In Statele Unite, recesiunea a inceput sa influenteze serios profitul firmelor care pana acum au rezistat turbulentelor din ultimile 18 luni. Asa cum consumatorii din SUA cheltuiesc mai putin, companiile se asteapta la o crestere a veniturilor mai lenta sau chiar la o scadere a vanzarilor. Cum majoritatea castigurilor din productia de baza a scazut, a aparut un nou fenomen: taxarea angajatilor.
Acest fenomen este un procedeu contabil obisnuit prin care se administreaza procesul de alocare a costurilor. De exemplu, hartia pentru imprimanta poate fi cumparata de catre o companie mare intr-un mod centralizat. Costurile hartiei trebuie sa fie corect atribuite pentru fiecare departament in parte. Imprimantele din fiecare departament afiseaza numarul de hartii printate lunar si astfel se poate observa cat “cheltuie” departamentele respective. In acest fel, se pot administra in mod eficient profitul sau bugetul.
Recent, aceasta eficienta a fost dusa la un nou nivel in companii, atribuind un cost direct fiecarui angajat. Sumele care sunt considerate ca fiind folosite in interes personal sau peste limita bugetului, intra in responsabilitatea angajatului. Aceasta procedura este foarte buna in teorie dar conduce la cateva surprize. BBC scria despre o companie care dadea angajatilor sai din departamentul de vanzari cate un Blackberry dar le scadea din salariu costul telefonului si factura lunara a convorbirilor. Ca sa nu mai vorbim de impactul moral pe care il au aceste incercari de a face economie, de senzatia ca cineva iti sufla in ceafa. Aceasta procedura este imorala deoarece le cere angajatilor sa plateasca pentru echipamente si servicii care le sunt vitale pentru indeplinirea activitatilor atribuite.
In Romania vedem de ani de zile cum companiile incearca sa-si tina angajatii prin obligatia de a-si plati trainingurile. DespreFirme sustine ca aceasta practica este imorala pentru ca le cere indivizilor sa plateasca pentru a dispune de toate cele necesare indeplinirii sarcinilor job-ului.
In ceea ce priveste “taxarea angajatilor”, noi avem un punct de parere diferit. Consideram ca firmele sunt responsabile de inradacinarea ideii conform careia resursele companiilor sunt privilegii. Aceasta idee denaturata a dus la nasterea unui mediu propice abuzului. Intr-un cerc vicios, multe companii din Romania au restrictionat accesul la resursele sale, facand astfel ca acestea sa para un lux si, astfel, dezirabile.
Romaniei i-ar prinde bine o doza mare de control software pentru a stabili o transparenta a sistemului care taxeaza efectiv personalul pentru faptul ca se folosesc de echipamente. Oricum, mana in mana cu investitiile in software ar trebui sa existe si investitiile in training-uri pentru a stabili faptul ca resursele firmei sunt o responsabilitate si nu un privilegiu. O taxare transparenta a angajatului i-ar oferi acestuia o putere mai mare de apreciere a costurilor afacerii si constiinta ca trebuie sa produca pentru a obtine profit.
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Employee Charge Back
The recession in the USA is beginning to bite into the profitability of firms, which until now have stayed resilient to the various turbulences of the past 18 months. As consumers in the US are spending less, companies can expect slower revenue growth or more probably a drop in sales. As most of the obvious productivity gains have been squeezed out of the system, an interesting new phenomenon is appearing: Employee Chargebacks.
Chargeback is a standard accounting practice to manage the process of allocating costs. For example, printing paper may be purchased centrally by a large corporation. The cost for the paper must be correctly distributed to each of the companies departments that used printers. Data collected by each department’s printer shows exactly how many pieces of paper were printed over the period of the invoice, and thus the cost of each piece of paper is Charged Back to the department. In this way, each profit, or budget, center can effectively manage its costs.
Recently, this efficiency has been taken to new level in service companies, affiliating each direct cost with an individual employee. Charges that may be then considered personal use, or above the budgetary limits, fall to the responsibility of the employee. This practice is fine in theory, but has led to some unexpected shocks. The BBC reported on a company that distributed Blackberry’s to its sales force and then deducted the cost of the phone and the data service from their paychecks. Not to mention the morale impact these cuts have, with big brother breathing further down our necks, this practice is unethical, as it asks employees to pay for equipment and services tat are essential to them to effective do their job.
In Romania we have seen for years that companies have tried to hold on to employees by making them responsible for their training costs. DespreFirme argued that this practice was unethical in that it required individuals to pay to have their hard drive and cpu (brain) used as data storage center for a company’s core business knowledge and processing center for the company’s core business practices, respectively.
With regards to Employee Chargeback, we have a different view. It is our opinion that companies are responsible for sponsoring the idea that company resources are a privilege. This perversion has fostered an environment for the expectation of abuse. In a vicious circle, thus expecting abuse, many Romanian companies have further restricted access to resources, making them look more select and thus desirable.
Romania could do well with a large dose of cost control software to establish a transparent system that effectively charges back personal use of equipment to its employees. However, hand in hand with the investment in software should be investment in training to establish that the use of company resources as a responsibility and not a privilege. A transparent charge back would give the employee a greater sense of the cost of business and the value that they need to create to achieve profitability.