Dickensian pay conditions ease

With Christmas around the corner, the powers that be in charge of television programming tend to 'treat' us to a slew of classic films such as "It's a Wonderful Life," "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" and A "Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens.

Those of you who have also seen the film of Dickens' novel "Oliver Twist" will recall the climactic scene when young Oliver, a growing orphan, asks for more gruel one lunchtime at the workhouse. The result of this audacious request is that he is cast out to starve in the streets, only to fall into the company of thieves and brigands.

This past year in the wake of the recession, a lot of employees felt that 'asking for more' would also risk being cast out into the streets (or guarantee a place in the dole queue at the very least). With redundancies and restructures commonplace across most industries, a pervasive cloud of uncertainty hung over many workplaces. This uncertainty effectively rendered employees immobile and most elected to sit tight, clinging to their jobs for security, as they prayed that the axe would not fall on them.

Pre-recession ideals such as work/life balance and flexible working hours took a back seat in a year when 'flexibility' often equated to bending over backwards like the contortionist in Cirque du Soleil. Wage cuts, job freezes, reduced working weeks and company downsizing seemed like more palatable options compared to redundancy, so workers largely 'grinned and bore it,' electing not to voice any dissatisfaction for fear of rocking the boat.

2009 was the year of 'corporate anorexia: with downsizing and headcount freezes, remaining employees had to take up the slack and increase their workload, often spreading themselves very thin. This was particularly true in the business support area, where professional administrators often found that their "personal assistant' job title morphed into something distinctly less 'personal' and they found themselves supporting a team rather than an individual.

So, for employers, the upside of the downturn was a relatively stable workforce with low attrition rates. After many years of candidates calling the shots in a talent-poor market, power shifted from the candidates to the employers. Those companies who still had a recruitment budget had greater access to top talent as these candidates could no longer pick and choose due to less roles being available.

However, as the New Zealand economy tentatively goes into recovery mode, the tide is turning. According to a recent Employee Insights Survey conducted by Robert Walters across the Tasman covering disciplines including accounting banking & finance, information technology human resources, sales & marketing, secretarial & business support and supply chain & procurement, there are a lot of disgruntled people out there with, 40 per cent of overall respondents thinking of trading jobs in the next few months. 67 per cent of respondents in secretarial and business support roles were keen to move on and 62 per cent of respondents working in sales, marketing and communication expressed a desire to look elsewhere. The key drivers stated for switching jobs are career advancement, followed by a better pay and bonus structure.

The sentiments voiced in this survey have already begun to be mirrored across the local New Zealand job market. Now that economic pressures have started to ease, previously timid employees have gained the confidence to begin job seeking, albeit covertly, and Robert Walters' offices in Auckland and Wellington have witnessed a marked increase in momentum since we entered the fourth quarter of the year.

Ask anyone what their abiding feelings about this year are and the unanimous response is "I'm exhausted." So what will become of these remaining loyal employees who worked their proverbial off during the last year? To coin an HR phrase, should they be seeking reparation from their companies for the 'sweat debt' that they ran up this year, having put in additional hours and covering additional workload? Never mind "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"......the Grinch stole the rest of the year for many organisations and employees, with profits slashed and jobs lost, so it would be presumptuous for employees to expect immediate financial recompense.

However, as most organisations have now completed their restructuring programmes, the imminent threat of the being 'cast out on to the streets' has passed and employees should feel more confident about following little orphan Oliver's lead and 'asking for more'. This does not have to equate to asking for a pay rise. There should be no reason why you can't voice your concerns with your manager regarding pay freezes, career progression, learning and development opportunities and perhaps even that elusive of perks - flexible hours. However, bear in mind that your boss is probably frazzled as well after a year of trying to make ends meet so pick your moment carefully and book a meeting at least one week in advance. Asking for a pay rise when fortified with Dutch courage at the Christmas party will not normally elicit a positive response!

Finally, employers should never underestimate the power of acknowledgement - even if budgets are non-existent and your Christmas party budget allows for little more than a six-pack and a sausage sizzle, most employees would just like recognition for the extra effort they have put in this year, so it would pay to convey this to your staff. As Mark Twain once said, "I can live for two months on a good compliment."

Failure to dole out some Christmas respects might see an awful lot of people making more phone calls to Robert Walters, or paying extra special attention to the job ads in the Careers portfolio which comes out in late January in this very newspaper.

* Lucy Nichols is the New Zealand marketing manager of global recruitment firm Robert Walters. She can be contacted via email: lucy.nichols@robertwalters.co.nz