WorkWise: Can't figure companies out? Here's why

The Great Recession has caused companies to pitch some old values and keep others. This process continues as companies redefine themselves in a changed and changing marketplace. When practices are different and the same simultaneously, how can you make sense of a company’s direction?

WHAT’S NEW

Shafiq Lokhandwala, CEO of NuView Systems Inc., in Andover, Mass., brings perspective on last year’s chaos in organizations with 1,000 employees or more. “Companies have been asking themselves how to do more with less and make sure customers get value,” he says. He comments that organizations have been emphasizing managing rather than developing employees because of declining (if not evaporating) budgets. His research indicates that this company demographic is “expecting to hire more this year.”

Lokhandwala’s software system has multi-lingual capability for HR departments of global companies. The system aggregates data so that executives know more about skills and training needs for each job, which facilitates long-term hiring. Take note that Lokhandwala is finding that not every organization is hiring temps exclusively or even plans to be. Not all are thinking short-term, despite the upheaval brought by the recession.

Many salespeople will tell you that companies haven’t been hiring or buying products and services. He points out that that’s not entirely the case. What will the ones open to new employees and salespeople be looking for? Lokhandwala maintains that companies want:

• an understanding of the business unit or department with which you seek affiliation;

• goals and responsibilities that parallel those of the person to whom you report;

• clarity about how your area contributes to goals for the entire company; and

• commitment.

“Commitment?” Yes. Whether you’ll be selling or seeking employment, companies will be looking for people who will last at least for several years. He predicts that you’ll serve as “a partner to help them achieve their strategic objective. Get a commitment back from them.”

NOT SO NEW

The long silence on commitment in the marketplace follows a realization that hit employees and companies hard – that loyalty on both sides went out the window even before the recession. Companies no longer kept employees until retirement and employees began to look out for Number One with even greater intensity.

Something else was transpiring. Sandra Dumont of The Image Architect in Norfolk, Va., has observed the increasing popularity of “business casual” dress in the workplace through image consulting and experience with it in her business. She wasn’t afraid to bend a little when interviewing freelance webmasters and part-time administrative assistants. “After having had six different webmasters over the past nine years,” she reports, “(I can say that) the most outstanding one worked for me for three years until he was hired by a big firm in Washington, D.C., where he is now the ‘star.’” He’s the only one who arrived at the interview in a shirt and tie.

“All of the rest showed up in very casual attire, and it turned out that their attitude was also quite casual,” she notes. “Things were not delivered as promised, and there were sloppy mistakes.” The experience was repeated with administrative assistants: “The more professional they look at the interview, the more professional the results in the office later. ... The way you look and dress announces the outcome other people can expect from you. When I overlooked attire and hired people based on their resume, I was always disappointed.”

So what’s new and what’s back? Commitment, even if it isn’t for life. Depth for the duration. Productivity that reflects a conscientious image. Getting the work done. Looking and acting as if you mean it. Hasn’t the recession made companies a bit more conservative?

Dr. Mildred Culp welcomes your questions at culp@workwise.net. © 2010 Passage Media.