Category: Business

Do acquisitions disproportionately shed older staff?

Posted on by The Information Badger in Acquisitions, Business, Education, Human Resources, Information Technology, Leadership, Learning, Legal matters

A youngster about to join a large enterprise after completing a degree at University asked an interesting question last weekend. ‘Does an enterprise that acquires another company use the purchase as a smokescreen to shed older, long-serving, higher-paid employees?’  That’s an interesting and unusual question from someone at the very start of their career. So why did they ask it? Well, firstly their new employer has acquired another substantial company and restructuring activities are underway. Secondly, they knew the Badger had some experience in navigating a number of mergers and acquisitions. Lastly, the tech-savvy youngster had come across online chatter that his new employer’s older staff with long service were being disproportionately targeted during restructuring. The youngster, with no experience within large enterprises, anticipates a long career with their new company, but they were a little perturbed that their new employer might possibly be engaging in age discrimination, something that’s prohibited under the UK Equality Act 2010.

Answering required words that were balanced, honest, and rooted in personal experience of post-acquisition integrations. So, what did the Badger say? Firstly, that acquisitions often lead to reorganisations which can legally justify redundancies based on performance or role duplication at any age or level of seniority. Loyalty and long-service counts for nothing in such a scenario, and older employees may be more vulnerable because they typically have higher salaries and benefits, which means shedding them can significantly reduce payroll costs. Secondly, an acquisition can be a vehicle to change an enterprise’s culture, especially in fast moving industries subject to rapid innovation pressures. This always favours the retention of younger, tech-savvy staff and those with in-demand skills. Thirdly, not every acquisition is a smokescreen for eliminating older, higher-paid employees, but, in reality, some acquirers do quietly use their purchase to shed older, higher-paid employees because they know that it’s normally difficult in these circumstances for individuals to prove age discrimination for their redundancy. Do acquisitions disproportionately shed older staff? Some do, some don’t.

The youngster nodded, reaffirmed their intent on a long career with their new employer, and asked if the Badger had any advice for the long term. Yes. Maintain skills that are current and valuable outside your company, as mergers and acquisitions rarely reward loyalty or long service. As you get older and more experienced, watch out during acquisition integration activities for a) silence about future roles for you or your peers, b) performance reviews, and c) role redefinitions. These often signal something is afoot that affects you personally. Also, never forget that HR works in your employer’s interest, not in yours.

The youngster grinned and said they obviously had lots to learn! The Badger smiled too, pleased that he’d sown a few seeds of awareness in a youngster who will soon learn that things are never quite what they seem inside organisations when it comes to workforce matters.

Late payments to subcontractors and suppliers…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Business, Digital Transformation, Ethics & Regulation, Information Technology, IT Project Management, Leadership, Processes and Practices, Project Management, Supply Chain, Technology

Enterprises often hold an annual leadership conference to review the highs, lows, and lessons from the year, and to align their leaders with the business objectives for the year ahead. The Badger first attended such a conference decades ago when all attendees were gathered in the same place for an intense couple of days of formality and informal networking with peers. Enterprises today are increasingly sensitive about the logistical costs and environmental issues associated with gathering people in one place. Many such leadership conferences have thus become more hybrid in nature with smaller, distributed gatherings connected using online video streaming services. This very modern, tech-based approach has many benefits in terms of cost and convenience.

Although the Badger’s first annual leadership conference was a long time ago, he still remembers vividly a particular point made by the company CEO during a presentation lamenting the difficulties of being an IT subcontractor delivering  projects into client’s major programmes. The point was ‘Being a subcontractor is great, but being the prime contractor controlling when a subcontractor gets paid is much, much, much better!’  For some of its projects, the company had been struggling to get prime contractors to pay valid invoices for achieved milestones within contracted terms. The prime contractors had played all kinds of games to pay their subcontractors and suppliers when it suited them, rather than to what was written in their agreed contracted terms. They knew that apart from chasing and whining, subcontractors and suppliers were unlikely to take more forthright action because they wanted to avoid lasting damage to the client relationship in case it excluded them from potential future work opportunities.

