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NewsDay

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Bosses, climb down from your high horses

Opinion & Analysis
CORPORATE responsibility has been the buzz phrase lately, what with some firms awash with cash sponsoring causes left, right and centre? There has been a seeming over-readiness to splash.

CORPORATE responsibility has been the buzz phrase lately, what with some firms awash with cash sponsoring causes left, right and centre? There has been a seeming over-readiness to splash. Well and good if they can afford this and if the causes are really deserving in this nation of plenty, but yawning inequalities.

Opinion by Conway Tutani

Of course, there is never a perfect time to help as we are continually called upon to assist out of budget in times of emergencies like sudden illness, death and national disasters. That is life; it’s not formulaic.

But not if one’s priorities appear upside down. There is one businessman who, until recently, was over-ready to splash luxury vehicles on beauty queens when his workers complained about him not paying them on time.

There is this firm incorporated in Harare, described in Wikipedia as “a milk and dairy products producer, based in Zimbabwe . . . one of the largest food producers in southern Africa”.

I stand to be corrected, but for the past two years or so, I have not helped but notice late, late at night several of the firm’s employees — including women — pulling ice-cream carts along Rotten Row, an area teeming with criminals on the margins of Harare. This has been a pitiful, sad, sad sight to see because no worker — whether permanent or temporary — deserves this. Will the bosses be living it up in town or lapping it up at home while this is going on? Does it not weigh heavily on them? Is the company’s board aware of this? The workers certainly don’t look forward to going to work under such conditions. It’s possible that they have raised safety and security concerns, but with no one listening. It takes forever to be listened to, if at all. In this period of high unemployment and low wages, workers would rather be safe than sorry; they would rather have crumbs than nothing. This, plus the workers’ tattered uniforms, can’t be doing a whale of good for the organisation’s public image.

So last week I could not help but notice this disconnect when the firm made a donation of groceries and a generator to an orphanage in Nyanga.

It’s possible most of the workers first read about it in the Press after — not prior to — the donation as such organisations are also poor at internal communication. There is nothing like the buy-in of employees, absolutely none. Employees are not there as ‘extras’ because the most important resource in any organisation is the human resource above finance and machinery. Studies have established that.

Such public shows against the background of poor employment practices are nothing more than hypocritical. The marginalised, long-suffering employees cannot have been impressed, to say the least, elevating the employer to the same detested category of white, racist bosses in colonial Rhodesia who used drive with their dogs next to them in the front seat or cab with the black worker sitting at the back of an open truck at the mercy of the weather.

The individual who made the donation on behalf of the company is a public relations manager. She should dust off her PR textbooks and modules and refresh her mind that there is what is called internal customers; that charity begins at home.

“Only the image that employees themselves gain of their company can be properly anchored in the public consciousness.

Consequently, a simultaneous, regular and correct target group flow of information to employees is a part of every public relations action,” says one PR practitioner.

PR managers must not pay lip service to PR just as human resources managers must be true to their profession of ensuring fair and equitable labour practices and not be hatchet men for management. It’s not a question of what we want to do, but must do.

Which brings us to the next point: Why can’t they extend decent salaries and loans to employees to rebuild their lives after the economic meltdown of 2008 and, in the process, buying their loyalty and commitment? They must look at this in terms of going the whole hog. Only this way can sustainable recovery and stability be achieved. Such a foundation and incremental approach will spur the country’s redevelopment. There is need to focus on ordinary people, the so-called “little people” because if they feel that they have a stake in the economy, all the rest will fall into place.

It’s known that some innovative managers have often found themselves at odds with directors who have little interest in extending benefits to hardworking workers at the lower end of the scale. Such managers have been soundly rebuffed by this self-perpetuating brand of directors. They would rather serve fellow businesspeople and the wealthy. Can such people deliver a prosperous and stable future? Several firms — among them banks — have collapsed due to insider lending to people at the top whereas it’s more profitable and secure to invest in and lend to employees who are creditworthy.

This restriction of access to a minuscule few is why Zimbabwe has had a largely jobless and revenue-less recovery despite dollarisation.

Good governance, transparency and accountability must not only be demanded of the government, but of the private sector as well — there is need to democratise the workplace, not bossy bosses.

Bosses, climb down from your high horses — you are not necessarily better or more intelligent than other people.