Your Employees and Big Media are Watching: Engage Them in Safe, Healthy and Ethical Ways
By Priscilla Kohl | HRTools.com Business Writer
“When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad.”
-----Abraham Lincoln
Let’s say: You ‘get it’—employee engagement is where it’s at, and you’re on board with the fact that this workplace concept doesn’t happen overnight. Your employees appear to be happy at work, committed to you, your customers and your mission and goals. You’ve also worked hard at developing a culture that synchs your human values with your business values. You’re continuing to communicate your business objectives and clarify how employees can help you succeed at meeting stated goals. You’re recognizing and rewarding employees who help you achieve those objectives and goals.
Good for you! More and more successful businesses are engaging and empowering employees. And highly engaged employees will remain truly engaged only so long as they can trust you.
As with any relationship, the healthiest employer-employee relationship is based on reciprocity. In exchange for committing to helping your business succeed, your employees often need reassurance that you are as concerned about them as you are about financial results. One way to do that is by demonstrating you care about their health and safety. Not only that, many feel that you should also care about their families and communities.
We’ve come a long way, and the Internet is dramatically changing the world of business even more.
Anyone who studies American history knows the country has experienced periods of unsettling worker conditions. For starters, we had involuntary worker servitude and indentured servant contracts during the early colonial days. During the 17th and 18th centuries, men, women and even children signed a contract—an indenture—which bound them to serve their owners for a certain number of years.
In another era—the Industrial Age—the country experienced other unsavory worker conditions. According to a U.S. Department of Labor historian Web site posting, “During the era of industrialization in America, between the Civil War and World War I, dangerous and unhealthy working conditions and frequent serious accidents with resulting economic and social losses prompted calls for government to take action.”
Then, in came the post-industrialization society—as the economy started moving away from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-based economy—which has significantly affected society as a whole. Today we fancy our societal culture as more enlightened, progressive and one in which employee needs and dignity are of the utmost importance.
Now we’re seeing evidence of reputation risk management growing as a global concern.
The Conference Board, which has disseminated knowledge about management and the marketplace for over 90 years, recently reported that today’s U.S. and European businesses are increasingly concerned about “reputation risk management.” According to their report, published in March 2009, more and more businesses are investing substantial resources to increase their efforts in this area.
Not surprisingly, the Internet is a major factor contributing to growing media-monitoring concerns. These concerns are inspiring companies to evaluate ways they can become more actively involved in order to reduce vulnerabilities. As revealed in a recent HRTools.com Insight, companies can be globally injured, and even brought down, by online critics, employees, former employees, watchdog groups and consumers.
What does this mean? Employers will want to do the responsible thing whenever possible. Not only is this a wise approach, it will also help ensure your reputation risk management strategies are working. To that end, as employers continually raise the performance-expectation bars for their engaged employees, they should always keep in mind: how should this be done ethically and safely?
Even Honest Abe prioritized and earned his reputation. An answer to that question may be in one of Abraham Lincoln’s simplest quotes: “When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad.” While the subject of ethical behavior can stoke a philosophical debate, most responsible and reasonable people have an internal compass that closely parallels Lincoln’s simple notions.
First and foremost, in order to safeguard your reputation, you should always strive to preserve your employees’ dignity and welfare, along with their health and safety concerns. These are moral, ethical and legal obligations that apply to any employer. This means that no one in your organization should take employee commitment for granted and abuse it, or carelessly demand potentially unsafe or unlawful performance expectations.
Take, for example, one recent Wal-Mart class-action suit settlement case. According to a joint statement issued online by the company, “The settlement, which will total up to $49,000,000, concludes more than six years of litigation concerning Wal-Mart’s employment practices in South Carolina. In addition, as part of the settlement, Wal-Mart has agreed to continue to maintain electronic systems, surveys, and notices that will protect the rights of workers.” The company’s “Wal-Mart Cheer”, where employees gather together and recite the words, includes the chant: “Who’s number one? The customer! Always!”
Some business management experts today challenge the concept behind such a mantra. There is a growing indication that when businesses put their employees first, employees are then more inclined to put the customer first. This model is, in fact, followed by Southwest Airlines and claimed throughout their company statements and on their Web site. As everyone is aware, the airline industry has been going through severely rough times ever since 9/11. In spite of that and other industry challenges out of their control—for 13 consecutive years—Southwest has been named as one of FORTUNE magazine's World's Most Admired companies. In March 2009, they announced that they were ranked seventh out of the 50-named most admired companies on FORTUNE’s list. Putting their employees first is obviously working.
While American businesses must be aggressive to remain competitive, it’s in everyone’s best interest to remember: (1) Your employees are human with basic human safety and health needs and legal rights; and (2) today, a business reputation, along with an ethical good name, is almost unquantifiable—especially now that the Internet has the 24/7 potential of jeopardizing it.
So keep on ‘getting it.’ By doing the right things, being responsible and treating your employees well, you will be rewarded with:
- highly engaged and committed employees;
- a preserved reputation;
- reputation risk management efforts that are in-check;
- increased numbers of loyal customers or clients;
- more potential stakeholders or investors; and
- greater company successes.
<p>Reputation risk management is a growing global concern. In addition to empowering engaged employees, today's employers are expected to lead ethical, safe and healthy workplace cultures.</p>
Your Employees and Big Media are Watching: Engage Them in Safe, Healthy and Ethical Ways
/workplace_safety/your_employees_and_big_media_are_watching_engage_them_in_safe_healthy_and_ethical_ways.aspx