Since then, UK legislation in 1998  has made provision for interest on late payment under commercial contracts. However, recent information suggests that only 1 in 10 subcontractors/suppliers enforce this right by actively charging interest, claiming compensation, or seeking debt recovery. This suggests that some level of reluctance remains due to concern about damaging customer relations,  especially for smaller businesses who are, after all, the majority of the UK economy and often heavily dependent on a small number of clients. It may be decades later, but the CEO’s point noted above remains relevant.

Cash flow difficulties can cause liquidity crises and even collapse for any size of enterprise, and so when the Badger heard that the UK government is introducing tougher late payment legislation his first thought was not alleluia, but why hasn’t AI and automation revolutionised payment processing in enterprises to ensure that payments  against valid invoices are always fully paid within contracted terms?  After all, digital technology has been transforming everything for years, and so perhaps this new legislation will add momentum to making a payment revolution happen faster. Let’s hope so. By the way, if you’re interested, you can check how well an enterprise does in paying within terms using the government tool here. 

Work-life balance…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Business, Delivery, Human Resources, Information Technology, Leadership, Life, Wellbeing

Work can be all-consuming. Organisations emphasise values like ‘employee well-being’ and a ‘people-first culture’, but most really operate with deliverables and timelines as their overwhelming priority. HR departments may advocate for ‘work-life balance’, but business leaders, project, programme, and service delivery leaders always push staff for huge effort and heroics to meet a deadline or milestone. In the IT sector, for example, do organisations ever willingly miss a deadline or milestone because of ‘employee well-being’ or their ‘people-first culture’? No.

The Badger’s just had some downtime in Morthoe on the UK’s North Devon coast. The apartment in which he stayed had wonderful coastal views, and it was while nibbling a scone on its balcony in the afternoon sun that thoughts turned to work-life balance. Life on the North Devon coast still provides access to all of today’s online services, but the sounds, the sea, the geology, the flora and fauna, and the local lifestyle forces relaxation and puts work-life balance into perspective. What did the Badger conclude about work-life balance? Simply that it matters. It isn’t just a trendy phrase. It’s a necessity for sustaining energy, protecting mental and physical health, and keeping one’s mind sharp. It matters because burnout reduces productivity and clouds judgement. Downtime helps the brain reset improving creativity, motivation, and decision making. It also matters because quality time away from work helps to build a broader perspective on life as a whole.

The Badger concluded years ago that there are three certainties regarding people. The first two are a) people and not machines, and b) they are all different. Some thrive on having really intense work periods followed by breaks of really deep rest, while others thrive with a daily structure of predictable routines, boundaries, and pressures interspersed with regular shallower rest periods. We are all different, and so the key to a good work-life balance is simply to adopt a personal rhythm that fuels and refreshes rather than drains your capability. Finding the rhythm that works for you within the terms of your employment contract is important. There’s a paradox, however. Employment contracts normally include a holiday entitlement to rest and recharge, and yet many people don’t take all their entitlement. The reasons for this are numerous, but sometimes it’s because a) the work culture rewards hustle more than rest, and b) that an individual misguidedly thinks that everything will collapse if they take a break. So, what’s the Badger’s third certainty about people? Simple. No one is irreplaceable.

If you accept these people certainties and find your rhythm for work-life balance then you will be healthier, sharper, more productive, and more resilient, and the organisation you work for will perform better too. So, use your holiday entitlement. As the Badger was reminded while nibbling scones in the North Devon sunshine, a break is good for you…

Everyone is a salesperson…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Business, Delivery, Education, Information Technology, Leadership & Management, Sales, Technology

Good senior leaders and managers often enjoy being invited to speak to employees attending company training courses. The Badger certainly did. His sessions not only always delivered a message relevant to the training course but also provided an opportunity for attendees to ask questions about any subject close to their heart. Their questions were often diverse and required quick thinking to answer, but that’s what made the sessions fun! It was always rewarding to see attendees relax during the sessions, to hear their responses to the Badger’s answers, and to observe body language when the audience stayed silent. It was also pleasing when ‘light bulb’ moments spread across the attendees faces if an answer triggered a rush of understanding.

