Acting Human

In consideration of the increasing globalization the mobility of employees seems to more important than ever. In Europe around 60% of the company’s record stays abroad. Very common are single-status-postings where employees are send abroad without their family for a special amount of time. Even the number of women who work a while abroad is increasing in Europe.

A company who sends its employees abroad should consider a couple of points. First of all there is the question about the costs. Sending an employee in a foreign country means normally around one and a half up to four times more costs for a company compared to the hiring of a local worker. Especially if an employee takes his/her family abroad the costs can increase quite fast: apartment or house, costs for education, special payments and so on.

A company also must be clear about the ROI (Return of investment) for the deployment abroad. There are different factors of success which can be considered: will there be an increase of returns, is it meaningful to build up a base of high qualified managers, how important is a global corporate culture and competence, does the deployment abroad fit together with the expectations of the employee, will there be a development of local competences and will there be an increase of the market share in the destination country.

The main problem companies have is the re-integration of employees who worked abroad. The re-integration including better job perspectives and a job guarantee are the main aspects. Furthermore a company must know that the returnees might suffer a cultural shock especially in the beginning. The loose of an employee with experience abroad might be very pricey in the end. Eventually the employee ends up at the competitor.

Of course the Human Resource Department needs to take care of most of these aspects. It’s important to figure out if the deployment abroad fits the expectations of an employee, to talk about the leaving, problems which might occur and also the return. The employee should get an idea what he/she can expect when he/she returns. And as said also the re-integration is important because time can change many things in the end.

The term “work-life-balance” describes the balanced relation between job and personal life. The work-life-balance should be important to companies because if the balance is not right it influences the work of an employee.

Concerning the job an employee needs to feel comfortable at his/her working space. The job itself should bring fun and challenging without being always just stressful. Also a good relationship to other employees and superiors are important. Mainly the factors of job satisfaction are playing an important rule.

If the personal life offers support to someone and also the family supports an employee it is easier to cope with stress at the workplace. This includes that people with problems at home won’t be very effcient on the long term in the job. Some people think if one area of life works out well the other one will follow somehow. But people with family and job know that this normally isn’t true. Every area of life needs its tributes and you have to set the right priorities. Because after all you’ll figure that time is a rare good.

For a good work-life-balance the employee itself probably needs to put up with a less income. Other possibilities to reach a good balance are part time jobs, time outs, downshifting and a high level of flexibility from both sides - the employees and the company.
An employee should try to consider a couple of points to reach an optimal work-life-balance. As said he needs to know and to accept stressful times in the job. Afterwards there should be more time for himself/ herself and the family again. This knowledge also applies the other way around. On normal working days whereas it is advisable to go home early enough to spend the evening with the family. Also meeting friends regulary is important. Furthermore it might be helpful to make meetings for yourself where you take the time to do things you like to do.

The employee also should be confidient with his/her own goals and values. Regular time outs are helpful for that to figure out where you stand and which step you need to take next. Always review what you already reached, where problems occured, which steps to take next, what are the longterm and shortterm goals which are also realistic for your own situation and so on.

Other simple things to take care of in the daily routine is to eat something for the meals and to take enough time for them. Regular breaks and small walks at the air make the head clearer and can give new impulses. Also small excercises help to find a good balance: get of the metro station one station earlier and walk the rest or go by bike to the work, don’t take the elevator, get up once a while from your seat and walk around or stretch yourself.

After all also your health is important. If an employee feels fit and strong enough to its way then he can go his way and reach an optimal work-life-balance.

The main way of posting job advertisements used to be in newspapers. But nowadays the internet offers new possibilities for gaining new employees. Meanwhile job portals are getting more important than the classical newspaper job advertisement.

But why are job advertisements in newspaper are still so successful? Newspapers reach another target group than the internet. A printed job advertisement might reach people who are actually not looking for a new job. The advertisement reaches the attention of the reader who might be interested in it. That explains in turn the costs of insert an job advertisement.

Job advertisements in the internet however reach another special target group. Job portals are normally visited by people who actively search for a new job. For a company it means that they might miss to reach an important target group. But looking on the financial site the posting of a job is much cheaper. Furthermore online job advertisements contain much more information. A printed one needs to be reduced to the most important facts. Online however a company can provide a huge amount of information. Simple by adding a company link the interested person can gain much more information about the company.

