EY is in the middle of a storm, created by its own insensitivity. The facts as we understand them today:

  • A junior employee dies on the job.
  • No one from the company attends her funeral
  • The leader says that she was allotted the same work as everyone else and hence overwork is not the reason for her death.
  • The company issues a gag order on all employees and warns of severe action should they speak on this case.
  • An opposition MP meets the parents and promises to take this up at the highest levels.
  • The state government will investigate and submit a report

This issue is an issue of culture, and this news cycle will not die soon and will have larger implications. A recent HBR meta-analysis of 220 studies found that what leaders say or do when employees are upset or frustrated will have enormous consequences. This is true for EY, and they should be careful. The movement underway is “Anna’s life matters”.

Shiv Shivakumar

Shiv Shivakumar

I think the EY team needs a crash course in public relations management. Almost everything they have done so far is below par. I feel a lot of the words are dictated by lawyers who worry about litigation, and this is true of all MNCs, but in this situation EY needs to show heart not legalese.

Every organisation touts its culture but culture has two dimensions that people often miss:

  • It must work for the last person down the chain.
  • It must clarify and help real life daily dilemmas.

 Culture depends on many things – the company, the industry, and society. I am stating this and not using it as an excuse for inaction by anyone.

It is true that managers feel overwhelmed and overworked today. Each manager at every level is thinking of himself / herself and has little emotional surplus left to invest in his/her subordinates or peers. Life in the corporate world has become more transactional, less engaged.

The idea of colleagues as best friends is a dead concept. Insecurity at every level is high and the happiness index of the best sector does not cross 45 per cent. So, all companies have a toxic problem.

An industry culture depends on the markers of the industry. The food delivery business is all about speed and everyone in the system knows that the penalty is high if speed is not achieved.

That drives people behaviour in that industry in a particular cultural direction. The aviation sector thrives on safety leading to trust, so short cuts are normally frowned upon in this sector.

Socially, our leaders and influencers also fail us on culture. We hear on stump mic the India cricket captains calling his teammates names and urging them via foul language.

This is seen as cool by many. A young manager who hears this could feel this is ok to swear at his work colleagues. Socially, our media focusses on who is earning how much, not who is doing what good in society and if the high earner is accountable.

Our culture seems to be, “Be successful money-wise and you can do what you want!” I have stated the issues, this is not to say that nothing can be done.

Most CEOs can do little about society and influencers but they can do something in their organisations, more directly in their sphere of influence.

What can be done? I have four simple suggestions basis my own experiences building culture:

  • The culture in any organisation is dependent on the behaviours of the Top 10 per cent of managers. The CEO needs to spend enough time clarifying culture to this group. Till you hold them accountable on behaviour, things will not change.
  • Are there mechanisms for employees to voice their concerns? In the companies I ran, we had an anonymous responsiveness survey where the 30 teams would be ranked every two months on how responsive they were internally and suggestions for improvement. This was in a way about getting formal and informal feedback to build a culture. Use feedback to course correct behaviour and not as an input into incentive planning.
  • Avoid hero culture in organisations; this builds a few people, and everyone apes them blindly. A hero culture invariably breaks rules and doesn’t work for the organisation. Reward teams and not individuals and celebrate teams that exhibit the right culture.
  • If something matters then it must have consequences. In the early 2000s, Hindustan Lever saw a few deaths in factories - shop floor deaths / contract employees and third-party vendor deaths. Niall Fitzgerald, the global CEO, gave the 300-odd senior Indian managers a dressing down at the Taj, Mumbai. He roughly said, “The value of a life seems to be different in India. If there is one more death in any factory in India, then I will get rid of the factory manager, no questions asked.” The deaths stopped.

Death is grief, especially that of a child to the parents. To treat death as casual in the statements and as legalese in press indicates a culture that needs healing.

(Shiv Shivakumar was former Chairman, PepsiCo India, and former MD, Nokia India)

Published on September 25, 2024