The traditional business culture and reward system do not work for today’s workers and companies will need to go way beyond adapting the benefits offering, to changing the philosophy of the firm if they want to attract and retain employees.
This is the message from Mark Stevenson, ‘reluctant futurist' and award-winning author of “An Optimist’s Tour of the Future” and “We Do Things Differently” who will present his views and latest research at Lockton’s 2019 Global Benefits Forum (opens a new window) in London on June 11 and 12, 2019.
“Businesses have to understand they work in a context which is much bigger than they are.” Stevenson says. “Today we face the evaporation of trust in institutions that govern society and democracy is in retreat because we are still using a 19th century system for the problems of the 21st. Inequality is widening: currently one percent of the world population owns 50 percent of its wealth. Our food distribution system is dangerously unsustainable: up to 50 percent of what we grow does not reach the human stomach and the failings of our financial system to value our own survival as climate change breathes down our necks is almost farcical. As Tom Toro’s great cartoon puts it ‘Yes, the planet got destroyed, but for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders’.”
The dysfunctional reality we live in has caused a disconnect between employees and the companies they work for, with 85 percent of workers unengaged in their jobs, Stevenson continues. “They realise that what they do on a daily basis is part of a system that leaves them with an ever smaller part of the pie while continuing to destroy our children’s future.”
The disconnect with the business culture is felt particularly keenly by the younger generation. When companies offer perks to attract and retain the best employees, this can reinforce the problem. Instead, the employee package is increasingly perceived as a form of bribery (to ignore the obvious contradictions in what companies say and do when it comes to social justice or the environment) as much as it is reward for the work done.
“Employees don’t need better perks, what they want are meaningful jobs,” says Stevenson. “HR and benefits executives are the interface between what employees really think and what the management would like them to think. They can leverage this to change the world, if they dare.”
Employees don’t need better perks, what they want are meaningful jobs.”
The good news is that companies that do take the bigger picture seriously outperform the market both in terms of stock market and accounting performance. “Outward looking companies unsurprisingly manage risk better,” explains Stevenson, “and they have a much easier time attracting and retaining engaged employees.”
Stevenson doesn’t predict the end of benefits, but says they will never succeed in papering over the cracks of cultural failures of the business. Core benefits such as healthcare plans and pension schemes will continue to be part of the benefits package, but innovative benefits that talk to a wider purpose will become more popular such as time off to contribute to good causes and offer carbon offsets for employees’ families.
“With the massive shift the world has to go through in the next 20 years there are, as Seth Godin puts it, only two types of companies left,” concludes Stevenson. “The brave and the dead. We’re all in for a rocky ride in the coming decades, but future-literate organisations have a shot at greatness,” he adds.
For further information on Employee Benefits, please contact:
Chris Rofe, SVP, Employee Benefits
Tel: +44 (0)20 7933 2876 | Email: chris.rofe@uk.lockton.com (opens a new window)
