Workforce management and organizational culture are key points of discussion for companies worldwide. The global pandemic shook things up such that now we are reassessing how to work things out for the best outcome for both companies and employees alike.
The general consensus seems to be that while hybrid work and remote work are good and comfortable and boost productivity, it does cause a lot of coordination issues. So, many companies want to go back to working the way things were before the pandemic. However, there has been a significant backlash from the workforce itself and the debate between hybrid work and RTOs is hotter than ever.
Further, in the wake of the shifting focus from remote work to return to office mandates, it’s time to consider the biggest blunders made by companies in managing their workforce. Their example helps us understand how they went wrong and what other companies can do to avoid their mistakes. These are top companies in the world like Amazon, Meta, and Tesla so their blunders define how companies in their bracket ought to conduct their workforce management activities:
4 Workforce Management Mistakes to Help Define Your Workplace Productivity
4 Workforce Management Mistakes to Help Define Your Workplace Productivity
Amazon
Amazon is the world’s biggest retailer and during the pandemic, it was working overtime to make the most of the market conditions. After the pandemic, workers began complaining about warehouse conditions and high worker performance pressure. They also mentioned a poor health and safety protocol structure and insufficient breaks. After failed protests in Bessemer, Arizona that aimed to unionize Amazon warehouse workers, Amazon’s RTO mandates that required workers to come back to a 9 to 5 routine 5 days a week without exception met with significant backlash.
Most people working remotely did not want to return and a recent Fortune article said that many began quitting the company instead. Now, Amazon is dealing with layoffs while also taking on expanding global e-commerce demands. The executives say that RTO mandates are about productivity. However, Amazon’s losses in the talent war may prove costly for it, especially if other commerce giants pick up talent that leaves the company.
Possible Solutions
Amazon’s biggest problem in its decision-making is the abrupt way it did that. Employees who were working from home obviously did not want to get back to the office immediately. The company needed a hybrid work mode that it could work up into a full RTO process in a few months. It needed to get employee engagement and workplace presence incentivization to make its RTO mandates work. As this Fortune article mentions,
The workforce is contending with stereotypes regarding manufacturing jobs and the stigma associated with them. Almost half (49%) of Americans believe society views trade jobs more negatively than corporate ones, an attitude held more highly by older generations. It seems, however, as if Gen Z is pushing back against this notion, having seen white-collar work fail to deliver on its promise for other generations. Even if these jobs were once an avenue of success for some, as decades pass, many younger workers have found they need to job-hop to truly climb the corporate ladder.
A lot of companies are still facing issues with RTOs and doing it up requires a strong internal social network and organizational network analytics to create compelling professional networks. This helps RTOs succeed by way of making the office space a place for learning, collaboration, and better growth opportunities.
Meta (Facebook)
Meta’s 2022 mass layoffs are not that far in the rearview mirror in 2024. The way in which the layoffs happened showed poor workforce management on part of Meta. And the real reason is an improper alignment of its strategic goals with workforce management policies. After the layoffs, the company also did not hire people to fill gaps which made retained employees insecure about their roles and future career prospects with the company.
Coming in 2024, Meta is still not at the same level of hiring as it had been during and before the pandemic. Further, statistics show that Facebook is seeing decreased user engagement and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has changed his investment decisions for the Metaverse. Combined with the growing reputation of Facebook’s poor marketing output value and its hiring freeze, it seems like Meta’s workforce management policies need an overhaul to improve the company’s prospects.
Possible Solutions
Meta is currently in limbo when it comes to its employee engagement and workforce management policies. The company needs greater cross-team collaboration and employee engagement activities to ensure its current employees that they have a secure future with the company. They also need to develop a strong work culture that will renew the market’s trust in the company and attract talent to the business. Currently, it has no such implements in place, and in that regard, it can take a page out of Salesforce’s book about driving productivity through internal team collaboration, peer learning, and professional development activities.
Goldman Sachs
A banking premier in the US and the globe, Goldman Sachs issued an RTO mandate in 2021 with an initial date of February 1, 2022, for implementation. The mandate caused a lot of problems with remote working employees seeking alternative work options and companies to avoid returning to office. Initial reports on the effectiveness of the mandate said that only 50% of employees returned to the very first days of the mandates enforcement to the New York headquarters. The subsequent RTO application was also only partially successful and many Goldman Sachs employees continued to work remotely with most opting for hybrid work on certain days.
The management at Goldman Sachs was not too pleased with the variance in attendance enforcement and this led to clashes with the workers. Some management exes at the company said the strict mandate might drive talent away from the company. The management also raised concerns on employee morale and business productivity and for these reasons, they decided to keep a de facto flexible working model.
Possible Solutions
In 2024, Goldman Sachs is still pretty rigid about workplace attendance with business policy dictating that workers should attend office at all designated hours. However, the concerns about employee morale and workplace productivity are not unfounded and that is why Goldman Sachs may need to develop its employee engagement activities to create dynamic work and productivity options. They may also want to invest in peer learning such that they are able to nurture talent and attract more prodigious professionals to their business practice.
4 Workforce Management Mistakes to Help Define Your Workplace Productivity
Twitter (Now X)
Twitter saw a lot of employee and business infrastructure turbulence at the time when it was acquired by Elon Musk. Impromptu layoffs, hectic restructuring, and significant user base confusion created a difficult work situation for the company’s employees. This led the company to experience a bigger turnover than it did over the years.
The company’s employee engagement process further declined in quality with 12-hour work days that offered no overtime pay. This added to an already stressful environment and fueled more resignations. The mass layoffs at Twitter, going by X in 2024, with cases like one where the company was ordered to pay a former employee €550,000 for wrongful termination.
Musk’s helming of the company also came into question and raised issues of fair compensation and work conditions at X. This has put the future of the company in jeopardy despite the company moving ahead in many ways to recapture its popularity albeit with specific groups in line with Musk republican sensibilities.
Possible Solutions
X is undergoing some significant change-ups in 2024 although its initial management changes have died down. The company needs to reestablish its employee productivity and professional development programs to attract and retain talent.
Otherwise, it risks losing its talent options to other platforms like Meta. Musk should also develop a broader and politically non-partisan approach to defining workplace policies. Political tensions in the workplace may reduce work quality and employee performance. Nurturing a politically unbiased environment may help the company attract and retain talent for its long-term growth and strategy validation.
As this HBR article mentions,
Today layoffs have become a default response to an uncertain future marked by rapid advances in technology, tumultuous markets, and intense competition. Yet other data on layoffs should give companies pause. In a 2012 review of 20 studies of companies that had gone through layoffs, Deepak Datta at the University of Texas at Arlington found that layoffs had a neutral to negative effect on stock prices in the days following their announcement. Datta also discovered that after layoffs a majority of companies suffered declines in profitability, and a related study showed that the drop in profits persisted for three years. And a team of researchers from Auburn University, Baylor University, and the University of Tennessee found that companies that have layoffs are twice as likely to file for bankruptcy as companies that don’t have them.
How Should You Approach Your Workforce Management Process to Boost Productivity?
Workforce management in 22024 and moving into 2025 is a complicated process that goes beyond the work-performance-salary-growth cycle. Companies must invest in employee engagement software and explore professional development programs that engage their workers and create dynamic productivity value. And this is where knowledge management with employee engagement and mentorship holds the key to driving organizational success.
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