Even in a stagnant economy, top management rarely questions their responsibility to deliver revenue and profit. However, when it comes to people metrics, management remains reluctant to push for and overtake them and be held personally accountable for realizing improvements. For example, being responsible for voluntary staff turnover of over 40 percent seems bizarre to executives in China and instead they resort to common excuses as these: “This is normal for our industry” or “It is part of doing business”. Other questionable excuses include:
• (Regarding reasons for leaving) There is always a company that will pay more. We did not intend to keep them anyway; we do not think that they deserve any promotion or salary increase. Their expectations do not match their skills.
• (Regarding unsatisfactory employee satisfaction scores) We did not have 100 percent participation in the employee survey; so, we did not really get a full picture here and people probably did not understand the questions.
• (Regarding the low amount of training hours per employee) We train on-the job primarily. We have no time for in-class training. Our client meetings always overlap with training times.
Under such circumstances, a hands-on and strong HR function that tracks and calls for Managers’ co-responsibility for people metrics would create enormous headaches for one-dimensional senior management. Therefore, a weak and supportive HR function is preferred by many in power positions. In addition, a mediocre HR department is easier to staff and unable to measure people metrics in the first place. So, the problem is solved and solving problems is a Manager’s primary duty after all. Until of course, a bigger problem arises; the talent in the company has dwindled greatly, workforce apathy is all around, recruitment costs have gone out of control, and the company's reputation has suffered. Now, there are no more quick, easy, and cheap fixes; the competition has soared past your organization.
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