What Are Good Jobs?

Last updated on: April 26, 2016 at 11:21 am by Rob Moll

What Are Good Jobs? 2016-04-26T11:21:04-05:00 Rob Moll

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

by Rob Moll

Many commentators attribute the current political climate to a jobs problem. There simply aren’t enough good jobs around, so people are upset, envious of the “one percent” and others who have a disproportionate amount of wealth and resources. They express their frustration during this primary season by rejecting establishment political candidates. That’s why we see huge support for outsiders calling for revolution or renegotiation of America’s trade agreements.

No doubt there is plenty to fix on a foundational level in the American economy. But the jobs policies being offered don’t create good jobs, even if they could create more jobs. A good job is not merely a steady paycheck. If it were we wouldn’t have the stereotype of the postal worker go goes berserk or the suicidal Chinese factory worker. They had steady paychecks in jobs where bureaucracy and mindlessness turned out to be deadly. Or, as Bloomberg columnist Megan McArdle points out, there are plenty of communities with steady paychecks in the form of welfare and Social Security disability payments with as much hopelessness and despair as the post office or factory.

Good jobs are more than good paychecks, though probably a good job begins with a good paycheck.

I read McArdle’s piece shortly after reading The Great Game of Business, which is a book on how to run a company by educating every employee in the business. Throughout the book, I kept thinking how great it would be to work for a company like the one described. SRC remanufactures engines and other machine parts for things like cars, trucks, and tractors.

It sounds to me like the bottom rung of the manufacturing world. But SRC earns solid profits and grows quickly, even compared to highly profitable and quickly growing industries. In its first ten years, the company grew revenues from $16 million to $83 million while the company’s value grew from $100,000 to $25 million. Employees gained $33,000 in their employee stock option accounts.

Originally out of necessity and then because it works, SRC involved its employees deeply in the business. Getting started, the company took on a tremendous amount of debt and needed cash, so it educated employees on how the company earned cash and how each business line and each employee contributed to or detracted from the amount of cash the company had on hand.

Their paychecks were on the line, so everyone learned the finances and then learned to more successfully play their role in the business.

Over time, the company opened up all its books to its employees. Every week each employee can see financial statements—but more importantly they know what the statements mean, they understand how their own activities improve or detract from a strong balance sheet and a healthy income statement. They know what to do in their own job in order to help the company meet its goals for the year. They also get a generous share in the rewards for meeting those goals.

This adds up to a unique and empowering work environment—a company full of good jobs. Every employee understands the big picture and how their work fits in. They have the freedom to creatively make changes to their work to help the company achieve its goals. Even the most menial tasks (like moping the floor) are shown to have a direct impact on the company’s performance (by affecting safety, for instance) and therefore the employee’s annual, and sizable, bonus.

To me, that’s the essence of a good job. Work made meaningful by linking it to a larger purpose (which at SRC isn’t anything grand but is as simple as earning money to avoid layoffs and earn bonuses). Work made creative by giving employees freedom to improve their work and grow their skills. Work made rewarding by allowing employees to share in the rewards of success. Of course, these things are also related to business success.

If these things are at the root of a good job—and I believe they are—then our politics are only changing the context in which business functions. That’s important and can have tremendous impact on the success or failure of business. But it isn’t really about creating good jobs. On the other hand, what has a huge impact on the number of good jobs are quality business leaders running companies that care about employees and how they do their work.

I look forward to a campaign debate about that.

__________________________________

4303-NLD-4/25/2016

Unless otherwise noted, Eventide is not an investor in companies discussed in this or other of our ‘faith and business’ columns, nor is there meant to be an endorsement, explicit or implied, of the entirety of any company’s business model, much less of all of a company’s business practices. Rather, aspects of the business model or practices of particular companies are discussed only to help illustrate contemporary examples of larger ‘faith and business’ topics.

The material provided herein has been provided by Eventide Asset Management, LLC and is for informational purposes only. Eventide Asset Management, LLC serves as investment adviser to one or more mutual funds distributed by Northern Lights Distributors, LLC, member FINRA. Northern Lights Distributors, LLC and Eventide Asset Management are not affiliated entities.

Previous Post

April 4, 2016

Church, Culture... and Business