<p><em>If your industry is driving you to create a pressure cooker, make sure you create plenty of safety valves, and plenty of room to let off steam in a safe way, writes <strong>Hema Hattangady</strong></em><br><br>Do companies as dysfunctional as Luxetta exist? Indeed they do. And what is a pity is that many of them win awards for sustainability, employee well-being and innovation! With the twin drivers of rapid disruptions of entire industries by technology and the blurring of lines between need and greed (looking at the valuation bubbles building up, would you think the global financial crisis was just six years ago?), it is easy to mix up speed with haste and to take our eye off the long-term ball…<br><br>So, can companies do much about cutting out employee stress? Is stress not a concomitant of fast progress? Or can we as leaders and managers actually make it a joy to come to work each day? The answer to that question is what differentiates the really great companies from the good ones.<br><br>Luxetta’s Board, working with Marcus Marsh, CEO, should have looked at creating employee well-being at three levels:<br><br>The first is to cut out as many sources of stress as possible. This means there should be drive, energy and focus to design HR policies to ensure right fit from the start: through selection, recruitment, induction, appraisal, training, development, incentive plans, etc. As if this were not demanding enough, it is also essential that the fit is tested each time there is a change in an employee’s role/ external reality like market or change in competitive scene/ organisation structure, etc. People evolve and grow in their emotional, learning and financial needs and what seemed enough yesterday does not measure up tomorrow...<br><br>Luxetta seems to thrive on creating misfits by putting unrealistic pressure on productivity, imposing impossible timelines, thus making people pretend to be who or what they are not. Employees give their best when the support systems help them feel secure and comfortable in their own skin.<br><br>The second level is to have an early warning system with alerts rather like in a well-designed production monitoring system. One can get very creative in this area, for example, having an informal buddy system so that someone reacting negatively to work pressure is spotted by peers who are trained to look for warning signs. Or, including spouses/kids in social outings once or twice a year. In this case study, for example, John’s wife Mariann could have shared her concerns of John’s neck and jaw pain with a senior leader in HR who may have suggested a complete medical work-up.<br><br>Kids can be painfully open about parents and even if it means momentary embarrassment, an insight like “my dad loves to play soccer with me but he can’t play too long... he gets breathless” should send alarm bells ringing even in an un-empathetic culture like Luxetta’s. After all, no one WANTS to lose a top level resource in R&D!<br><br> The third is the creation of systems, processes and documentation that supports all functions in doing their jobs well… in design, sales, business development, marketing, after sales support, government relations, commercial teams, etc. And even more importantly, an R&D and manufacturing philosophy that is based on the principle of “building in reliability and building out maintenance”.<br><br>Unfortunately, even companies that are otherwise enlightened can be very myopic in this area. In the firm belief they are being frugal, they cut back on crucial field trials for new products, lab tests on prototypes, competitive material and case studies that would help a salesman sell a product confidently against competition, etc.<br><br>Luxetta’s impulsive and chaotic approach to R&D, with an emphasis on mindlessly loading features into products when the customer was looking for basic functionality, is suicidal. SOS meetings, people forced to work outside their areas of specialisation with no resources to train them, etc. It is almost as if Luxetta’s aim is to set up people to fail...<br><br>So, who is accountable for ensuring these stress mitigators are in place? How about the Board of Directors in tandem with the top management team? What was Luxetta’s Board doing? Worrying about the pressure from shareholders on results and its impact on stock price? What happens when that worry is passed on to top management whose KPIs are linked in large part to stock price/company results? Can they now focus on the long term?<br><br>One of the key dimensions of governance is to ensure longevity and sustainability of the company and its people. It is the job of the Board to act as the buffer between the shareholder demands and what the company needs to do to survive in the long term and to set the direction and strategic intent which will guide the company through many disruptions. This is best done if the periodic goal setting and budget exercises are conducted in an environment of candour, with realism tinged with ambition, and with all the facts one can possibly lay one’s hands on. It is important to check if there is an environment that encourages people to speak up, to share their concerns and vulnerabilities without being treated as “wimps”!<br><br>In my discussions with people working in big and small companies on the topic of stress, I was surprised to see how much emphasis the senior managers in sales or R&D put on being backed by the right strategy, adaptive marketing policies based on a sound understanding of realities of the market place and, above all, the sensitivity of the top leadership to the stretch people in various roles and functions are feeling.<br><br>One national sales leader I spoke to said the company he worked for never encouraged him to pretend he was anything but himself with the external world, that he was always provided an opportunity to have periodic interactions with the services/consulting teams (who met the customers as ‘advisors” and therefore had very good insights into what the customer pain points were), with the design team which, in turn, wanted to learn about the customer needs plus share realistic constraints of product features and try to reduce the salesman’s habit of over-committing to meet topline targets.<br><br>And most importantly, at an individual manager level, his KPIs were always in synch with overall strategy, however frequently market needs dictated change in strategy, with due weightage for adhering to the company’s code of conduct and value system. This last element acted as an anchor in all he did to achieve sales targets and acted like a moral compass. The need to align the purpose and mission of the organisation from top to bottom through a strongly communicated set of values cannot be overemphasised.<br><br>What do you make of Luxetta’s value system?! Did one even exist?<br><br>Thankfully, I now see many companies in India with policies that focus on creating a support system for employees to cope with stress.<br>SKF India, based in Pune is a very good example. It is one of India’s leading companies providing technology platforms and solutions for friction reduction, energy efficiency, etc. and employs 2,400 people across India. It has won recognition as one of India’s most admired companies, due in part to the innovative HR policies it follows:<br><br>1) Attempts to minimise the effect of social, financial and emotional stress arising from medical issues.<br><br>2) Adopts policies that are sensitive to the role of family in Indian culture, which can contribute hugely to an employee’s sense of well-being. For example, insurance cover for parents up to age 85 in addition to coverage for the spouse and children.<br><br>3) Ensures that employees can walk in and out of the hospital without worrying about finances as they have cashless cards for medical cover.<br><br>Many companies now provide paternity leave and extended paid maternity leave including for adoptive parents.<br><br>While stress prevention can be addressed through the HR measures described earlier, annual medical checks for stress prone roles is a must. Six years after I exited from my business, I still meet grateful colleagues who discovered latent medical problems that could have been life altering or worse, thanks to mandatory annual medical exams and follow up by HR teams to ensure that the doctor’s advice was being followed.<br><br>in the final analysis, all measures to enhance well-being are of value only if they are meaningful in the eyes of the recipient and agile enough to apply to anyone.<br><br>To conclude, if your market/industry/ shareholders are driving you to create a pressure cooker, make sure you create plenty of safety valves, and plenty of room to let off steam in a safe way, while you figure out how to build a more wholesome and nurturing environment to stay alive in the long run... <br><br><em>The writer is a serial entrepreneur, coaches young entrepreneurs, independent director and thought leader. She co-owned Conzerv Systems growing it from a family firm to an Indian MNC until she sold it to Schneider Electric in 2009</em><br><br>(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 24-08-2015)</p>
