The above comments on ‘engagement brand damage’ appear to miss the point that even more ‘real damage’ to the number of persons travelling Qantas will emerge if management fail to comprehend that the results of the latest engagement survey are good reason to introduce a totally new cost reduction strategy. (Ie: a strategy that does not seek to reduce unit costs by further reductions in the terms and conditions of the workforce)
The company is well aware that significant fleet operating cost reduction can be achieved. However, they are just as well aware that rolling out any such strategy would require the Company to walk away from the competitive HR/IR consequences the two brand strategy produces.
The engagement survey confirms nothing new. It only reaffirms what it already known. (Ie: people segregation within the ‘same company’ is a destroyer of human capital.
There are choices:
· Continue on as things are, in the hope that management can ultimately overcome the destructive nature of internal competition created by two brand strategies,
· Roll out a strategy not based on the creation of internal competition.
Regretfully the aftermath of the Dixon years means the Qantas workforce is quite unresponsive to typical reengagement techniques and my money is on 'more of the same' won’t cut it.
Time has come to ‘cut loose’ the current HR/IR model.