American corporations borrowed more in the years following the Financial Crisis than ever before. Debt was dirt-cheap even for the riskiest borrowers, and they went out and sold bonds and borrowed from banks, and blew the proceeds on funding operating losses, buy each other out in a record-breaking wave of M&A, and buy back their own shares. And not enough went into productive investments that would help their businesses grow and thrive. via wolfstreet.com
Gone.
Instead of using dirt-cheap debt to invest in employees (salary and benefits and healthcare and pensions), training, innovations ... too many companies invested in their shareholders' good fortunes. That's why no matter how many millions are spent on 'employee engagement' programs and trinkets and consultants the amount pales to what's invested in stock buybacks, M&As that bring wealth to everyone but employees and customers, basically everything and anything but that which would help their businesses grow and thrive.
Despite the many corporate memos and happy-talk slogans the employees see, they understand. And they, we, have no confidence in the future. That's why no one's investing in the future with either effort or consumer purchases. That's why the markets are stalling, demand is dying and employee engagement is going, going ... gone.
Wall St. invest in employees? Are you kidding?! Employee engagement means little when corporate stock rates go up after a layoff.
Sadly, what's good for Wall St. isn't good for Main St. and Joe/Jane employee -- despite the fact that employee engagement has been shown to increase productivity and the bottom line.
Posted by: Sybil F. Stershic | February 17, 2016 at 10:49 AM