keeping good employees in a downturn. 4

[berkshire]

This just posted in defense review.
B.E.

http://www.defensenews.com/article/...t-Downturn?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

The good engineer does not need to memorize every formula; he just needs to know where he can find them when he needs them. Old professor

 

[BuddyUSC]

I was reading a post about "keepers of knowledge" and it seems Lockheed has employed the use of video cameras to prevent these KoK from potentially hurting the company. Good article, especially for me coming out of college

 

[GregLocock]

Hurting? Oh well I hope your employer brain wipes you when you leave your job.



Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[Debaser]

During the last downturn, one of the worst areas was on assembly lines, where long-tenured employees who knew how to install tricky parts disappeared, and at times production was forced to a crawl or even halted.

Love the use of the word 'disappeared', as if they were beamed up by aliens, rather than the more truthful; 'got rid of because they were expensive, and management didn't appreciate what in-depth knowledge they had of the process and thought any high school graduate could do the job (if not a trained monkey)'.

 

[KENAT]

There was a time when being a 'skilled worker' was appreciated, now it's seen as a problem.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[ajack1]

Whilst I cannot comment on the whole of Europe I have always felt here in the UK we are at a huge disadvantage over countries that have a fire at will law as you have to offer redundancy to everyone and take the voluntary ones first, which are usually the ones you would least like to go. Even after that you have to come up with a fair system for getting rid of people, but no one will say what fair is. Even last in first out has been challenged and ruled unfair and heaven help you if they can throw the discrimination card at you.

Despite what many on here think I do not know anyone who enjoys having to let people go and the vast majority of owners I know feel the same as I do that it is the worst part of owning a business.

Even if you do the best you can and take large cuts yourself and effectively subsidise people during a down turn in order to keep a strong work force you still face the risk that they will up and leave when the good times return as someone else who let people go early on is in a position to offer higher wages and you end up taking a double hit.

Of course it is always easy to criticise others when you do not have to come up with a viable alternative. Personally I have no idea of the best way of keeping a happy and skilled work force together whilst at the same time ensuring the financial well being of the company during a down turn.

I would be interested to hear the views of anyone who has.

 

[moltenmetal]

Private ownership helps reduce the short-term thinking that leads to a cyclic workforce, but of course that's only true if the market is there to support the business and the business cycle isn't a decade or more- nothing can survive that intact. Profit sharing and shared ownership helps reduce the risk of skilled people leaving during boom times. Vertical integration helps you keep your commitment to your own staff first, using out-sourcing to add to your capacity in good times.

That's of course all the positive stuff. On the negative side, what we get as a reward for our generosity during slow times is an accumulation of deadwood. We're in an "at will" location- you can discaharge anyone without cause by giving or paying for notice and paying them a severance- but we still show loyalty to people who don't deserve it. Firing or laying off people during slow times is indeed difficult, but it is equally difficult to see good contractors let go at the end of a peak period in favour of staff whose principal virtue seems to be brown-nosing certain owners and avoiding the axe.

 

[berkshire]

I came to the USA during what was known as the era of the Brain drain from the UK. The army was sucking in large numbers with the draft because the Vietnam war was going full swing. Skilled workers were scarce and expensive.
The ever recourceful US., employers did what they always do in a case like this, they poached. With the Dollar riding high they came to Europe and other countries then searched for time served journeymen, engineers and others. The money they offered seemed like a small fortune, this coupled with the fact that taxes were only taking about 15% of your income when your home country was taking over 50% made it seem like a paradise. Of course when the industry took a downturn these same employers were just as quick to show their new employees the door saying " Dont take it personally, its just business". Don't think that this was just in the past, it still goes on today, look at articles on H1B visas.
The problem with this was that certain european countries decided that investing 5 years into an employee, just to see him or her up stakes, and leave was not on, so many countries just abandoned apprenticeship programs all together.
It took several years before industries and governments began to realise the depth of knowlege they were losing, as the generations who had served apprenticeships retired, and were replaced with workers who had OJT or short training courses that gave them just enough knowlege to do the job, but not enough, to deal with an out of the ordinary situation.
These forums are a classic example of this, look at the questions that show up from people who are fresh out of school who would have worked alongside more experienced engineers or journeymen in the past. Who are now very often thrust into a job on their own to sink or swim. The good news here on these forums is that they can get an answer that at least points them in the right direction.
Ok now stepping down from soapbox,
B.E.

The good engineer does not need to memorize every formula; he just needs to know where he can find them when he needs them. Old professor