As we learned this week, it is no longer enough for a business to be considered “successful” based
on profits, alone. Incorporating considerations and measurements of benefits related to people and
environmental standards are also a critical part in validating eminence. Implementing strategies that
focus on benefitting the company by making it a more attractive place to work make it easier to hire
and retain talented employees, leading to increased profits and further expansion of benefits and so
on, (SOOMO Learning, 2020). One practice company’s face today that falls short of being
considerate to employees and community standards is organizations creating workplace cultures
that can be deemed stressful, competitive, or alienating by employees.
According to this week’s reading, there can be multiple factors that could potentially contribute to
the company implementing this practice, whether it be unknowingly or purposeful. Specifically,
when a company exemplifies this type of atmosphere, leadership is failing to recognize the 4/6
principles that measure success: value, innovation, maximizing human potential, and trust. In
maintaining an environment that is all about focusing on the numbers perspective(s) of the business,
an organization can lose key components that contribute to achieving maximized success, which is
what is happening in this scenario. Another reason for this feeling of stress, competition, and
alienation could be related to a boring, unenergetic, dismal workplace culture. If this organization
has never had to the opportunity to experience anything other than gray walls, tight office spaces,
and a “no communication is good communication” approach; they could be missing out on extreme
contingencies in developing innovation, contributing to changing markets, and building beneficial
relationships. c
If this condition were to remain unaltered and dismissed without discussion, increased
dissatisfaction among employees and customers is likely to occur. Losing customers and employees
can lead to a lack of loyalty and commitment to the company or brand, as well as increased turnover
rates and decreased retention and performance scores. With the fall in concurring factors, profits
are potentially going to diminish, waste will accumulate, expanding markets will leave the company
behind, and any positive rapport, or reputation, will go out the window, (2020). c
In counter-acting the experience of dissatisfied employees and a strict, finance-focused culture with
a reported “stressful and competitive” atmosphere, it is critical that leadership looks beyond the
numbers and puts effort into the people and community they serve. By incorporating empathetic
responsiveness, valued judgment, and clarification; employees can benefit by feeling valued and
important within their organization, (Soomo Learning, 2020). The sense of belonging and importance
will lead to lower turnover rates, recruitment of more talented employees, increased
employee/consumer loyalty, advanced innovation, and ownership, as well as better and more
frequent communications with corresponding positive relationships among peers, colleagues, and
the community. When an employee feels like a company invests in them and is interested in helping
them reach their full, or desired, potential/goals; they are likely to, in return, give back to the
company which can benefit the community, also. For example, offering a more people-friendly
practice gives the local, and surrounding areas, a chance to create new markets and open new
networks, as well as, providing a reputation of respect, empathy, and care for others that can
translate throughout the community creating a more friendly and culturally aware society that is
open to change, growth, and development, (2020).
Many companies have business practices that are unfriendly to employees and communities. Paying
employees cheap compensation is one of the most insulting of these unethical company practices.
While there are a variety of reasons why a corporation can choose to pay minimum wage, one of the
most important is to maximize profits. Such decisions may profit the corporation, but they do not
benefit the employee.
This could have some severe consequences for employees and the local community. Employees may
experience tension and rage as a result of their inability to afford basic expenses. It also
disadvantages the local society when consumers cannot afford to purchase products that are not
considered essential. Consumers will be compelled to close local neighborhood companies if they
are unable to support them. This has the potential to be destructive to the entire town. If employees
are able to raise awareness of the problem, it may result in poor headlines for the organization.
Workers in low-wage jobs have recently taken a stand and boycotted for higher salaries and
improved working conditions, such as the recent food service workers boycotts. Issues like this are
difficult for most businesses to deal with, and they frequently result in a compromise.
More companies paying greater wages to their employees will benefit not only the local economy,
but also the national economy. Our economy has also been driven by being able to easily afford
basic expenses while still having disposable income. If we could all live comfortably, we would all be
better consumers, and businesses would earn more. Paying employees better compensation is in
their best interests not only financially, but also ethically.
