Soft, the new hard.

Business is often accused of being in love with hard numbers, the bottom line and avoiding tax, often to the detriment of people.. It’s obvious without a decent bottom line you won’t continue in business but the parameters of working in business are changing. Changes due to more available and open communication channels, more calls for transparency and a greater need to keep staff and intellectual property are changing the way companies view their most important asset.

According to the US Department of Labour, the number 1 reason people quit their jobs, is they don’t feel appreciated. So considering the average cost to a company of a manager or professional who leaves is 18 months salary, companies are taking note of what really matters.

So what is the new soft and why does it matter?

The new soft is decency, thoughtfulness, kindness, integrity, respect, appreciation, courtesy and listening. They all pay off in the long run for businesses willing to look inward at their people. They may be things your mother taught you but not necessarily to get you ready for the world of business.

It used to be the fluffy stuff that HR consultants talked about to keep people happy in their jobs but they never got past management who were caught in a Victorian mindset of clocking on and off and processing, processing and processing. Why should you be happy at work? Is the company responsible for giving you a great work environment encapsulating all the above soft bits, only if they want to keep you and your skills?

A current survey by the Hay Group and Drake International indicates that 50% of Australian employees are thinking about changing their jobs, with 25% planning to do it this year. They aren’t all leaving for a better pay packet.

Daniel Goleman in his book Primal Leadership says feeling good lubricates mental efficiency, making people better at understanding information and using decision rules in complex judgments. Positive feelings in the workplace also make employees behave more ethically and function more cooperatively in teams and because they are happier, they are less likely to take a job at another company.

All sounds easy enough, in fact too easy, so why don’t more businesses take notice? Perhaps we forgot those lessons learnt at home and didn’t really think they applied in the outside world. Maybe it’s time to bring your Mum to work and let her work out the people problems. I’d like to see her send the CEO to his room for not sharing and while she’s at it what about a good talking to the CFO about the extra pocket money, wage rise, he promised. I know it won’t happen but that doesn’t mean you can’t bring those values back. You may be surprised at how much your people will want to come to work each day.

So as 60 becomes the new 50 and brown the new black, so soft has become the new hard.