It shouldn’t be rocket science to accept that giving employees a stake in their company’s future encourages commitment and efficiency.
The John Lewis Partnership, owners of John Lewis department stores and Waitrose, is perhaps the most famous example of a company that fully involves its employees in both decision-making and a share of its profits, and now Sports Direct has announced that its staff will receive bonuses following a record year for profits.
But what happens if a company gets into difficulties and needs restructuring to survive?
Often, the employees are the last to know and this can make turning around a company much more difficult. While directors try to keep information to themselves employees will usually know that something is wrong and an atmosphere of uncertainty may only make things worse as key people start looking for other work and productivity drops even further.
While trades unions regularly suffer from a negative press we would argue that their involvement in negotiations during restructuring can have positive benefits, not only in consulting with workers about the way forward and keeping them informed, but also in negotiating agreements should shorter working hours or redundancies be necessary. To help reassure those concerned about trusting unions to keep turnaround plans confidential there exists a protocol confidentiality agreement that was developed by the TMA (Turnaround Management Association UK) in association with the TUC.
We would be interested to hear from anyone who has had experience of union involvement in turning around a failing company.
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