Workers’ changing attitude must be addressed: ThePost.ie


TCH Archives > Sunday Business Post > 2006/10/08 > Workers’ changing attitude must be addressed

Workers’ changing attitude must be addressed
Sunday, October 08, 2006 - By Adam Maguire
Speaking at the third annual Occupational Health & Safety Summit at the Irish Management Institute in Dublin last week, O’Boyle said workers were becoming less concerned with financial gains and more interested in personal achievement and fulfilment.

‘‘People are starting to question the definition of success,” he said. ‘‘People are driven by a need for physiological success, with meaning being more important than money.”

The summit was organised by The Sunday Business Post and iQuest, sponsored by Bupa Ireland, and endorsed by Chambers Ireland.

Tony Killeen, Mi nister for Labour Affairs at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, was also a speaker at the event.

O’Boyle, c riticising the tendency among companies to label their workforce as ‘‘human resources’’ and ‘‘assets’’, r ather than individuals, s aid that encouraging a better work-life balance was not something that managers should fear.

‘‘One of the problems is that chief executives are very uncomfortable with this,” he said. ‘‘They say that they have a business to run, b ut that has to be the starting point. It has to fit the business needs first.

‘‘It doesn’t mean there has to be an equal balance either. The balance is up to the individuals and that will change over time as their priorities change,” he said.

‘‘People just need meaningful daily achievements and enjoyment in each of their four areas of life: work, s ocial life, family and self.”

O’Boyle highlighted a survey published by the RCSI in March which asked people to rate their personal quality of life. The results found that senior management gave themselves a lower ranking than terminally-ill patients had done.

‘‘There has to be something wrong in the workplace. We are certainly better off economically, bu t are we personally? I don’t think so,” he said.

As manufacturing businesses move increasingly to lower-cost economies in eastern Europe and the Far East, O’Boyle said he saw the individual worker becoming increasingly important to a company’s overall success, w ith a good work-life balance being key to retaining high quality staff.

‘‘It’s becoming more important as a recruiting tool in competing for the best people. I think it will become extremely important to retain the best employees and improve customer service,” he said.

O’Boyle quoted Ibec director Turlough O’Sullivan, w ho said that he saw work-life balance becoming one of the most important aspects of work in Ireland in the coming years.

Dr Paul Litchfield, c hief medical officer of the BT Group, encouraged businesses to take a more human approach to their workers, saying they would benefit greatly if they assisted their staff through difficult periods in their lives.

‘‘If you help people, you will get that back tenfold,” he said.

‘‘The loyalty you will receive for that is immense.” Litchfield was speaking about the impact of mental illness on companies, as well as the need to counter fallacies and tackle the problem progressively. He said that by handling a person’s problems properly, a company could avoid greater problems down the line.

Statistics show that as many as 27 per cent of workers experience mental health problems, with the most common mental disorders being anxiety and depression.

By 2020, depression is expected to be the second most common cause of disability in the developed world.