalty?
The best leaders (and those that will succeed in the post-corona environment) are those that inspire trust in their staff. “I trust you to get the job done”, sounds so much better than, “I noticed from the server that you logged out at 16h55”. Inspired staff will get it done because you have enabled and empowered them. You have provided them with clear objectives and you have delegated effectively. The rest falls into place. Do not micromanage, inspire.
Move from ego-centric to eco-centric
Staff do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. Do you check in with your staff to see how they are feeling? Their world has just exploded and you’re asking for petrol slips? No. An eco-centric leader is inclusive, understands how the broader eco-system is connected and the role they play with others not at others.
You are going to have shift the needle and work out a style that is consistent, fair and predictable. If you’re not sure look up the term authentic leader – you are going to need these skills from yesterday already.
I love Lao Tzu, an ancient Chinese philosopher, who said, “there go my people, I must follow them for I am their leader”.
Draw up a new set of standing operating procedures.
True north just shifted. Re-chart your course. Base it on getting the job done. Make it clear. Share it with everyone for comment. Adjust. Implement. Set clear boundaries. Successful leaders get their kicks out of empowering others to achieve their objectives, not telling people what to do and checking whether they worked on Saturday.
If you don’t re-calibrate north you will be left behind. Darwin never said evolution was a case of survival of the fittest. He said those that survive will be those that are best able to adapt. So, adapt. Start by drawing up your operating procedures, circulate them with your staff and find a method that works effectively for all. Get everyone’s buy in – this makes it everyone’s project, not just yours. The days of your staff waiting for you to come down the Mount with tablets are over. Co-create relationships.
It is going to be OK.
As mentioned, over twenty years ago I introduced both flexitime and agile working. The result? We increased productivity. Attracted talent on salaries way below the market average. People wanted to work in an environment where they were trusted and had flexibility.
This is not something new. You do not need to do much; technology sees to it. Many people are used to working in what is referred to as the “gig economy”. They are used to working from home. So, utilise this. Maximise the skills involved not the time involved. You don’t want busy staff – you want effective staff. Get a better understanding of what it means to be effective. Embrace it.
Find out what’s really bothering you?
Is it grief at losing work rituals ingrained over many years? Does the fear of not getting up, dressing up, showing up – sitting in the traffic listening to yet another prank call, parking in your reserved bay, chatting to staff about Saturday’s game cause you anxiety? For generations this has been the DNA of the workplace. It’s gone.
Grieve if you must but work out where you are in the cycle; denial, anger, depression, acceptance, meaning. Find someone to talk to. The best leaders are present, they self-reflect and internalise before crystallising their thoughts. Then they act. Now is our time. Now is the time for authentic, reassuring, comforting empathetic leadership. We owe it to those we lead. And to ourselves. You got this.
If the above was helpful, or if you would like any further information please contact Saige Business Consulting on info@saige.co.za
Keep a lookout for our webinars launching this week.
None of us, not one single one, ZERO, have been here before. Ever. We’re making it up as we go, and that’s fine. Admit it and you’ll feel a whole heap better.
There is too much information, too many moving parts, too little certainty, and too much ambiguity. To make predictions with even mild conviction is an indicator of insanity or stupidity.
But here are a few certainties;
The lockdown will end.
You will go back to work.
You will need to pick up the pieces.
It will not be the same as when you left – not for you, not for your staff, not for your suppliers, customers, or your competitors.
Under these circumstances, whatever they might be, you will need to lead. You will need to lead in the biggest modern-day crisis the global world and your organisation has faced.
Your first priorities must be to revisit your strategic plan and conduct a complete organisational review ASAP.
We strongly advise that the day the lockdown ends, you invite your executive to a full organisational review to determine whether your business is fit for purpose. The business environment has changed significantly, not only do you need to reset your compass but you’ve got to find where the new true north is. Not only has someone changed the playing field, they’ve moved us to a new stadium. And remember, what got you “here” may not get you “there”. In any event, now’s the time to find out where “there” is.
For many companies the virus has simply exposed fault-lines as the fissures, chasms, canyons that they are. Take this opportunity to have a full service rather than kick the tyres. A full review must look at both the internal and external landscapes with the intent of creating a future fit organisation.
Can staff work remotely? If so who? How much office space does this free up? Do you still need all that floorspace and four floors of parking?
Do you need to strengthen your IT systems to accommodate increased numbers of virtual meetings? I was advised today that senior buyers at a major retailer will no longer be seeing sales people at their offices – ever, the new normal is an email followed by a Zoom call. Is your IT posed to cope?
How have your customers changed? Do you still have the same target market? How many of your customers have shifted to online buying? How many of them have stopped eating out? What is the impact of lower incomes on your target markets purchasing power? How does this effect you?