As a leader strongly focused on IT delivery, the Badger spoke mainly to training course groups from the business operation, delivery, and technical communities. Their questions were sometimes unusual. For example, on one occasion the Badger was asked ‘I hear senior people utter their favourite sayings frequently, but which of these have merit because they encapsulate a truth?’  The Badger gathered his thoughts for a moment before rattling off a string of common phrases in use in the company and signalling that they all had merit because they all captured a truth relevant in any company. The string included, for example, the following:     

‘What gets measured gets done…’

‘You don’t jump high unless the bar’s set high…’

‘If you bring problems then bring solutions too…’

‘Time is precious, get to the point…’

‘Decisions aren’t about making everyone happy…’

‘Everyone is a salesperson…’

This last one prompted an indignant response from a couple of attendees who were software engineers. They were contemptuous of  salespeople and unequivocal that  they were not, and never would be, a salesperson. On enquiring if they interacted with peers in their client’s organisation on their projects they answered yes. The Badger pointed out that they were actually representing the company when they interacted with external people, and that made them a salesperson of sorts regardless of their job title. He also highlighted that being ‘sales aware’ during such interactions was important because they were well placed to identify the early signs of potential avenues of further work which could be fed into the company’s main sales machinery for qualification and potential follow-up by others. They remained unpersuaded, and so the Badger pointed out that without sales the company would fail, and they would be out of a job! Their facial expressions changed as a ‘light bulb’ moment hit home on realising that even technical IT staff must be commercially and sales aware and acknowledge that ‘Everyone is a salesperson’ of sorts. ‘Sales’ is not a dirty word. It is at the heart of a company’s success and the employment of everyone within it. Remember, everyone is a salesperson…

A career as a TikTok/Instagram influencer?

Posted on by The Information Badger in Business, Education, Information Technology, Learning, social media

If a student says they intend to develop a career as a social media influencer on TikTok, Instagram (and other platforms), and they ask your opinion on their intent, what would you say? The Badger was put on the spot and asked this question during a discussion with a sizeable group of University students midway through their degree courses. Most in the group were studying various flavours of science, engineering, computing, or IT-based subjects. So, what did the Badger answer?

Well, to create a little time to marshal his thoughts, the Badger asked the group to raise a hand if they thought being a TikTok or Instagram influencer was a career path that needed a degree-level education? Only two students put a hand up. A couple commented dryly that most social media platform influencers had little underlying talent or expertise and were focused on their egos and gaining celebrity, notoriety, and money rather than something beneficial for today’s world. That’s harsh, but it’s an understandable perspective. Whether we like it or not, however, becoming a social media influencer is the aspiration of many young digital natives because it’s seen as an easy and convenient way to generate an income.

So, is being a social media influencer a real career path? Many believe so, ostensibly because some with that label make considerable sums of money through brand partnerships, sponsorships, advertising, and selling merchandise. They also perceive that influencers don’t need high educational qualifications although they must be adaptable and adept at analysing trends and staying relevant as audience preferences change. There’s no doubt that some influencers have skills in content creation, marketing, and audience engagement, and a natural charisma, and flair for storytelling, but the reality is that only a small percentage succeed in making a reasonable living from their efforts. Like in any career, success as an influencer on the likes of TikTok and Instagram requires some competence and skill, and so it would be foolish to suggest that being a social media influencer is not a legitimate career path in today’s world.

The Badger was thus careful when answering the student’s question. He simply communicated the advice given by his father when the Badger was first deciding to further his own education at University, namely ‘Get the best education you can in a subject you enjoy and are good at. Don’t pre-suppose how you’ll use that in the future because life has a habit of taking you in unexpected directions’. The students thought this was wise counsel because none of them thought they would secure jobs directly relevant to their degree subject. That’s a shame, but ever that’s been the case. They unanimously concluded that if you intend to have a career as a social media influencer, then it’s prudent to get the best education you can first.

