The nature of employment has changed radically since grandfather’s days. No one can even guess what it will be like when granddaughter enters the work force, much less when she will be set to retire. Europeans and North Americans no longer till the soil in large numbers; subsistence farming has been replaced by hobby farming. Many people are wealthy enough to have a country place to retreat to when the hurly-burly and stress of urban existence gets to be too much. We value the time at the lake, the cabin, and the cottage. It reminds us of how we are still, at heart, at our best in natural, not artificial environments.

Beyond the philosophical question of “what is work?”, no one can deny that the actual place where tasks undertaken to be rewarded by metaphorical crops, — cabbage to eat, and lettuce to spend — is no longer stereotypical. Today’s workplace, one that grandfather could not have in his wildest youthful imagination foreseen as a lad, may well be in a generation as alien to them as Bob Cratchitt’s cubbyholed desk complete with quill, quire and inkwell.

Thanks to the Internet and myriad gadgets, many people need not spend the old familiar 40+-hour workweek at the office. In fact home offices have so blurred the space of home and work, and the regulated work week is only a reality for those well-unionized, that employers are having to work harder at keeping those employees that they want on side happy. Much effort goes into keeping talented workers content, beyond the old bonus plans and stock options, because for the first time in history work in many fields does not have geographical limitations. A project can be drafted in Brisbane, discussed in Calgary, approved in Oslo — all thanks to the Internet. A successful global culture translates into more than profits in our changing world — it means staying one step ahead of the competition.

In such a rapidly changing workplace many employers feel the need to stay one step ahead, often turning to their employees for assessment. It’s a simple thing. A happy employee is much more likely to be productive than a disgruntled one; the carrot brings better results than the cudgel, fewer demands on the company. A win-win situation, especially in the very competitive service industry. Customers are conditioned to getting satisfaction, nothing less; the culture of immediate results is becoming global.

These days you will find happy employees, successful enterprises in Eastern Europe, according to a recent survey. Hewitt Associates, an Illinois HR consulting firm has ranked the best employers in Europe of 2003. A commitment to getting feedback from employees is a characteristic of the top companies in the rankings. Where are workers feeling most satisfied, motivated? According to the survey, in Estonia. (See for yourself, at www.bestemployerseurope.com)

The Wall Street Journal of March 12th dedicated a feature length article to this study, where the company that came out on top was TNT Express Worldwide Eesti AS, the Estonian office of the Amsterdam-based express-delivery company. Rounding out the top five were Microsoft Hungary, a Portuguese insurer, a German insurer, and a Hungarian technical instrument maker. Three out of the five to the Finno-Ugrians — and most workers at units of global outfits are local. Out of the top 15, three are Estonian, four Hungarian. Thus, not a blip on the screen, but indicative of a fundamental mentality, worker ethos.

Part of it is the new global reality — TNT’s corporate culture is praised, their Austrian branch came sixth. The other intangible is local, and this comes out quite clearly in the WSJ article. The Estonian success is explained by the youth in the workforce, the optimism in the future. In the New Europe work is still, to a degree unstructured (compared to North American practices) marked by a “spirit of awakening”. That term is used describing the employees at no. 7, Nordea Bank Estonia (subsidiary of the Finnish bank), where the average age of the employees is 30.

Hewitt’s survey notes that the successful companies share two things — engagement, which is described as employee’s identification with the company — and alignment, which indicates how well the corporate vision matches up with that of the workers and HR practices.

The article quotes 25-year old Reet Mägi of TNE Estonia as seeing the significance of being involved with the corporate vision. TNT Estonia’s head of human resources Katrin Alujev says that their financial results are seen as being “directly connected to our investments in people.” That is not easy to measure by size of pay-cheque, bonuses or stock options. Loyalty is what continues to motivate employees, in turn have firms retain employees during tough times. The study noted that pay is normally not the largest single factor affecting employee satisfaction — but its influence grows after employees fail to receive raises commensurate with the business success over time. An obvious point perhaps; yet considers how many promising businesses have lost ground because they have not re-invested in their assets, their employees.

This is not to advocate necessarily a new corporate culture — merely a different one. Studies have shown that unionized, (often mostly blue-collar), sinecures and tenured jobs (often in the government) end up being performed with less enthusiasm with the corresponding drop in efficiency when there is little employer-employee interaction. Signe Kagi, at Nordea Bank in Tallinn, notes in the article that the idea is not to be just an administrator, but to share the visions. Nordea also has internal polls on employee satisfaction, giving all from top down an idea how to improve. The unihierarchical structure, open doors of management is all part of the new workplace culture. That has also entered Estonian government.

Historically, Estonians appreciated working for a good master. The same seems to apply today, now that there is no feudalism, or communism. Freedom means the opportunity to choose — for employer and employee. The free-market ideals installed by the Mart Laar Pro Patria governments, pushed by Siim Kallas and his Reform administration have taken root. Right wing, free-market does not need to mean anti-people, as unionists charge. It is quite possible to be engaged and aligned, employed gainfully and happily. Ask most young Estonians today, grandfather’s days of sullen servitude are long gone.

Arvamus

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