Do your numbers have integrity and are they real time? Do you have a dashboard for executives that measures liquidity accurately and swiftly? Do your numbers have integrity?
What opportunities exist for your company? Where are you vulnerable? And most importantly can you answer this one really important question, “what will success look like for us?”. What must we do to achieve this? Who will be doing it? How will we measure it?
The support services, the administrative services can all be outsourced. Now’s the time to look at your organogram. Review each each job, do a job analysis, see who can be outsourced. What options are there? Should you pay a fulltime employee as a fixed cost? Or pay a team with a proven track record – as and when you need them?
Saige has performed a number of successful organisational reviews restructuring them to ensure they fit for purpose, click on the link for testimonials https://saige.co.za/. Saige has also completed a number of successful business turnarounds which have included repositioning, developing strategy, restructuring, and repurposing – using the effective, proven Saige Activation Model, for more information click on the link https://saige.co.za/how-we-do-it/
Crucially, Saige has positioned itself to operate in the Gig Economy offering tailormade solutions for businesses. This allows organisations to focus on their core business. If you’re a school – educate. If you’re a manufacturer – manufacture. If you’re in financial services – look after your client’s finance.
One of the most powerful things a leader can say is, “I don’t know”.
Right now many of us are feeling a touch vulnerable and bewildered – if you’re feeling like this, you really need to partner with a team whose track-record of excellence and success speaks for itself – contact info@saige.co.za
Trust, trust, trust me on this – HOPE is the single most critical component for a content and fulfilled life.
HOPE is the yeast in our daily bread.
HOPE is our innate ability to trump despair with drive, doubt with belief, apathy with conviction, disinterest with desire, uncertainty with assurance, and hesitation with confidence.
HOPE is resistance and resilience in the face of adversity.
HOPE causes us to set the alarm at night. HOPE gets us out of bed in the morning. Again, and again, and again.
HOPE is the most important foundation upon which we build meaningful lives.
Without HOPE we are hopeless. When we lose HOPE, we create a vacuum which is quickly filled with hopelessness, despondence, despair, and depression.
Can we avoid this?
Victor Fraenkel taught us how, when everything had been removed from inmates in Auschwitz, they were still left with the option to choose. No one can ever, ever, ever take that from you. The survivors chose HOPE. We can too.
As I write we are in an extended lock-down in response to the Corona Virus. People are being infected. Tragically, many are dying. Businesses are filing for insolvency. Staff are being retrenched. SMEs are closing their doors, many for the final time. Landlords are terminating leases. Tenants face homelessness. On Friday, with impeccable timing, Moody’s downgraded the country to junk status. The Finance Minister informed us that the country has run out of money. The Reserve Bank began buying the government bonds no one else wants. It is an extraordinary time. A time which threatens to drown us in despair. The best antidote is HOPE.
HOPE is the belief that tomorrow will be better than today, that the rest of our lives will be better than what we have already lived.
HOPE is the most effective currency leaders have to deal with the current situation. Leaders have the choice to create a vision, desire, and dream of what our future is going to look like.
How?
Leaders must start by caring for their people. With the wind at our backs we can all be great leaders; bullish and buoyed with bluster and hubris. Now with a force-ten gale head-on; we get to see who can lead in adversity – leaders who deal in HOPE.
So how do we use HOPE as a strategy?
Whether you are a parent, a sole proprietor, or CEO of a listed company – be kind, be considerate, be compassionate. Now is the time to look after and out for people.
Yes, revenue streams are important, liquidity is critical, as is surviving an extended lockdown and managing a slow, protracted recovery. Do all this but first put people at the centre of the process.
Think about it, where does your money come from? Your customers – take care of them. Nothing happens in business until someone sells something, who does this? Your sales team – take care of them. Who manages the cash flowing in and out of your business? Your administration department – take care of them.
By now you’re getting the idea.
The businesses that survive and go on to thrive will be the ones with people-centred leadership. Your staff don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Show them how much you care.
Your people are panic stricken and afraid. Keep in contact and reassure them by speaking frequently and honestly using tone, language and intent that are positive, optimistic, reassuring – in short hopeful. You are their umbilical cord of HOPE that we will get through this.
When the President sent the armed forces into our communities, he urged them to, “be kind and take care of our people”. How much better than the Minister of Defence who answered a question with, “there is no skop, skiet and donder – yet”. Words are important they can inspire or demotivate – use them carefully.
As parents at home you need to be the reassuring hand in the back, the tranquillity, and the reassurance. As you and your family try and make sense of this unusual time in history be kind, breathe slowly and deeply. Be hopeful – it’s infectious.