When there’s a new sheriff in town…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Business, Change, Human Resources, Information Technology, IT Project Management, Leadership & Management, Training

‘The lunatics have taken over the asylum’. No, that’s not a jab at the world’s leaders, often hyper-wealthy and drunk on power and their own egos, it’s what a young Badger thought many years ago when his employer appointed a new Chief Executive from outside the company. Soon after their arrival, the new CEO appointed more outsiders to  key leadership roles. Unsurprisingly, most of them had worked for the CEO before. The workforce quickly grasped that the ‘new sheriff in town’ and their ‘deputies’ were intent on rapidly and ruthlessly making their mark.

At the time, the Badger was leading his very first systems/software development project. The rationale for the rapid changes made by the new CEO seemed unfathomable to someone who was completely focused on delivering his project. Looking back decades later, having accumulated wide-ranging business and delivery experience, it’s clear the company needed change to sharpen its commercial and financial focus. Indeed, the CEO changed it for the better in these respects, but to the detriment of a great embedded workforce culture that was exceptionally team oriented. Wariness and distrust of the new sheriff and their deputies spread through the company, especially when the scale of the salaries, bonuses, and share options being paid to the new leadership became public knowledge.

The Badger’s respected and long-standing line manager at the time supported the need for change. They were, however, vocal in their dissent about the new CEO’s approach and the chaos it caused. They confided to a number of direct reports, including the Badger, that they expected the new sheriff,  who was ruthlessly intolerant of anyone with the temerity to challenge the changes being promulgated, to exit them from the company. They were right. Within a few months, they left the company having signed a compromise agreement. On their last day at work, they gave the Badger two pieces of advice, namely, ‘When you deal with any CEO or senior executive consider them to be psychopaths until you’re sure they’re not’, and ‘Remember that any CEO or senior executive will be your friend, until it suits them not to be’. These struck a truthful chord which caused the young Badger to learn about the actual characteristics of a psychopath! (In simple terms these are summarized here, for example). Furthermore, these words of wisdom triggered the Badger to learn more about human behaviour and to use that learning to good effect throughout the rest of his own delivery and leadership career.

And that’s the key message from this item. If you have an opportunity to learn about the rudiments of human psychology, then take it and use what you learn when interacting with, and observing, others. His line-manager’s advice stood the Badger in good stead over the years. Keep it in mind, especially when there’s a ‘new sheriff’ with a new set of ‘deputies’ in town intent on change…

‘What’s the point of hard work…if the rewards are taken away years later?’

Posted on by The Information Badger in Business, Change, Information Technology, Leadership & Management

The UK government announced that from April 2027 any remaining unused pension on an individual’s death will count towards their estate for Inheritance Tax purposes. This is a big change which caused the Badger to holistically cogitate! Although farmers, in particular, are already angrily protesting, this change affects anyone, employed or planning retirement, with Defined Contribution (DC) pension schemes, the norm for most companies and auto-enrolment these days.  

From April 2027 any unused pension will be included in a person’s estate for tax purposes. The beneficiary of the unused pension also pays Income Tax when they draw on their legacy. This is double taxation, the morality of which is questionable, and it means that if the beneficiary is a higher rate taxpayer, then their effective tax rate could be a whopping 64%. There’s no doubt that the government’s announcement will significantly change workforce attitudes towards pensions, inheritance planning, and retirement over the coming years.

This change doesn’t just affect the ‘wealthy’, it affects those in the broad IT industry that are ‘modestly comfortable’ too. If you’re employed in IT then you’re well paid compared with the UK average, you work hard for what you earn, and you’re likely to be in the ‘modestly comfortable’ category. The IT and tech sectors, important for the UK government’s economic growth aspirations, can be challenging but lucrative if you work hard and continuously develop your skills. In the Badger’s experience, IT people do indeed work hard, go beyond the call of duty, and most are prudent and make sacrifices to provide a modestly comfortable future for their loved ones. They deserve their rewards, but many will now find themselves, as reported recently in The I, in a similar situation to that of Louise Rollings, a single mum who worked for decades at an IT company. She comments:

‘The changes announced in the Budget make it feel as though people like me are being penalised for having worked hard, prioritised, budgeted and made sacrifices all our lives. As it stands, very little space has been left for people who have worked hard all their lives to build up modest estates to feel appreciated and rewarded. What’s the point in hard work if the rewards of all that ambition and determination are taken away in later years?”

