NOVEMBER - 2022HR TECH OUTLOOK APAC8Mark Fischmann, Head of Human Resources Asia, Crawford & CompanyByIt is widely known that a happy workforce will improve the bottom line and create a more productive and durable business.Metadata freely available clearly demonstrates the significance of an engaged workforce with a great culture, with profitability on average up by 20 percent at engaged workplaces.It is a standout business principle that lower absenteeism, less employee turnover, fewer safety incidents, higher productivity and higher profitability flow from people who feel good about going to work.And yet, despite the overwhelming evidence of the benefits of creating a good culture, we all have war stories of terrible bosses and toxic work environments, bosses yelling at employees for laughing at work, nepotism and favouritism, workplace bullying, discrimination and deliberate ignorance of workplace issues, all contribute to poor engagement, culture and therefore performance. I once worked for a boss who was a bully and who would treat people like they were idiots. He already had one or two people off on stress because of his behaviour, it literally killed the culture. I barely lasted 12 months. IMPORTANCE OF ETHICS WORKING IN WORLD'S TROUBLE SPOTSHaving worked in some of the world's trouble spots where war, virus disease and economic strife were widespread, including Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, West Africa, as well as more sedate places like regional Australia, this gives me a broad perspective on how vitally important culture is to any business. Creating a great culture is not rocket science, it is simply about respect, manners, common courtesy, allowing the free flow of ideas and opinions, being collaborative and supportive and, most of all, allowing people to do what they are good at. Great cultures are built with everyone's buy in, but it starts from the top and you can't fake it.People will sniff out insincerity really quickly, bosses who say they have a great culture and yet refuse to say hello to people, or when they do get a chance to talk to people, they treat them disrespectfully or use small words and demeaning language. People aren't silly, they will spot the insincerity and they will leave. It literally filters down, and the good filters down as well as the bad. BEING GENUINE IS KEYWorking in difficult environments has cemented my appreciation of the importance of business ethics. A key message is being genuine about how you look after your people, otherwise it falls to pieces. In countries where there is high pressure, such as in Zimbabwe during a severe economic crisis when our finance director was kidnapped, in these situations you can't be fake otherwise you could literally die.When I was working in Liberia for an NGO in the midst of the Ebola crisis, people were dying everywhere, but people used to like coming to the middle floor where we worked. The people downstairs were depressed about the deaths, and people upstairs were too serious about everything. Ebola was pretty YOU CAN'T FAKE CULTURE AND ENGAGEMENT ­ AND IT STARTS FROM THE TOPMark Fischmann
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