Should you wish to consult us with regards to developing a strategy, coaching, mentoring, business development based on assertive enquiry and positive psychology email info@saige.co.za to set up a free zoom session to learn more.
In my last article I examined a number of options for organisations responding to the Corona Virus. Since then, events have moved at an astonishing speed, and we now live in a state of emergency. I’ve had calls from clients ranging from requests for information on, whether to pay an employee who is quarantined because their spouse was in contact with a person diagnosed at his workplace, to if I consult to my client via Zoom, can I still charge my normal hourly rate or must I discount?
Technology influence
Here’s the thing, the world has changed forever and with it the nature of the workplace. Technology has made the notion of place irrelevant for most skilled jobs – one can just as easily access communication, resources and information from the slope of Mount Everest as in the office. You can draft your strategic marketing plan, complete an excel budget and communicate this with the team instantly. But still we cling to the standard employment relationship – sign a letter of employment, agree to comply with working hours and get measured by how frequently you are at your desk.
Well the most progressive, efficient companies I know have loosened their grip on the employment relationship. Much of their work is now being done by individuals other than full-time employees. Think about it, does it make sense to go through an expensive recruitment process, induction, training and have a fixed cost when you can pay a contractor or consultant an hourly rate for the best possible advice, assistance as if they were on your payroll. The beauty is no laborious labour disputes IR difficulties managing industrial relations, pay disputes, poor discipline and poor performance. You simply have a 24-hour termination clause.
Over the years as a consultant I’ve worked in a wide variety of industries at every level from middle-management to board level. It allows me to work from wherever it is I choose to be. If I’m on holiday and you desperately need a disciplinary hearing chaired, we do it via Zoom. It gives me increased flexibility, the ability to craft my life as I see fit and the freedom to choose the “gigs” that give me pleasure, reward and satisfaction. For your business, it allows you to draw on a global pool of talent and experience when you need it, rather than an under-resourced talent in your office daily, weekly, monthly, annually, forever.
Technology has created incredible opportunities for both business and those looking for an alternative to fulltime employment. The cloud, mobile apps, collaboration platform, collaborative workplaces provide just about every type of business function needed to provide an excellent service to clients at virtually no cost. And to business, the cost is an hourly rate that can be negotiated and capped allowing you to budget accordingly.
But it’s not just in organisations I’ve experienced this phenomenon. If you ever have the joy of organising a mass participation event, you will experience the many moving parts that come together to prepare and host the event disband and move on just as quickly. From fencing companies, road signage, outdoor marketing, traffic control, disaster management they are paid for the event. Now imagine if it was your business and you had the employees for 12 months of the year?
As one of my favourite authors Mark Manson explains it,
“Throughout history, the biggest and most necessary changes typically come in the wake of crises, much like our most important personal changes often come in the wake of our traumas. There’s always growth in pain. And there’s always opportunity for creation in destruction.”
Here’s your chance to do the things you’ve wanted to do but couldn’t find the urgency to do. Any significant change in my life has usually been preceded by an unexpected significant event.
For further insights and consultation contact us at info@saige.co.za
There seems to be a crisis epidemic.
I know that’s how I, and many of my clients feel. I love them. I love nothing more than creating something positive out of something dire.
Rham’s Rule
The first thought that comes to mind when dealing with a crisis is, “what would Chicago Mayor and former White House Chief of Staff to President Obama, Rham Emanuel do if he was me?”
Emanuel developed the philosophy now referred to as Rham’s Rule;
“You never let a serious crisis to go to waste,” he said. Why? Because “it’s an opportunity to do things you could not do before.”
The Corona Virus is a crisis. It’s impossible to believe otherwise. The negative news is multiplying almost as fast as the virus itself. But there are opportunities. Many of which I shared with a client today. It is a very progressive independent school.
During the Fees Must Fall Crisis, UCT sent students home. I know, one was sitting in my house. Lectures were conducted via podcasts and social media. Online chat-rooms served as tutorial groups. Students could download the material at their convenience and as many times as they wished. Exams were written online. Marks were posted – online. Out of this difficult period came many positive opportunities. Universities have had to cope with regular student protest by providing content online. But it is not limited to universities.
One of the pioneers of UCTs online learning program Get Smarter was Robert Paddock who recently established an online school called the Valenture Institute. More and more people I speak to are schooling their children at home using online platforms. Sport and extra-murals are done through clubs and societies.
Education is being disrupted. This is not new; Clayton Christensen wrote a book Disrupting Class in 2008 (updated in 2017) much of what he predicted is currently happening. The notion that schools or universities are a cluster of buildings, a set of pupils and teachers for a fixed period is over. Done. Dusted. Gone. And Corona is facilitating this change at a frightening speed. Corona is closing down academic institutions. This provides the opportunity to modernise and democratise education.
