Are Ryanair quite literally taking the p.... ?

I've quite a thing about Reputation Management. It's the corporate version of good manners. I talk to clients about it regularly. So what I'd give for a few minutes on the subject with the perennially unpleasant and arrogant Mr O'Leary. My sentiments are with the frontline staff who will no doubt take the flak first hand...and for any future passenger with no loose change.

Ryanair may charge for toilet use on planes...

Irish carrier Ryanair, Europe's largest budget airline, might start charging passengers for using the toilet while flying, chief executive Michael O'Leary said on Friday.

"One thing we have looked at in the past and are looking at again is the possibility of maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door so that people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny in future," he told BBC television.

He said this would not inconvenience passengers travelling without cash. "I don't think there is anybody in history that has got on board a Ryanair aircraft with less than a pound."

O'Leary has a reputation as a cost cutter, expanding Ryanair by offering low headline fares and charging extra for items such as additional luggage.

Last week, Ryanair announced it was to shut all check-in desks at airports and have passengers check in online instead.

"We're all about finding ways of raising discretionary revenue so we can keep lowering the cost of air travel," he said.

Mr O should maybe seek to learn the lesson of Ratners the Jewellers.. never take the p..roverbial out of your customers....

Counterintuition

I spend a lot of my time talking to senior HR professionals and recruitment-related suppliers. Which in the current climate is like hanging round with Victor Meldrew with nothing but Radiohead loaded onto your i-pod

However, there are many shafts of light through the gloom - with the progressive wing of the HR community doing some pretty smart things at the moment - not least by communicating with - and investing in - their existing talent.

Moreover - if the only certainty out there is that the storm will at some point pass - then the Talent Crunch which so preoccupied agendas just 12 months ago is very much back in play.

Truth is, even if output levels were to remain as they are now - most knowledge-led businesses are going to struggle to find and keep the talent their business will need for future prosperity.

So to the counterintuitive bit...

This is in fact a great time to hire in top drawer talent. The sort that can make your business perform tangibly better - and that you may not always have been in the market for in the past. They'll be more than wowed to be approached in the current climate - and hugely impressed that you are strong, bold and healthy enough to be investing in your people.

It shouldn't mean rising wage costs if you're reviewing and rationalising your skill base continously - which is good business practice at the best of times. So go grab yourself a bargain whilst they're out there. All you need now is an Employer Brand Proposition, but that's for another day...

"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt"

Sadly not one of my own - but a profound Bertrand Russell quote to be found inside this great little piece from The Guardian. I've always been very interested in the Peter Principle; such a cheery thought that we're all on the way to being in the wrong job.

The new US research referred to serves only to back up our man Peter's theory. If you're after a recent example - look no further than the shameless hubris of the Banking heads at the Treasury Select Committee a couple of weeks ago.

Do run an eye over this brief article - there's some fundamental posers in here for all of us interested in the talent agenda...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jan/10/burkeman-work-incompetence-skills-wellbeing

Fancy reading the whole 14 pages of 'Unskilled and Unaware of it?' Then chuckle along with those laugh-a-minute psychologists from Cornell University (no I don't know where that is either) here: http://www.apa.org/journals/features/psp7761121.pdf

Gen Y me?

It seems only yesterday the trendspotters were introducing us to a ground breaking Generation they called Y. So called, apparently, because they came after Generation X (these 'trendspotters' truly were visionaries – pity they didn’t see the credit crunch coming).

Anyway - back to the Y'ers... you know the ones – the globetrotting, job-hopping, post modern, ad-savvy digital natives who were going to hold the whip hand when it came to employment.

Use conventional methods of communication - and they would plain refuse to buy anything from us, work for us or even talk to us.

If you did manage to hire these gadflies - you were lucky to have their talent loaned to you - however temporarily that night be.

Or so the received wisdom told us. In fact, much of "Gen Y" was an invention of the wittering classes. Student loans and McJobs remained the norm - as graduate supply outstripped demand like never before. City living as lifestyle choice? Most would still have swapped their call centre bonuses for a 2 bed terrace and a career.

Sadly, too many of Gen Y did believe the hype, consuming too many artificial supplements via the weekend papers - and living beyond their means in what it now transpires were indeed the good times. Now they’re scouring the job sites, honing their frankly bare CV’s – and feeling slightly ashamed for spending a year’s gas bill on an easyjet stag weekend only 12 months ago.

The moral of the story? Spend less time trying to fulfil a lifestyle someone else invented for you. Or better still - listen to your mother – she really is the only such thing as a free lunch.