Filling up empty spaces

When we move up in life and reach the top spot career wise most of us fail to realize that we are just filling up the empty spaces and are usually the replacements of people who either left the job for something good or were asked to move out to bring someone more 'efficient'. Jobs, I always feel, are like stocks, someone who is bearish on the job,quits it and someone who is bullish on the job,takes it; just like it happens in the stock market. There would be satisfied individuals and there would be people who would be doing all the talks in the corridor awaiting an opportunity to run away.

Its not easy to fill up the space a good employee has created while moving out but its equally difficult to fill up the space which a more ambitious/job hopper/bad employee has created. I am saying this because once the person has quit, he provides the management a wonderful opportunity to find a more suitable employee and this in turn is the most important challenge the management faces.Finding the right people for the right job...whoa.."Tough Ask".

I have worked in some fantastic organizations and have got a chance to interact with few of the best guys both professionally and personally. One thing was common at all the places...most of the employees were unhappy or at least sounded unhappy. Even the so called stars and "Mr./ Ms. Consistents" were not the happiest of the lot. May be its and industry problem because Banks or for that matter even NBFCs are expanding or at least striving to expand at big scale. The appetite to earn revenues is constantly growing and there is a huge potential for growth but I have a problem with the means by which higher revenues are earned...but lets not discuss it here.SEBI,IRDA,RBI and other authorities are already discussing it at their level.

So coming back to employee satisfaction, I must say and most of you will agree to it that not enough is being done to keep employees happy. The people in the management will say in their own style..."Its impossible to keep everyone happy"...but then guys please wake up...you are there to do this. You are not doing regular sales or operations stuff and I know most of you(management guys) are not even spending enough time with the teams who are responsible to take the company ahead but then you are always there to have a big bite in the pie. I will give an example from my own industry. There are enough contests happening to reward people with overseas trips and the well deserving guys work very hard and win a chance to go on the trips. Finally they win it and feel proud about it. But when they go to the airport to board the flight they find few guys from the Top Management joining them on the trip....God only knows why. Look at it like this, one guy works day in and day out to win something and then on the trip he sees someone who is just a sponsored guy. Just think how the hardworking guy must be feeling...frustrated,appalled,pathetic and the list can go on and on and on. I am sure English vocabulary has more than enough words to describe the feeling. I am sure by now the morale of the hard working guy can be gauged by anyone.

I strongly feel that in reality there is a lack of transparency in the way things work in most of the companies. The disparity between levels is huge and at times unjustified. The companies need to reduce the gap and the workforce must be made to feel like a part of the growth process and not just feeders to the growth process. For example,the company's profits grow by say 50% but the employees' salary goes up only by 5-10% on an average and when things like 2008-09 happen...well....employees are at God's mercy. The inflation and recession don't only hit the top guys...they hurt the guys at the bottom. The guys at the bottom of the food chain are hit the most.

Its time for companies to do more for the employees at the bottom of the food chain. They are the once who constantly produce to feed the people at the top. Let the divide be not as big as that of the farmer and the bureaucrat in India. Its time to avoid creating the spaces which need to be filled.Its time to think........