In most organisations the relationship between the employer and employee is more accurately described as a parent-to-child relation in which the employer decides what is good for the employee, what objectives need to be achieved, what courses need to be attended, when he can be promoted and where the employee (read “child”) needs to be controlled and kept in check.
In other words, the relationship resembles a benevolent parent who can be trusted to look after the interest of his children as long as he is not being questioned about his own actions.
I am openly challenging organisations to convert this parent-to-child relationship into an adult-to-adult relationship. Here’s why:
A perfect storm of societal-, technology- and economic changes is chipping away at the very foundations organisations are build on. This was perfectly illustrated by the viral attention a 127-page slide deck from Netflix ex-Chief Talent Officer, Patty McCord got. Five million views and an brilliant article in HRB later and you can’t get away from the impression that leaders, professionals and workers are yearning for an organisational approach that fits the time, unchains people and allows them to be in charge of their professional life.
My personal vision is for an organisation where its employees are been treated as members and where the relation between the employer and employee is an adult relation where both parties treat, trust and relate to each other like adults.
My Organisational Restructuring Experiments at Unilever
Ten years ago I started an experiment in Unilever Pakistan and implemented a concept called ‘Me and U’ in which the driving force was to turn the relation between Unilever and its employees on its head and start treating employees as ‘adults’.
The basic principles of this program were that employees:
– Had complete freedom to choose their holiday days,
– Didn’t have to get approval for domestic travel
– Could select their benefits based on their own preferences, and
– Were given full transparency on policies and (retirement) benefits
The center piece of the program was that every employee was given a ‘development budget’ that they could use as they saw fit, whether they wanted to attend a specific training , conference, books, e-learning course or yoga class for that matter. They could save their allocated budget and use it for a more more expensive program it they so desired; it didn’t matter as long as they felt it was relevant for their personal development and they made the decision.
[box] Frankly, I don’t understand companies that say that your development is your responsibility but then don’t give employees the authority, tools and possibility to exercise this responsibility.[/box]
When I explain these concepts to line managers and executives they often respond by saying that they can’t trust their employees to make the decisions that balance the interest of the company and the individual. This, of course, is nonsense. You constantly expect people to take the right decisions. It is all about following these four steps:
– guidance,
– role models,
– removing people who can’t handle the responsibility that comes with freedom, and
– hiring the ones that can
As long as employees have a shared understanding and deep passion in line with what the organisation wants to achieve, they will make the right decision. Decisions that will benefit both the company and the employee. Just try it in your own department, company, team and see what happens to the engagement level and the performance level of your team. It will go through the roof.
I look forward to hearing your examples of how to liberate employees from “benevolent” bosses.
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Photo Credit: Dice
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