I have decided to discuss the low employee pay for my initial post because it is a very relevant topic.
As many have mentioned already, profit maximization is the main reason for this mindset of paying
the minimum. Traditional business dictates to cut costs regarding wages and salaries; after all, labor
costs make up the most considerable expense to a company (Dutta, 2021). This outdated way of
looking at employee costs is wrong in my eyes.
It might be a generalization, but from what I see, most people work for small salaries out of
necessity. These people are not happy or proud of what they do, which shows in their performance.
Low-paying jobs have one thing in common - the turnover rate seems very high. Since there is no
incentive to work hard, employees often do the bare minimum. There is no pride in what they do.
There is no sense of accomplishment. There is no progress. These people wither away feeling like the
cog in the wheel they are to their employers. For what reason, though?
Zappos founder Tony Hsieh mentions the importance of company culture in a lengthy article on "the
science of happiness" and how content employees serve customers better (Soomo, 2021). It's
precisely what I learned from my mentor 15 years ago when completing a traditional apprenticeship
in Europe. He would often remind me to smile when answering calls as others could hear said smile
without seeing it. Many years into my career, I realized that businesses should invest in this smile.
Paying employees appropriately is a choice that companies must make with the knowledge that
profits will suffer. However, the benefits seem to outweigh the short-term loss of profits. Employees
who are paid accordingly are motivated to do their best on the job and feel valued. Happy
employees create happy customers. Companies that value their employees attract talent. It looks to
me as if everybody involved wins this way.
Susanne
For this discussion I am going to talk about the practice of paying low for employees using a personal
example. I believe that if a company existed before they implemented any kind of TBL practice into
their operations, the absolute job of HR was to convince a prospective employee to work for as little
as humanly possible. There are still plenty of businesses that do this today. I know people at staffing
agencies who do this because they get paid on the residual money after their temporary worker gets
paid. (Called one last night to make sure this was still good. c Learned that this is an old practice that
on one uses anymore. They just charge a percentage of whatever your hourly rate is. Sorry for
getting you riled up) This is mostly because they were only concerned with making the most profit
possible. The practice is enabled because the labor market is not competitive (Bahn, 2017).
According to Bahn (2017) who is an economist at the Center for American Progress, the labor market
is not competitive due to reasons like employers having more information than applicants during the
process, workers being "locked in" to jobs because that is where their health care comes from, non-
compete agreements, and differing licensing requirements across state lines.
The potential negative repercussions of the practice on employees are that they will never be able to
advance from their current position in society because they are getting paid less than a living wage.
They could struggle just to pay their bills and not even have enough for that. The community will
suffer because there is no money available for people to invest into local businesses, and the
business might eventually suffer due to the rise in "anti-work" movements that we are seeing right
now.
If a more friendly practice was incorporated, the employees' quality of life would undoubtable go up
due to having enough money to live, possibly even with some extra left over to have fun every now
and then. Local community businesses would have more customers available due to the new
disposable income, and the employers would have much more loyal and possibly harder working
employees. They would also likely gain new customers because of their new "good" image.
According to Bahn (2017), the market can bear higher wages without having to cut workers because
the current wage is artificially low.
Bahn, Kate. (2017). Opinion: The One Word that Explains why your Pay is so Low. Market Watch.
Retrieved from https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-one-word-that-explains-why-your-pay-is-
so-low-2017-04-20
Dutta, S. (2021, August 27). How much does payroll cost companies? percentage by industry:
Fundsquire. How much does payroll cost companies? Percentage by industry. Retrieved from
https://fundsquire.ca/how-much-does-payroll-cost-companies-percentage-by-industry/
Soomo Learning. (2020). People, Planet, and Profit. https://www.webtexts.co
Soomo Learning. (2020). People, Planet, and Profit. https://www.webtexts.co
https://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/ibr/2011/spring/article2.html
Soomo Learning. (2020). People, planet, and profit. https://www.webtexts.com
