Technology, Strategy, People and Projects

If they could choose, would they stay?

by Eric D. Brown on December 9, 2008

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In these troubled times, it’s hard for organizations to focus on employee moral and happiness. I’ve heard many ‘leaders’ say things like “they should be happy they have a job” when confronted with low moral and employee unhappiness.

My response to those ‘leaders’ is this:

Think about what will happen when the economy rebounds and the job market returns…will you be so casually responding to your employees’ low morale? Most stare blankly at me and have no response.

I then hit them with “Do you think your employees will stay in your organization as soon as the rebound happens?” To their credit, most have been honest and answered “no”.

Organizations *must* focus on their people during this downturn if they have any hope of surviving and thriving when the economy picks back up.

If you’re a manager, ask yourself this question to keep your focus on your people: If they could choose, would they stay?

Written By Eric D. Brown

Eric is a Consultant, Entrepreneur and Doctoral Student focused on helping organizations cross the chasm that exists between Business & IT. Eric writes extensively about technology, strategy, people and projects at http://ericbrown.com. In addition to this blog and his consulting work, Eric is an avid & passionate photographer and writes about photography, shares photographs and reviews products at Photography Minute.

Billigflug

Hey
In this times humans work like machines- They must be funtional.
It´s very cheerless, but this is the actualy truth. There´s nobody who ask you the question if you realy want this job- you must do it for your family/ because of high taxes and huge prices you didn´t have any choice.
There´s nobody which support your family.
In this time theres no room for wishes.But this system couldn´t work forever, because of missing satisfaction.I hope there will be an improvement, and everybody could take a choice and get his "pefect job".Standing up in the morning with a smile on your face- Utopia?

ericbrown

Billigflug - I disagree.

Of course, there is no utopia, but you can build an organization that gives people the ability to enjoy their work. Treating people like machines is what has built business into a soul-less beast.