Vol. 74 No. 1 — January/February 1993 —
Terms of
Employment
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The state of 'employeeship' lately has taken
on new dimensions. And Canadians have been slow to adapt to
changes in life on the job. Employees today are being asked
to fill a very tall order. But responding to the challenge
will tend to make them into better all-round human beings...
In this age of individualism, being an employee has suffered
a down- grading in public estimation. Some companies now describe
their employees by euphemisms such as "associates" as though
there were something demeaning about working for anyone but
oneself. Television and slick magazines spread the impression
that entrepreneurship is the golden road to success and glamour.
Wage- earning parents scrimp and save so that their children
and grandchildren may become independent professionals.
Through all this, however, the fact remains that the great
majority of the people who work in developed countries today
are directly employed by businesses, governments, or other
organizations. Employees form the backbone of a modern economy,
and they should be proud of the indispensible role they play
in supporting our society.
In any case, "self-employed" people do not really work for
themselves: they work on behalf of their customers, clients,
and/or investors. Entrepreneurs or professionals who are seriously
interested in building a reputation for quality would be well-
advised to think of themselves literally as employees of the
people they serve.
Still, considering that "employeeship" is so pervasive and
so central to our way of life, it is remarkable how little
attention is paid to it. A lot of thought goes into what makes
a good employee in specific occupations, but not into what
makes a good employee in general. Business schools concentrate
on teaching people how to be bosses, not rank-and-file workers.
Company training programs offer more courses for supervisors
than for the supervised.
From an historical point of view, the omission is understandable.
Two or three generations ago, people knew automatically what
was expected of them as employees. Ideally, they would be
honest, clean, tidy, punctual, diligent, cheerful, and obedient.
To be sure, these qualities would be assets to any employer
at any time; but they were the only qualities employers looked
for back then.
They did not, for example, look for initiative; if anything,
initiative was discouraged. Bosses did not want people who
would do things on their own; they wanted people who would
do what they were told.
In fact, when it came to filling most jobs, they were none
too keen on people who were conspicuously intelligent or well-educated.
Someone who was too smart, who knew too much, might turn out
to be a troublemaker, questioning orders and attempting to
upset the established way of doing things.
Employees who "knew their place" were perfectly suited to
the old- fashioned system in which a managerial elite did
all the thinking for an organization. In any reasonably large
operation, a small group of decision-makers did the planning,
dealt with problems, and generally directed an amorphous body
of "personnel."
Orders were passed down through a pecking-order of bosses.
On the lower levels instructions were usually given verbally,
so that there was no need for ground-floor workers to read
on the job.
In this and other ways, the typical organization was designed
to simplify operations on the lower levels. Work was broken
down into disparate tasks which individual workers could perform
automatically by sticking to an invariable routine.
At a time when not much thinking was required of blue-collar
workers, their education was not much of a factor. Thus it
was common practice to leave school and start earning money
as soon as the law allowed.
This was especially so in Canada, where the resource-based
industries which dominated the economy also offered a simple,
tightly-supervised working environment. You did not need a
high school diploma to cut down trees or dig ore out of a
mine.
In the circumstances, school and work were viewed as two
distinctly different entities. You went to school, and whenever
you finished, you went to "work" - real work, not that stuff
you did in a classroom. When you did get a job, you usually
learned how to do it through experience and coaching by fellow
employees.
Skills acquired in this way could easily sustain a person
through a working lifetime. For example, someone who learned
to operate a hydraulic metal press in 1920 would probably
be operating essentially the same machine in 1965.
With the fading of the blue collar, anyone may be asked to act as "boss"
Times have changed: For one thing, the relative importance
of the resource industries in Canada's economy has diminished.
But even in the resource industries, workers are now called
upon to operate sophisticated computerized equipment in mines
and mills.
In practically every other field, employees nowadays must
be capable of learning new and often radically different ways
of doing things. As a result, the idea of what makes a good
employee has been turned inside-out.
Whereas employers once frowned upon employees who thought
for themselves, the ability to reason is. now a prerequisite
for lasting employment. In the words of the Conference Board
of Canada's Corporate Council on Education, Canada needs workers
who can "think critically and act logically to evaluate situations,
solve problems and make decisions," and who have "the ability
to identify and suggest new ideas to get the job done - creatively."
These abilities count for nothing if they are not supported
by an adequate education. Anyone who expects to get and keep
a good job today must be able to undertake retraining, meaning
that he or she must be able to read, write, and calculate
proficiently. Such is the pace of change that the average
young Canadian in the labour force today will probably face
the need for substantial retraining several times in his or
her career.
Not only can people expect to be retrained in their own
jobs, but they may be obliged to learn others. As a paper
prepared for The American Society for Training and Development
puts it, "Competitive pressures compel employers to shift
employees between jobs and responsibilities, putting a premium
on the ability to absorb, process, and apply new information
quickly and effectively."