Quite! If you work hard, make sacrifices, pay all your taxes, save and invest prudently, and contribute to a DC  pension scheme (like governments encourage you to do and where you carry the underlying investment risk), then the question captured in Ms Rollings’ last sentence is very apt. If IT and tech are important for the country’s  economic growth, then the government needs to encourage more and more people in these sectors to work hard. That’s not likely to happen if you know with certainty that the rewards from your effort will be taken away many years later…

A ‘Budget for Growth’ for smaller, tech-centric businesses?

Posted on by The Information Badger in Business, Change, Information Technology, Leadership & Management, Offshoring, Technology

Digital technology – the electronic systems and resources that help us communicate, work, play, travel, and live today – is everywhere. The Badger recently conducted an experiment, not one that meets the rigours of professional research, by asking those he’s met over the last week about what they thought of when hearing the phrase ‘digital technology’. A young checkout operator at a local store, for example, said social media, the internet, their smartphone and its apps, online shopping and online banking. That was pretty much a summary of all the responses from young and old alike. Why the experiment? Simply to test a perception that the general public associates ‘digital technology’ mainly with well-known mega global corporations and big brands. The experiment essentially affirmed that perception.

But here’s the thing. The UK has many medium-sized companies with <250 employees, many of which fall under the umbrella of ‘digital technology’.  Such companies, many entrepreneurial family businesses, get little profile even though they are not only part of the UK’s economic bedrock, but also have digital technology which is used globally but invisible to the general public even though it touches them every day. The Badger knows, for example, of a company whose technology enables, controls and cures printed text and images on the packaging used for foodstuffs, medicines, chemicals, and even Christmas wrapping papers! It’s a global leader, employs <250 people, and it’s systems are built in the UK, installed worldwide, and managed and maintained from this country via the internet. It’s innovative companies like this that are crucial to our rhythm of life and the country’s success.

One of the Badger’s neighbours, who’s mid-career with children at school, is part of the leadership team at a different tech-centric, smaller company. While chatting recently, the Badger asked them how the recent UK budget would impact their company. ‘We’re used to challenges’ they said with a grin, adding that recruitment had been frozen, leavers were not being replaced, maximising automation had become the top priority, and work was being moved to lower cost offshore locations. They then added, ‘Now my pension pot is subject to inheritance tax, there’s little point in striving for more success or providing longer-term financial security for my family. I expect to leave the workforce within a decade to ensure I spend whatever wealth I’ve accumulated because there’s no point doing otherwise anymore’.

The Badger flinched. It seems a) that the recent budget isn’t a ‘budget for growth’ as far as smaller, tech-centric companies are concerned, and b) that the mindset and priorities of strivers in such companies is already changing. Has the UK  government’s budget damaged this country’s smaller ‘digital technology’ companies and their employees’ desire to succeed? Time will tell, but the omens don’t look good…

‘A crisis’ – the name for a group of dysfunctional experts.

Posted on by The Information Badger in Business, Consulting, Delivery, Information Technology, IT Project Management, Leadership & Management, Risk, Software, Systems Integration

Many years ago, the Badger took a late morning phone call from his boss asking him to pop into his office for a chat. A reason for the chat wasn’t mentioned, and so it was with a little trepidation that the Badger took the lift to the floor where his boss’s office was located. On approaching, the Badger saw his boss through the open door with elbows on the desk, head in hands, looking morose. Sensing the Badger’s arrival, his boss sat back, smiled, asked for the door to be closed and waved the Badger to a seat.

