articles

Could good things come from the recession?

The news is full of stories about job losses and government cut backs.
It’s not good and obviously no-one likes to see people losing their jobs or witnessing the impact it can have on the worker and their family.
But I wonder if in the long term it’s not such a bad thing.

Recently I met two people who were telling me about their experiences with two different district health boards. The first person had just received his job offer working in the HR department and was staggered at the details he found in the agreement. Obviously he was entitled to 4 weeks annual leave but the amazing added bonus was an additional 30 sick leave days and 10 family related days.

So it is quite conceivable that if he took all the leave entitled to him he could have 60 days off work on paid leave. Chuck in the public holidays and that’s over 70 days off work a year. When he enquired about that thinking it was a mistake, he was told that not only was it correct, but that it wasn’t that unusual for employees to take all their leave. Unbelievably that means you could spend more than a quarter of the year on paid leave! These people are not surgeons or specialist staff, they work in an office.

The second person is currently employed by another DHB and wasn’t that surprised by the numbers above. Amazingly she had an even better story. She also works in the HR department and said that the systems and processes around staff were so bad that she believes there will be staff on the payroll who never attend work and may have been getting paid for months or years without being detected. In 2009 their systems are so bad that they don’t even know if some of the people they are paying actually do attend work.

This can’t continue to happen and we can only hope that the National government are prepared to dig deep into the failings that are DHBs. There is no doubt that recent investigations into the immigration department, ACC and other Government departments will uncover a myriad of issues and inefficiencies that will require drastic action. The news of course will all be about cutbacks and job losses, but in reality it really may be an opportunity to remedy what has been a cancerous blight on the New Zealand psyche.

Imagine if a private company did business in the same manner. Well, actually some do and there is a really good chance that they will fall over in the next 12 months or so if they haven’t done so already. While some may think that is unlikely we only have to look at some of the finance companies that were collapsing last year with some very shoddy business practises. There are businesses operating today in New Zealand across all sorts of industries who are no better.

That no way implies that all business that fall victim to the recession are poorly managed. I am suggesting however that many businesses that have been surviving and in some cases thriving during the good times almost in spite of themselves will crash and burn this year.

So, where is the upside to all of this?

While we hear of companies closing down, we don’t hear much about the 95% or so that don’t.
Those companies will see the recession out and in many cases be better businesses for the experience. Taking the lessons and efficiencies learnt in tough times may result in those companies creating opportunity when things improve. And when things do improve those companies who are ready to strike may find them selves in a market missing the cowboys.

And that may well be a very good thing.

I received plenty of feedback from my previous article regarding the likely skill shortages in 2 or 3 years when things do improve. It seems many businesses are looking to up-skill or upgrade their employees during the downtime. Getting and keeping a job in the next year or so will undoubtedly be harder and that may remedy an employment environment which many employers have become increasingly concerned about.

Government and good businesses operating more effectively with employees understanding the value of a job; could it be that in the long term we might just be better off for these troubled times?

This entry was posted on May, 2009 and is filed under Articles.