Dealing with people can be a company's biggest challenge
What are the biggest challenges facing high-tech companies today? Hardware glitches? Complicated software applications? Promoting cutting-edge research and development? Or, perhaps, just making a profit?
Actually, it's none of the above.
Sure, those all are challenges, but recent surveys suggest the toughest challenges such companies face believe it or not is just dealing with people.
For example, some people work best on their own; other people work best in teams. And different tasks might require one or the other or both.
Some people can work 70 hours a week and thrive, at least for a while. Others burn out quickly at such a pace, singeing friends and families in the process.
Speaking of families, employees' marriages have their ups and downs, kids struggle at school, elderly parents need extra care, pets run away or everybody gets the flu. All of these problems wind up at work one way or another.
There also are mental health issues that impact the workplace depression, substance abuse, anxiety and others all end up playing out on the job.
Finally, companies need to consider what we might call “meaning” issues. All people from the janitor to the CEO need work that is worth doing, provides a challenge, offers satisfaction and allows for appropriate rewards.
All of these people-related challenges make a difference, often a big difference, in how companies do or don't perform.
In fact, a well-respected financial analyst recently observed that she considers a company's personnel policies and procedures to be one of the most important indicators of its investment potential.
We don't have space to go into all the ways businesses are addressing people challenges. Extensive employee assistance programs, on-site day care, flexible schedules and intensive team building training, for example, all are common.
More exotic ideas such as bringing pets to work, employee nap cubicles and company concierge services also have been tried.
However companies address such challenges, it's important we remember that no matter how technologically intensive jobs are, or how technically sophisticated employees are, what usually determines the success of all human enterprises are the humans involved.
Though the current shortage of jobs is a challenge for us all; in the coming decades there likely will be a shortage of people good people to staff our best, most innovative companies.
How we treat these good people will make all the difference in the quantity and quality of work they do.