The Workplace 2.0
Read this entry to learn how to improve employee relations while reducing HR costs. I was reflecting today on how unstable corporate life is these days and how easy it is to work for yourself. Companies, big and small, need to adapt to a changing work environment or lose their best employees to the Internet businesses which give them the stability and flexibility they want. Fortunately there are great tools you can use, to hire and retain the best employees. If you are interested in your own consultation contact me at john”at”budnikgroup.com.
In my previous entry, I wrote about Daryn Kagan. After 12 years at CNN, her contract was not renewed. While they were looking for a “fresh face”, she found a second career online. Now Ms. Kagan has control of her own career, launching her own online content, producing two documentaries and writing a book in less than two years. When asked why she didn’t just take another job in television, she said that given the way the traditional news business is shrinking, she’d be more scared to have taken another job in television.
Living in New York, I saw thousands of people in finance fired after September 11th, 2001. When the economy picked up, big banks did not hire more people. They only made their bankers work twice as hard for the same amount of money. Then when the banks got greedy and got themselves into this subprime mess, they fired thousands more responsible employees who were running profitable divisions otherwise not effected by the bad loans. If you can’t find stable work at a big bank, is there any industry that’s safe?
Big corporations have shed thousands of jobs in every sector of the economy, from the Big Three auto manufacturers Big Blue, (aka the tech giant, IBM). Throughout the 1990’s we heard that “There is no such thing is job security anymore”. While that’s more true today, there are more alternatives and big business is losing out. Increasingly, large corporations have to compete with the Internet for staff. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs get the same pricing and level of service from new, scalable technologies as big companies.
Entrepreneurs even have the advantage since they don’t have expensive bureaucracies impeding the adaptation of emerging technologies. Entrepreneurs also can exploit niches in ways that big business can’t, because of their cost structure. Whatever entrepreneur make, they keep. They don’t have to worry about creating income for support staff or unprofitable divisions. Before you think that I am simply cheering on the little entrepreneur over big business, I’m not.
Corporations do have to change their model or face extinction, like the oversized dinasaur. Big business is being squeezed on both end. Technology has taken away the advantage of large corporations ability to adapt and regulations like Sarbanes Oxley have taken away their ability to raise capital efficiently. However, big business still has the ability to create community in a way that no other organization can.
In a corporation, people have a certain camaraderie that you have difficulty finding elsewhere in your adult life. By going to the same place everyday and seeing the same people, you learn about your coworker’s lives, you set and accomplish goals together, and, in the end, you make friends. I have a vision of how big companies can give their employees community and stability, flexibility and ownership.
For most employees, owning 1/1,000,000,000,000 of their company is meaningless. Ownership for most employees means owning your own work and identity. Companies need to apply social networking techniques to their own businesses so that employees can build their own identities, create teams to tackle projects and own their own work.
Companies still provide valuable services to their employees, like market knowledge, direction and teamwork. They need to train their employees about what they have learned about their particular market, but allow their employees to add to that body of knowledge. They need to provide a vision for the company, but allow others to direct that vision in response to market demands. They need to foster teamwork, but let it grow organically around projects and listen to their employees when teamwork breaks down.
All of the software companies need to hire and retain the best employees is free or very inexpensive. Employee blogs to help keep teams, clients and vendors informed about upcoming projects are free using WordPress. You can even protect sensitive information with passwords. You can create your own online network to schedule tasks and brainstorm using Central Desktop for $20 per month. Contact me if you want to keep your best employees working efficiently while reducing HR costs. My email address is john”at”budnikgroup.com.
April 15, 2008 at 2:36 pm
[...] think that my somewhat disjointed entry “The Workplace 2.0” does a better job of identifying specific solutions you can use to implement the changes he [...]
April 30, 2008 at 5:54 pm
[...] Where the Hell is Matt? Update: For a more complete look at my view of the workplace in a Web 2.0 World read “The Workplace 2.0“. [...]