Calypso Consulting

The recent news out of south China about all of the deaths at one company is very disturbing. Taiwan owned Foxconn, one of the world’s largest makers of mobile phones, has already experienced 10 employee suicides this year. And we are only half way through the year.  There have been several theories discussed on what could be causing this terrible phenomenon.  These include very long working hours, living away from home, and high stress to meet deadlines.  The Chairman of Foxconn has often been quoted and seems to have his heart in the right place and is now doing many things to improve the situation.  They have hired about 100 mental health counselors and have installed safety nets to cover all dormitories and factories.  They have also recently had two salary increases, raising pay in some cases to two times the hiring rate.  But in my view, these interventions will only alleviate the symptoms, not the cause of the suicides.
For sure, Foxconn is not the only company around the world to experience this kind of tragedy.  But the high number, occurring over a very short time, in a company with very stressful working conditions, makes one wonder.  How much of this could have been avoided if the employee’s supervisors were as worried about the employee’s well being as he or she is in production?  How well trained are team-leaders to help moderate workplace stress among their teams?  My guess is that the answer to these questions is that, a supervisor or team leader in China is forced to focus on production, not the needs of the employee.  Pressures from clients are passed on to senior management.  The pressure keeps flowing downhill.  But by the time it gets to the front line employee, there is no place for it to go. 
In China, first line supervisors and team leaders are very young and inexperienced in managing others.  In fact, many of them have never had strong management role models nor have they received coaching or mentoring in how to manage people.   Rather, they are selected for their technical abilities.  When there seems to be a people-oriented issue emerging, their first reaction is to report the problem to a very overworked HR department.  It is not that they don’t care about their employees.   It is just that they don’t know what else to do.  This phenomenon is by no means unique to Foxconn.   In fact, every fast growing company in China that has either a large sales force or manufacturing force to manage is experiencing the problem with manager competency.  But until this is fixed, the company is at great risk for serious consequences, as Foxconn is experiencing now.
Of course, we cannot instantaneously make this problem go away.  China is growing like nowhere else in the world.  Well-meaning young people are forced to take on people-management responsibilities that are usually given to people 10 years older in other countries.  The only way I know how to fix this is through better preparation of these very young supervisors.  Here are a few suggestions that any company may try.
l        People management training for supervisors.   This would include how to coach employees, how to give corrective feedback, how to motivate employees, setting realistic goals and improving listening skills.  This training would also be used to inculcate the values of a best practice leader, which seems to be missing in many of these young supervisors and managers.  For example, the idea that the manager’s job is to help people to be more productive and more satisfied in their work, is a best practice that leads to happier employees.  Sadly, this is rarely seen as a management competency in junior leaders in China.
l        Coaching for these supervisors would most likely be too expensive for any company to afford.  Coaching is usually reserved for executives or high potential employees.   However, all supervisors can benefit from group coaching.  I once had a group coaching assignment with team leaders in Shanghai.  We met in groups of six-eight people for two hours per quarter.  Each quarter we had a pre-determined topic such as motivating employees or retaining employees.  Then the coaching would be run in the format of a clinic where team leaders brought problems to the group and everyone participated in the responses.
l        Mentoring is also quite helpful.  As mentioned earlier, many team leaders, supervisors and other entry-level leaders have never had a role model leader before.  They were cast into their positions because of their technical proficiency.  A good mentor will be a good listener for the supervisor, not so much to handle the coaching type questions referred to above, but more to help the supervisor deal with their own pressures related to their roles and to their own career development.
As noted earler, this is not just a Foxconn problem.  It is a China problem caused by the fastest growth requirements ever recorded in world history and the pressures that come from that growth.  Employees can deal with those pressures for the short term.  But over the long term it is not sustainable.  In these cases, we need strong leadership more and more.