‘What’s the collective noun for a bunch of experts responsible for designing a huge software intensive system on a fixed-price contract?’ the Badger was asked in a relaxed manner. His boss didn’t wait for an answer. ‘A crisis’, they said with irritation and a flourish of colourful language that would cause apoplexy today. They explained that this answer derived from problems on a multi-tens of million pounds, fixed-price IT development project with a dysfunctional Design Authority (DA) team. This team, apparently, was full of acknowledged experts who seemed incapable of agreeing or deciding anything that was crucial to the progress of the overall project team’s software developers. At the start of the project line management had apparently insisted on staffing the DA team with experts who’d been between assignments and non-revenue earning for some time. The Badger’s boss admitted that, in hindsight, it hadn’t been wise to allow this to trump an individual’s technical and personal suitability for the project.

The Badger was then asked to sort this out and get the project back on track! He joined the project with an open mind and quickly assessed the situation. There were some leadership and management dynamics to adjust, but the DA team was indeed the key problem. Its members were all respected experts with specialist knowledge, but each was focused on expanding and protecting their expertise rather than the big picture and the project’s fixed price delivery. Teamwork, within the Design Authority itself and with the rest of the project, was poor. Experts can add enormous value to any team if used correctly, and so the Badger carefully considered how to rectify the situation. He repopulated the Design Authority with good people drawn from other parts of the project. The experts were released to their home units to be used a couple of days a month for consultancy if required by the new DA team. The experts and their line managers grumbled, but the project went forward to success.

The point of this tale? Simply to highlight that experts who keep their egos in check, never lose sight of the big picture, and have both specialist knowledge and the personal characteristics for teamwork, are valuable assets on tough delivery projects. Those that don’t have all of these attributes are more suited to short term specialist consultancy…

Knowing when to speak up, and when to stay silent…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Business, Human Resources, Information Technology, Leadership & Management, Learning, Training

People attend meetings in their work environment on a daily basis. Moans about the time meetings take up and their encroachment on an individual’s productive work activity were commonplace during the Badger’s career, and they still are today. That’s hardly a surprise because meetings are a key element of the operational rhythm at every level of an organisation. Meetings are crucial for decision making, sharing important information, problem solving, innovating, building and maintaining relationships, aligning people with expectations, and holding people accountable for achieving goals. That’s why training in meeting-related skills is usually a prominent feature within enterprise training programmes.

Meetings can be gatherings of people in the same room, video or telephone conferences, or hybrid setups involving all of these at the same time. The Badger’s attended a huge number over the years, so what’s the most important thing he’s learned from doing so? This very question was, in fact, recently asked by a family member while bemoaning ‘interminable meetings’ in their own workplace! The Badger’s answer was simply this – know when to speak up, and when to stay silent. It’s something he learned early in his career from participating in a difficult meeting about a failing project.

The meeting had client and supplier representatives in the same room to decide on the future of the project. The Badger was present because he was part of the supplier’s team trying to fix the project and its commercial difficulties. The client and supplier leads, both experienced in dealing with troublesome situations, engaged in a direct but business-like manner. One of the client’s team, however, frequently interjected with vitriolic and negative comments which rankled with some of the Badger’s colleagues, one of whom responded in kind every time. That is until a senior colleague prodded them and whispered, ‘shut up, keep quiet, listen and watch’. The meeting eventually ended with an agreed way forward. In the debrief afterwards, the supplier’s leader pointedly told the team that ‘We all have two ears, two eyes, and one mouth. Use them in meetings to listen, watch and speak in that proportion’. They are wise words.

Knowing when to speak up and when to stay silent is an important skill, particularly in difficult and important meetings. Being a good listener, a good observer of participant  body language, and having good control of the urge to speak for the sake of it are important competences for face-to-face meetings, video and teleconferences, or hybrid meetings alike. Knowing when to stay quiet and when to speak is a good discipline and a trait of good managers and leaders. Remember, while every meeting has a mix of different personalities, the smartest and most influential person present isn’t necessarily the one doing all the talking. It’s often the one doing the watching, listening, and being careful about when they speak and what they say…