For Employers:
Congratulations on being in a position to hire people, to contribute to the economy, and providing goods or services which are beneficial to the community.
That being said, it falls to you to make the changes necessary to help our nation recover from the recession, to help heal the wounds which many Americans have sustained over the last few years.
Its really all very easy. You just have to do what you probably (hopefully) already know is right.
Now, whether you are a manager or executive at a big corporation, an individual owner/operator, or somewhere in between, the right action for you to take is the same: Hire people, pay them well, and treat them with respect.
Believe it or not, that is the key to not only improving conditions in your community, but to success in business, no matter what that business is.
You make a product or provide a service. Most likely you don't do it yourself. You have people who work for you, and that's where the rubber meets the road. That is, despite what marketers and accountants or that slob with the MBA you hired to run things for you want you to believe, where your real fortune lay: The people who work for you.
Yes, the primary duty of any corporation is to stockholders, and the primary purpose for starting a business in the first place, unless you are a true artisan, is to generate income for yourself. What gets forgotten is that it is the people who work for you who ultimately end up customers; maybe not your own customers, but someone's, as someone else's employees are yours. It's convoluted, but the bottom line is that if the people who work for you are stuck broke, and the money you pay them goes straight to landlords and utility bills, the economy as a whole takes the hit, in the form of an ever-growing number of working poor.
Now, you've probably heard the adage that the easiest place to control costs is in payroll, meaning that if your margins aren't what you'd like, you can boost them a little by cutting hours, eliminating high paying positions, and reducing your overall workforce with fewer, lower paying positions (Looking at you, EMS).
It's true, this is easy and somewhat fast, though depending where you are you may have to resort to some unscrupulous behavior to get around paying out unemployment penalties, and the cost of hiring new people. Favorite tricks like eliminating a managerial position, and having subordinate employees take over the duties while that position remains open indefinitely, or simply putting a microscope on a targeted employee until grounds for termination can be established might seem like the best solution, to trim down your payroll for a short term boost in your P&L reports.
You've likely done this already if you're in business. The economy is a tough one, these days . Likely, you've encountered side effects. Your four star rating is now a three. You have a little more trouble keeping order in the workplace. People are taking their business elsewhere.
What happened was that you devalued your workers, which devalues you. The people who work for you care less about you, having less to gain by your success, and less to lose by your failure. Your reputation in the community has suffered. Well, you had it coming.
Its entirely true that the easiest place to cut costs is in payroll. Its equally true that the easiest thing to shoot off is your own foot.
You may not notice the damage right away. Your margins are holding steady, your percentages are up compared to last year (assuming that you still rely on astrology to determine your company's well being).
Your gross income might not be what you'd like, but its a tough economy, and people aren't spending like they should. It'll bounce back eventually, right? No, and not because of the government or terrorists or even the chicanery of Wall Street and the banks (though they get their share of blame). It's because all across the country, corporations and small businesses are feeling the pinch, and passing it on to the people who show up every day to keep them in business, rather than take it in the margins. Employees in turn can't get their bills paid on time. Their credit goes bad, they default on loans, they can't spend as much on your product or anyone else's. Other businesses then also feel the crunch, and tighten the thumbscrews on their own people. Those people were the ones paying for your products or services.
Lives are trampled, mortgages foreclosed; cancel Christmas.
So when you feel the pinch, and if you haven't you will soon, don't take the easy reactionary approach. Keep your people paid and happy and you will be rewarded. When your shareholders or lenders come to put the squeeze on, find a better way. Tell them what so many employers have been telling the people they lay off: Its the economy. Only don't buy into the lie that it will turn around on its own. Until people can put our finances in order, as individuals and families who really do have to work for our living, there really won't be much good news for those dependent a consumer based economy.