More information can be an advantage or disadvantage. On one site interested parties can win plenty of information to see if the company fits their interests and provides a wished working atmosphere. On the other site it might lead to the fact that interested parties are overwhelmed by the amount of information and doesn’t want to apply anymore. That might mean the loose of a potential employee for the company.

After all a company needs to figure out their own needs and then decide which way might lead to the wished result. Other ways might also be relevant like announcing a job in the radio or just winning new employees through the word-of-mouth effect. Especially the last opportunity might be quite efficient in regard to costs and the wished result.

The job satisfaction is one of the main tasks of the Human Resource Management. Actions taken by the HR department are aimed to reach an optimum of job satisfaction. The background lies within the goal of reaching a sustainable and increased company management.

Nowadays one of the central theories for the job satisfaction is the “Two Factor Theory” of Frederick Herzberg.

The Two Factor Theory distinguishes between (Source):

1. the Hygiene factors which are needed to ensure an employee does not become dissatisfied. They do not lead to higher levels of motivation, but without them there is dissatisfaction.
2. and the Motivation factors which are needed in order to motivate an employee into higher performance. These factors result from internal generators in employees.

Typical hygiene factors are such as job security, salary, company, status, working conditions, job, quality of supervision, company policies and administration and interpersonal relations.

Typical motivation factors are achievement, recognition for achievement, responsibility for task, interest in the job, advancement to higher level tasks and growth

The combination of the two factors results into four possible scenarios:

1. High Hygiene and High Motivation: The ideal situation where employees are highly motivated and have few complaints.
2. High Hygiene and Low Motivation: Employees have few complaints but are not highly motivated. The job is perceived as a paycheck.
3. Low Hygiene and High Motivation: Employees are motivated but have a lot of complaints. A situation where the job is exciting and challenging but salaries and work conditions are not up to par.
4. Low Hygiene and Low Motivation: The worst situation. Unmotivated employees with lots of complaints.

The criticism of the Herzberg theory lies within the fact that it neither doesn’t say anything how to measure hygiene and motivation factors not does it distinguish between the individuality of a person.

Many other theories can be found like e.g. the Range of Affect Theory of Edwin A. Locke, the Dispositional Theory and the Job Characteristics Model of Hackman & Oldham.

The Range of Affect Theory e.g. postulates that satisfaction is determined by a discrepancy between what one wants in a job and what one has in a job. Also it states that how much one values a given facet of work. This leads to a special degree of satisfaction when expectations are met or dissatisfaction when they aren’t met. The application of that theory in the daily life turns out to be much more complicated since there are normally a couple of factors which influence the job satisfaction. Also it needs to be considered that wants and needs change.

After all there is still the question if people work faster and more efficient: are they satisfied with everything? After all job satisfaction seems to be a dynamic process which changes constantly. This already is the case when a person works for longer and longer for a company. With the time he gets more new tasks and starts earning more trust and responsible tasks.

One of the main problems in companies seems to be the missing communication mainly from top to bottom. It can be pretty frustrating for a worker when he for example doesn’t get a useful feedback to keep on going with a special task and reach something valauble.

A good communication culture in a company - also known as social embeddedness - is essential for the job satisfaction. The communication process is an essential need of people and leads to social interaction. The aim of it is to resolve problems and eliminate deficits. A good communication enables for a better team work - and in a team you can as is generally known reach more. For that special rules are needed and the critic of every single person needs to be considered what is part of the work of the Human Resource Management.

Common terms which are connected with the job satisfaction are job enlargement and job rotation:

1. Job enlargement concerns new tasks in the horizontal area with a constant aspiration level. That means that a worker, who had been limited to one activity, accomplishes a variety of actions with the same aspiration level. The aim of it is to change the single impact, avoid psychological and physical monotony and get some recovery without stopping the work.
2. Job enrichment is a process of vertical restructuring. The worker gets a higher scope of work with a higher aspiration level. This is reached through advanced training so that a worker can work more on his own responsibility.

If these concepts work out as wanted also depends on the special situation of a worker. The Human Resource Management needs to figure out what the problem is and where they can intervene: is it the communication, is it the work itself or are there other circumstances why a worker is not satisfied in his job. For that a company needs adequate concepts, an organizational structure and regular trainings. There needs to be a together of the company and the personal organization as well as a complete view which doesn’t only focus on one thing.

Then after all - viewed from marketing aspects - a company is more successfull if people talk positevely about it. So why not start with the own staff which can do word-of-mouth for the company?