By Lois Moncrief
Bloomberg Businessweek’s November 22-28, 2010 issue article on page 39 entitled Wal-Mart vs a Million Angry Women discusses the possible pending case before the Robert’s Court, and states that this “class action would be the most important business dispute of the U. S. Supreme Court‘s nine month term”. The Washington law firm of Cohen, Milstein, Sellers & Toll represent the women. Wal-Mart is represented by the Los Angeles law firm of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher.
The case centers on Chris Kwapnoski who is 46 years and says she has watched for 15 years as one male colleague after another leapfrogged over her into management jobs at the Sam’s Club in Concord, California. According to the article, Wal-Mart used on a “tap on the shoulder” system that let managers give jobs to men. The article goes on to say that women were also paid less for the same jobs as men.
Nineteen other companies want the court to take up the appeal because of some far reaching consequences of a possible decision. These companies include: Altria Group, Bank of America, General Electric and Microsoft. Another suit with Costco Wholesale is on hold pending the resolution of this case. (Source: Bloomberg Businessweek’s above mentioned issue article)
The case is interesting for many reasons. I am not going to argue the merits of the case. I do not have enough information and facts to have an opinion.
I will say that I personally know of similar sounding cases and of one in particular where a woman rose very quickly through the ranks in a few years, hit a glass ceiling, received very high performance evaluations and praise for her management work but was passed over for more than 25 years for promotions that went to white males instead. These men came into the company much later, had less experience and were frequently not rated as highly for their management work.
That said what I want to address is much more basic and not gender related.
My Concerns are Career Development and Talent Management
One of the very best employee motivators is career development. Motivation is a component of engagement.
According to the Towers-Perrin Global Workforce Study, the top 2 reasons for employee engagement were:
#1 – opportunities to learn and develop new skills
#2 – improved my skills and capabilities over the last year.
I think what this really means is employees are willing to work hard and learn new skills with the hope of a better career future. Employees need to believe that they have a fair chance for that next opportunity and that next promotion. That is the most important “What’s in it for me?” for all employees. Taking away that hope poisons employee engagement and employee motivation.
Companies that foster the “good old boys system” that gives promotions to “friends” rather than the most highly qualified may motivate the person who has received the promotion but have de-motivated many good employees – men and women. Employees can accept when a highly qualified employee receives a promotion. They see that as fair and gives them hope that their turn may be next. What de-motivates employees is when they believe the person who received the promotion was not the best qualified.
Companies Can Not Afford to De-Motivate Good Employees
Here is why:
Towers-Perrin in their Employee Engagement Underpins Business Transformation March 1, 2009 report on 50 global organizations reports a direct correlation between a higher percentage of engaged employees and an increase in business net income and earnings per share.
Research Works June 2009 Report lists Best Buy “found that stores with even small increases in average employee engagement scores from one year to the next experienced annual sales increases of over $100,000 per store”.
Research Works in the same report listed J.C. Penney “discovered that in their stores where employees rate in the top quartile of average engagement scores generated 10% higher sales volume than similar sized stores where employees were in the bottom quartile of engagement”.
Higher engaged and more motivated employees mean more profits for their company. The best way to engage and motivate employees is through the company fostering career development and good talent management. Companies that do that will have greater success compared to companies that do not (all other factors being equal).
Copyright (c) 2010 Lois Moncrief All Rights Reserved
For more information on employee motivation go to my website HowtoMotivateEmployeesNow.com
For more information on career development and talent management click here
One of the events I started where I worked was to celebrate my employee’s birthdays. It started with all interested employees going out to lunch to celebrate the employee’s birthday. I would pay for the birthday employee’s meal. I had everyone sign a birthday card and we would also celebrate with cake and ice cream during the afternoon break at work. I started doing this over 30 years ago when I first became a manager.
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