Managers prioritize recognition over salary

Text : Experienced individuals are often drawn to large companies. Advancement opportunities are more limited in SMEs. Both large and small companies often suffer from the same flaw: poor human resources management.

What to choose when you want to thrive professionally? Working in an SME or a large company? Whether at the beginning of a career or after a few years of work, many people are led to ask themselves this question.

Responsibilities, salary, desire to strengthen one's experience … the choice criteria are numerous. Hala El Farouki Zeghari, a consultant in organization and leadership development (CDRHOM firm), discusses these factors and highlights the deficits in career management.

La Vie éco: Some job seekers systematically target large companies, while others only swear by SMEs

1. What determines such radically opposite choices?
Hala El Farouki Zeghari:
In fact, we are faced with two categories of managers: newly graduated managers from higher education institutions and others who have gained professional experience. The junior manager will seek to join a company where the environment will allow them to gain experience.
These first years of "running-in" will be at the cost of a lower salary. For example, a junior engineer will agree to start at 10,000 DH in a small structure if, in return, they have the opportunity to take on responsibilities and experiment with ideas that will enhance their resume, thus allowing them to later access a position with higher responsibilities, elsewhere, particularly in a large company.
As for the second category, that of managers who are already "experienced", they will seek to access a position of responsibility with a title, adequate remuneration and well-defined objectives in a large structure.
These managers, who are generally between 28 and 32 years old, mainly opt for large banks, holding companies or subsidiaries of multinationals. They are therefore seeking recognition.
In other words, their professional experience must have an impact on remuneration, the title of responsibility granted and the freedom to act and make decisions.

2. Are there any particular factors that encourage experienced managers to favor large companies?
Most of the problems we manage are related to the transfer of power between the "veterans", SME bosses, and the new generation of managers. Moroccan SMEs are in a phase of transition in terms of management, in the sense that they are learning to apply the new principles of modern management where power is not concentrated in the hands of a single person, and where information is shared.
Needless to say, most of the departures of managers from SMEs are due to the fact that the bosses of these companies refuse to delegate tasks and use information retention.
Some heads of small and medium-sized enterprises think that by spending a lot of money, they can attract skills within their companies. This reasoning does not hold because, even with an attractive salary, a company car and other benefits, a manager will also seek to have responsibilities and projects to realize.
They will demand to be granted a title in line with their skills, both in the contract and in practice. Indeed, it is sometimes possible to specify in the contract that Mr. X is responsible for such and such a department, and to interfere every day in his work.

3. Yet, some managers leave large groups to join smaller companies…
At a given point in their professional career, some managers do indeed feel the need to join a smaller, more human-sized company. This is a very rewarding approach because these people bring with them valuable experience.
In smaller structures, employees are often closer to their hierarchy. For a manager, a transfer to an SME can also allow them to move up the ranks. But, in a small structure, you should also expect to lose certain benefits such as training and/or travel, due to more limited resources. In short, there are advantages and disadvantages on both sides.

4. Motivating salary and other benefits would therefore not be everything?
In my opinion, we must ask ourselves the following question: why do some managers flee their companies and sometimes their country despite the salary and benefits they enjoyed? The answer is simple: they can no longer bear the lack of visibility and the lack of information, which, by leaving room for rumors and gossip, can sink a company.

5. Does the top management of Moroccan companies take the issue of career management of their managers seriously?
We are in a period of transition, that is to say, at the stage of realizing the importance of this issue. But, in practice, little is done to implement a career management strategy.

6. What management tools should be put in place to retain managers, especially in SMEs?
When talking about management tools, we think of training and internships abroad, which are essential. We must also favor the project approach, offering company managers projects with well-defined objectives to motivate and retain them. By entrusting a project to one of his managers, the company manager stimulates intelligence and all the faculties of the latter.
As I said, for most SMEs, there is no real career management strategy and even less human resources management. If necessary, the company manager relies on the thickness of his portfolio to get his hands on the right profile.
Some follow the trend. For example, they opt for coaching, simply because this type of training is in vogue. All this is done without a real diagnosis of the existing situation. I can say that, in our companies, we have not yet reached the stage of strategic human resources management.

7. Is it a question of resources?
It is not a question of resources, but rather of experience and managerial culture. In Morocco, where SMEs constitute 90% of the economic fabric and are the leading employer, they are in the process of upgrading.
They will undoubtedly take a long time to reach a stage of maturity in human resources management. It should be noted that for large companies, it is almost the same thing, with a few exceptions since some groups do indeed have the advantage of benefiting from the experience of their parent company in terms of HR.

Redouane Ghadouna

Published on November 7, 2008

Posted online on January 12, 2009

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