Because of reorganizations designed to improve productivity,
many tasks formerly assigned to managers and supervisors are
now carried out by line employees. In the new "bossless" work
teams, each member is expected to participate in arriving
at informed and well- thought-out decisions. In some manufacturing
plants, work teams now make production plans, order materials,
deal with internal suppliers, maintain quality control, participate
in equipment purchases, and meet with customers to discuss
their needs.
The distinction between blue-collar and white-collar jobs
has faded. Ordinary employees must accept a degree of responsibility
which few could have imagined in the days when a worker was
a worker and a boss was a boss.
Now, any member of a work team or quality circle may be
involved in setting goals and priorities, and managing time,
money, and materials. And anyone is likely to be called upon
occasionally to act as a leader as leadership shifts among
those in the group qualified to take charge in particular
situations. Individual employees must be capable of identifying
the best time to lead and the best time to follow in pursuit
of the best results.
Such redistributions of authority bring into play a whole
set of characteristics which workers were inclined to keep
to themselves under the old system. When people take on extra
responsibility, their personal attitudes and their working
lives can no longer be viewed separately.
The safest way is to equip oneself to "continue to learn through life"
When workers are put in the position of making decisions
together, they must be willing to see the other person's point
of view in order to achieve workable compromises. In Canada's
diverse society, they must respect divergent views as they
are called upon to co- operate with members of other ethnic
groups and sexes. They must understand that cultural differences
result in different approaches and ways of doing things: Different
- not wrong.
The diversity of the population of the new workplace is
one of many reasons why the ability to communicate has become
imperative to acting as an effective employee. Where people
do not have the same mother tongue, there is an added need
to ensure that what is being said with reference to work is
absolutely clear.
Workers in various situations spend much of their day communicating
verbally, and companies consistently report heavy avoidable
costs due to misunderstandings. So employees should make conscious
efforts to express themselves carefully and listen effectively.
The latter entails not only listening intently, but asking
the appropriate questions whenever a misinterpretation might
occur.
Of course, written communications are vital too. As more
computerized equipment comes into service, there is more and
more interaction between worker and machine in written language.
A recent study in industrial plants in the United States found
that workers spend an ever-increasing portion of their time
reading forms, charts, graphs, manuals, computer terminal
prompts and the like.
People in positions where no one was ever expected to communicate
on paper before are now being asked to write memos, notes,
instructions, and presentations. This requires a sufficient
command of the language to enable them to sum up information
and concepts concisely, and in a way that is sure to be understood.
The ability to read and write must be accompanied by the
third fundamental educational skill, the ability to count
and calculate. Line workers who have taken over tasks formerly
done by junior managers may have to do some figuring to follow
specifications and keep track of production and inventories.
A knowledge of higher mathematics may be required to operate
computerized equipment and cope with advanced production methods.
Representing some of the country's largest employers, the
Conference Board's Corporate Council for Education summed
up the situation by saying that Canada needs workers who can
"understand and solve problems involving mathematics and use
the results."
Steering students back towards the skills
the economy needs
In all, what is being demanded of Canadian workers now or
in the near future is rather daunting. The best response to
the challenge is to reinforce one's capacity to "continue
to learn for life," as the Corporate Council says. In many
instances, people may have to refresh their knowledge of reading,
writing and arithmetic - or actually learn them for the first
time, either in employer- sponsored courses or on their own
initiative.
While a great deal has been said about the unpreparedness
of Canada's future labour force for the competitive challenges
ahead, the burden of change is actually falling most heavily
on the present generation of employees. As a recent federal
government discussion paper pointed out, "Two-thirds of those
who will be in the labour force in the year 2005 are already
in the work force today." According to the same document,
"Over half of the new jobs in this decade will require more
than 12 years of education and training; yet some 60 per cent
of today's work force possess no more than a high school education."
On paper, at least, this means that the majority of workers
in Canada today are not educationally qualified to do the
jobs that are coming along.
Clearly the nation as a whole has a great deal of catching-up
to do to prepare its people to work competitively in a technology-driven
global economy. As a case in point, the 1991 federal Speech
From the Throne noted that "Canadian industry spends less
than half as much on training as American industry does, a
fifth as much as the Japanese and an eighth as much as the
Germans." Surveys show that only 31 per cent of Canadian companies
provide formal training for their employees.
Obviously, the realization of what it takes for a trading
nation such as Canada to meet international competition has
been slow to sink in among the general run of Canadian employers.
And their apathy has been matched by a casual attitude towards
education among present and future employees.
Reconciling good employeeship with good citizenship and a good life
In a throwback to our frontier tradition, people in this
country still seem to believe that they can have good jobs
without going to the trouble of acquiring the basic tools
of learning. Students (and their parents) apparently cannot
see the connection between what they learn at school and what
they will be expected to do in the labour force.
