The Employer Case for Supporting the 99%

Josh Bersin, a human resources strategist, advocates for diversity of opinion in the workplace right along side with gender and ethnic diversity.  He shows that this is actually beneficial for the company’s bottom-line.

Employees are part of the 99%.  It’s important to recognize that their interests align with the interests of the Occupy protesters.  And this is ok.

Our philosophy is that companies have to tolerate and just accept diversity. You have to create an environment where people talk about issues, are comfortable with differences, and then put them aside and work together. If a company doesn’t do that, it will actually hurt them.

In fact, suppressing this impulse at class solidarity is likely harmful to both the employee and the company.

If your company takes a position that’s unpopular among even part of its workforce, all you’re going to do is alienate people. People talk to each other. If a group of employees have something on their mind, and you as CEO try to squelch it, it’s not going to go away….  It’s so easy to write, “My boss is so terrible because he wouldn’t let take a day off to do such and such.” That goes onto Facebook. Then a bunch of people find it, and then they don’t want to come work for you. I don’t think [the politics of Occupy Wall Street/Occupy Oakland is] a good issue to be fighting right now. So just being a little tolerant is better, just in terms of morale and engagement.

(h/t to a friend at work who posted this article to his Google+ account.  You know who you are…)

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