Dickson Igwe. Photo: VINO/File

Businesses that consider their people as cheap fodder, to be terrorized and kept insecure, and then discarded as easily as a bag of trash, will treat their most important resource, the customer, even worse.

The poor telecom services that the longsuffering people of the Virgin Islands suffer, day in and out, month after month, and year after year, are a simple reflection of a Machiavellian management culture and model that wrongly places profits and physical assets, above people.

Every day, as low, mid, and management level workers in the telecoms industry go to the workplace, most never know when the letter of termination will be handed to them for frequently obscure reasons. Working for a certain telecom firm is a very insecure affair this 2014. One should pray that one’s child never ends up in that outfit.

Usually, the real reason for giving Tom Technician or Lucy the sales assistant the sack, has nothing to do with business operations and strategy. They are sacked because Tom’s face is disliked by Mr. BOSS MAN, or better still, a crony has been promised Lucy’s sales job. 

These are companies that believe Mickey Mouse sales and marketing promotions, and deceptive hype, are more important to customer service, than building a culture of great customer service, of effectiveness and efficiency, and of keeping staff that are happy and loyal to the businesses’ product, service, and brand. How dumb!

That is why these businesses have the fastest employee turnover rate in the Virgin Islands.

These companies possess a human resource model more interested in creating workplace paranoia, than in building a strong business brand, and ensuring company loyalty between worker and business, and even more critically, business and customer.

Even within the human resources departments of these businesses, the Machiavellian culture of deception runs rampant. Think of the number of personnel officers these companies sack each year. How on earth then can they get their own man management model right as a result, if even the people responsible for human resource management, cannot keep their jobs.

The human resources departments of these businesses are effectively staff liquidation units. Think about Germany under the SS and then one gets a clearer picture. The human resource big wigs are not there to build staff motivation and welfare: actually it is the opposite. They are there to terrorize staff as instructed by higher ups in the industry.

The use of the term human resources is actually a gross over reach.  They would be better off using the term manpower control and reduction department. These are businesses that consider their people the most expendable resource they possess. People are placed very low on their scale of value.

Bruce Kasanoff is a business speaker and writer. In a story in Forbes Magazine of July 21, 2014, Kasanoff stated the following: “you can’t cut your way to success if you forget that business is all about people.” Kasanoff went on to explain: “a firm that cuts thousands of employees to boost profits is applying a very short term strategy.’’ That business has forgotten that business is all about people."

"Those missing employees will have had numerous relationships with customers, partners, and suppliers. Tons of information will disappear about those needs. As those employees depart so will their insights and information.’’ 

On the other hand Kasanoff stated that, “when leaders realize that people are what matter most, everything else falls in line.’’ Kasanoff further stated that “business leaders that put their people and customers first were the most successful.” Effective leaders, “understand and value people.’’

This Old Boy was engaged in conversation many moons ago with the President of a very well known organization. The man was excited about his savvy in the management of processes and systems. However the powerful executive failed to mention his most important resource: the people in his organization.

Mr. Big Stuff would have impressed this Freelance Writer much more had his rendition been about his people and how he would get them fired up and motivated as part of his success strategy for the organization.

Non Profit Organizations (NPOs) depend on sponsors, donors, and volunteers for their existence. These organizations understand that their people are everything. The volunteer works for a nonprofit organization out of a desire to contribute something of substance to the community in which he or she lives. In return, the nonprofit organization-or those with an effective management programme-ensures that the volunteer is treated in a SUPER SPECIAL manner.

There is a relationship between the management of the NPO, and the volunteer employee, that is based on mutual respect, understanding, consideration, and a proactive culture of mentorship and training.

The objective of most NPOs is to improve the communities within which they operate. The NPO understands that in order to impact the community with its core mission and vision, then it must view the volunteer as critical to that community transformation.

In relation to people skills, purely commercial organizations should learn a thing or two from the NPO. 

To be continued

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