SOME time last year, a Chinese company decided to reward its employees by sending them on a touristic trip to Dubai. The company sent more than 16,000 of its employees aboard, with the people being flown to their destination in 77 airplane trips and staying in 40 hotels. This was by far the largest touristic trip organized by a company for its employees in history. Of course, the cost of this venture to make their employees happy would have exceeded tens of millions of dollars. Another news that caught my eye was the action of another Chinese company that decided to reward 6,400 company employees by sending them on a group trip to France. The trip cost was put at $15,000,000, which the company, according to our understanding, paid to reward the employees. This in my opinion was one sure way to strengthen employees' loyalty to the company. In another related news, yet another Chinese company decided to reward more than 12,000 of their employees by sending them on a holiday trip to Thailand. This was, according to a Thai tourism official, one of the largest ever-organized trips by a Chinese company to the Far East nation that has developed tourism into a fine art. This leads me to the question, how many private companies operating in the Kingdom are actually rewarding their employees? Do the vast majority of employees feel a sense of belonging to the companies they are working for? The stories mentioned above are a fairy tale to many of us and a horror story to company managers and shareholders because it would mean taking money out of their fat pockets and spending it on employees. Of course, as in every case there are exceptions and there are companies operating in the Kingdom with a reward-based concept. They take care of their employees and reward them handsomely while making them believe that they are members of the family. This doesn't, however, apply to the vast majority here. There is a serious case or bad relationship in companies, with the divide virtually between the top managers and owners on one side, and their employees on the other. Many of these companies see their employees only as ink in paper, or an amount of riyals in the budget. There are companies that forget about developing their employees or rewarding them. The relationship I believe is more like a slave-master and his slaves, and it is more evident when the employee is an expatriate. With the exception of one friend of mine, who works in a major company in the Eastern Province and who feels appreciated by his management while receiving both training and financial rewards, I cannot think of another satisfied employee. He told me that there is no way that he would change his job even if the salary offered is better than what he's drawing or is given additional perks. Almost everyone else I know feels that they are not appreciated and are buying time by doing the least minimum until they find a better job. They often attribute the shortcomings of companies and management to their greed. Company owners and management rarely share any financial earnings with their employees, although it was they who made it happen. I often ask people I know about their job satisfaction, how their companies treating them, and whether they are loyal to the company and job. Almost all of them answered in a lackluster manner that it is just a job and some said they are frustrated at work because they see the rewards being distributed to the top management only while excluding all other employees.
One friend said he even protested to the line manager about the unfair reward system, but was told that the employees were paid to do their job and that is enough. He added, management of course sometimes reminded them that they should be lucky they have a secure job, and that many people would love to be in their position. Therefore, this friend has zero loyalty to his company and is looking forward for the first opportunity out. An expat friend of mine told me that the company he worked for was cursed with a manager, who is also an expat, who sees employees as a riyal sign. He told me that he was perfect in demotivating them and forcing them to hate their job. The potential to innovate and make profit is high, if this person is not there. He told me that the manager is always looking to fire employees by the end of the year to save money from the budget so he will look good before the management and get his bonus. A manager with a mentality like this exists in large number of firms but the methods employed to torture employees are different. Companies and management should not look down on their employees but instead should invest in them. The hate and suspicion that prevails in such relationship should end. There are thousands of examples out there of successful companies that managed to win employees loyalty with simple encouragement and reward system. The percentage of loyalty to jobs and companies is super high in Japan. Why can't management study the cases of successful companies and apply it, or some of it. Companies respecting and rewarding its employees will motivate them to do more. We live in a competitive world where a good employee is a good asset. For companies to become more successful and competitive, they should value their assets — the employees. I would not call for the rewards to be junkets that the Chinese companies offered, but at least place a simple reward system that would encourage and appreciate the employee. For that companies' mentality should change.
— The writer can be reached at [email protected]. Twitter: @anajeddawi_eng
