How good is an employer? An employee perspective

By Dr. Muhammad Naseer Akhtar

This is a very simple question but the most common question people frequently ask me about HR. It is also simple in explaining HR to a common person (with zero knowledge about HR as a field). The way I try to explain/answer this question; I ask the person to do some research by yourself:

1-   Try to visit the office (in person) of an organization (about which you want to know how good is this employer) and without asking any question to anyone in this office, try to look at the faces of the employees working there and observe the following things in that workplace environment:

i-            Do they look happy at work?

ii-           Are they actively engaged and involved in their work?

iii-          Do they interact and behave with people (managers, coworkers, subordinates, customers etc.) respectfully?

iv-          How good is the workplace around them (safe, secure, feel-like-home etc.)?

2-   After observing the first part and if you are still confused and unable to identify this employer is good or bad? Then move on to interact with employees of this office and ask this simple question:

-         Does your HR (department/HR employees) work for you or against you? In order to get a representative/valid answer to make a clear judgement here, you need to determine the representative sample size for this question so that you get a valid response free of any bias [i.e. if there are 10 employees in office (the place under observation and survey) then ask this question from all 10 employees; if 15, ask from 14; if 25, ask from 24….; if 80, ask from 66; …if 220, ask from 144; if 420, ask from 201…… (Morgan and Krecjie 1970)]. If the overall reply is that their HR ‘work against them’ then this employer is not good, and if the answer is ‘work for them’, then the employer is a good employer.

Your job is still not done!

3-   To validate the findings from above step-by-step process of this observation and the survey and to make sure that you are able to reach a point where you can get the answer to the captioned question; now you need to ask this question from employees (by following the above mentioned rule of determining the sample size):

i-            How do you judge the quality of an employer on your ‘Best’ day at work?

ii-           How do you judge the quality of an employer on your ‘Worst’ day at work?

“Because people should not judge the quality of an employer by how they treat you on your best day. Instead, judge them by how they treat you on your worst day.” A great quote by Trudy Purchase.

To sum, the above discussion and the little research can help decide ‘How good is an employer?’ and it will help people of all age groups whether they are thinking to stay with the current employer or they are thinking to switch to another organization.

If I have missed anything please feel free to comment. Thank you.