In yesterday’s headlines: China is facing a labor shortage, and low unemployment in the US is making it hard to fill open jobs - the war for talent is seemingly worldwide. Business leaders everywhere are debating what to do: in China they are debating whether to stop forcibly relocating workers; in the US we are debating whether to raise the minimum wage. Maybe governments should think about equalizing living wages everywhere to stop the flight of businesses in search of cheaper labor, and business leaders should think about how they treat their employees. This last point screams for more effective on-boarding and new-hire training programs, and more transparent management practices that create commitment and loyalty: together these have the potential to reduce the number of people looking to leave jobs in search of ones they hope might be more satisfactory. The buzz words throughout the world’s economies are productivity, equity, fairness, engagement, and employee satisfaction: if we truly want to improve those then professional managers everywhere need to create workplaces that attract recruits and promote retention. The bottom line: doing little or nothing for workers is leading to the undoing of businesses today.
Horace Mann (1796 - 1859): American educational reformer and politician dedicated to promoting public education
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