Imagine online learning by not just any teacher of varying ability but the very best teacher in the world on a given subject on your child’s tablet in your house. Think about this; learning is a hit and miss affair, imagine your child is taught maths by a teacher who has never studied maths? Yes, it does and is happening. Yet technology makes it possible for every child to receive the best possible tuition.
Is Corona the opportunity we need to shift a system suited to perpetuate the status quo?
Another opportunity technology provides us with is the ability to “learn for life”. The year after my daughter completed her accounting articles, an online accounting program Xero shifted the needle in the industry a full 360 degrees. The credit crunch and state capture heightened the need for an ethics course – something previously thought of as an anathema to accountants. She estimates that within 18 months much of the curriculum was obsolete. If you do not continue to learn throughout your life you too will become obsolete.
Google “online courses” and you will find every reputable global university offering courses presented by the leading names in their field. Just think of it, you can graduate from Oxford sipping cortado in your local coffee shop.
And the workplace? From the first client, a school, to the second – a manufacturing and retail company. An HR Department clinging to the Victorian “time and attendance” mentality. They measure staff on the hours they spend at work. Little do they know their staff are on social media and taking private calls most of the time. They don’t understand that being there is not the same as being effective. “If I can see you, I can manage you”. Really, in 2020? There is NO USE measuring the wrong things. Their attendance is awful, as the pile of leave forms and sick leave forms on the HR Managers test indicates.
The HR Manager asked me to, “help us draft some guidelines to manage corona”. “You don’t need a list, you need common-sense, it’s really very simple”, I replied, “manage everyone as if they’re one of your sales reps.”
Agile Work Force
Over twenty years ago I introduced a concept called the “Agile Work Force”.
The first step was for the board to have a clear detailed strategic plan that is known to everybody, has clear metrics, and is used to direct all the company’s attention, energy and effort. I use John Doerrs OKRs. In all the companies I consult to, the two-day Stratplan session is the most important day on the calendar. Get this right and you win. Trust me. Polony, Day Zero, Corona or not.
Next manage your staff based on outcomes. Measure them on what they need to deliver, not how are they delivering it. Oh yes, get rid of those awkward performance review systems, no one likes them and no one understands them. Gone, we’re adults now.
A sales rep is measured on their sales against budget. There is no place to hide. You hit target or you don’t. Period. And there are agreed upon consequences set out in the incentive scheme. To a good manager, it shouldn’t matter an iota whether the rep achieves budget by making calls while watching cage fighting or while nursing a sick child. You should be managing the outcome. The End. Personally, I don’t care if Tiger Woods hits the ball out of bounds more than any other golfer, as long as he wins tournaments. That’s how we should treat staff. Instead we measure them on the amount of balls they lose. I know of an auditing firm that has appearance as a key metric – one-page dress code for male and eleven for female. Gumf. Who does this?
A young engineer told me he commutes for an hour to work and an hour back to sit in an office and design a bridge across the Red Sea. If he were to work at home, he would add 10 hours of productivity to his week and deliver the project a month earlier. But guess what? He’s measured on his time and attendance… honestly. Ten hours a week is forty hours a month or 480 a year. If he worked remote, his employer would get an extra 54 days a year productivity. Are you measuring the right metrics?
If you are an executive or business owner, draft up a list of positions that can work flexible hours or even agile. Then get their manager to draft a contract with them of the times they need contact, meetings, presentation etc. some can be done by Zoom others require people present – when you work out the amount of time this is, I’d be surprised if it is 10%.
We allowed most of the workforce to work agile and guess what? Productivity soared, profit soared and we attracted the most incredible talent way above what an enterprise like ours deserved or could pay for – a manufacturing part in the industrial wasteland of Stikland – between the graveyard and the used car lot. Why did we attract such talent? People want flexibility. People want a say in how they live their lives. People are adults. These people are your staff. Think about them – they are like you. They want to avoid time consuming commutes. You might have noticed the roads are gridlocked, the trains unreliable, while the buses under siege from taxi operators. Your staff, like you, want to drop children at school. Have coffee with their spouse and occasionally exercise. Yet you cling fast to your clock-card system, biometric system whatever, whatever developed in the industrial revolution. It’s dead. Yes. Sorry to break it to you.
What to do? Apply Rham’s Rule and don’t let this serious crisis go to waste, because it just might be that opportunity to do things you could not do before.
If you need advice from someone who went to the edge, took the plunge and flew, contact Saige Business Consulting for advice on implementing talent management programs, retention programs, flexitime, agile and remote work. Contact us at info@saige.co.za
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