For instance, a relatively tiny proportion of Canadian students
study higher mathematics in high school in comparison with
their counterparts in competing countries. But then, a truly
shocking number of Canadians never finish high school at all
- almost 30 per cent, compared with less than 5 per cent in
Japan.
Canada produces roughly as many secondary school drop-outs
as it does university graduates. This helps to account for
the chilling estimate that at least one in every four Canadians
is functionally illiterate and/or innumerate.
Although a fair number of such people initially find work
when they prematurely leave school, in the long term they
are likely to be doomed to a life of intermittent unemployment.
If they do have jobs, they are jobs with poor pay, few benefits,
and no hope of getting ahead.
One rationalization for dropping out is that doesn't matter
whether you do or not, because all sorts of educated people
are also jobless. When this proposition was broached in a
recent radio panel discussion, an economist on the panel commented:
"Well, we can't guarantee you a good job or any job at all
if you get an education. But we pretty well can guarantee
you a bad job or no job at all if you don't."
The picture is not entirely bleak, however. After they have
learned just how tough it is on the job market without an
education, a considerable number of drop-outs resume studying
in later life. The "drop-back-in" phenomenon helps to explain
the extraordinary number of Canadians who are engaged in self-directed
learning. More than 4. 8 million adults are voluntarily enrolled
in continuing education and training courses, most of them
in attempts to improve career prospects or work skills.
According to the Economic Council of Canada, the reason
apprentices in Canada are so much older than elsewhere - an
average of 27 years of age - is that they "turn to the apprenticeship
system only after they realize that they have few skills to
offer." In its final report before it was disbanded by the
federal government last year, the council noted that "many
students and new entrants to the labour market are simply
unaware of what the skilled trades do and what apprenticeship
training provides."
There are some 173,000 apprentices or similar trainees in
Canada, but the council found that the apprenticeship system
is overly concentrated in traditional trades, and fails to
cover much new electronics-based technology. It suggested
an overhaul of the system in conjunction with other programs,
notably the Co-operative Education movement which has gained
a strong foothold in Canada in recent years.
Co-op education may provide at least a partial answer to
the recurring complaint that Canadian workers have little
idea of what skills they should be bringing to the labour
force. Supported by businesses, labour unions, governments,
educational organizations and community groups, co-op programs
provide students with part- time jobs so that they can learn
about prospective future occupations while still in school.
More than 130,000 Canadian students at the secondary, college
and university levels are now enrolled in co-op programs.
Both the number of participants and of organizations which
sponsor their efforts by giving them temporary employment
have lately been on the rise.
The Economic Council called for a concerted expansion of
co-op schemes, especially in the skilled trades in which there
are relatively few participants. It said that their "apprentice-like
alternation of work experience and education" might provide
the basis for Canada to develop a variant of the apprenticeship
system which has proved such a powerful force behind Germany's
prowess in world trade.
The council urged the formation of "clear and direct links"
between Co-operative Education and the regular apprenticeship
system. This should be accompanied by a higher priority for
vocational schooling and the revival and expansion of apprenticeships
based on secondary schools.
In general, the Economic Council found a serious lack of
communication between the educational system and employers.
"Canada must move towards a closer integration of school,
work, and training. The wholehearted commitment and active
participation of employers in all sectors - public and private,
goods-producing and service- producing - are absolutely essential
to the success of such an approach," it declared.
The Conference Board's Corporate Council on Education agrees
that higher employability skills must be developed among young
Canadians leaving school, but its members are quick to add
that they are not blaming the educational system. In the face
of a decline in growth of national productivity, complacency
has reigned among all concerned, including governments which
merely gave lip-service to a higher-standard labour force,
businesses of all sizes which have neglected on-the-job training,
and a secondary school system which is biased towards academic
subjects at the expense of technical and vocational skills.
Naturally enough, there has been some debate over what kind
of people the educational system should be designed to produce
as employers have pointed out the economic and social perils
of having a deficient national work force. Some educators
have protested that, in our kind of society, their job is
not to produce grist for the mills of industry, but to help
develop independent-minded citizens and well-rounded human
beings.
But there really is no ground for dispute. With the increasing
humanization of the work place in recent years, independence
of mind and good citizenship have become basic qualifications
for any employee. In its recently-published list of "employability
skills," the Corporate Council on Education says that Canadian
employers need people who can demonstrate "honesty, integrity
and personal ethics; a positive attitude toward learning,
growth and personal health; initiative, energy and persistence
to get the job done; and the ability to set goals and priorities
in work and personal life." Whether working or not, who would
not want to possess such a sterling set of personal qualities?
When you get right down to it, the characteristics that make
a good employee and a good all-round human being these days
are exactly the same.
Published by RBC Financial Group. All editions from the RBC
Letter collection are available on our web site at www.rbc.com/responsibility/letter.
Our e-mail address is: rbcletter@rbc.com.
Publié aussi en francais.
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