Why Taylor Swift is the best boss you never had

The pop star has showered bonuses upon her dancers, staff and crew. If Britain’s bosses paid attention perhaps it would help solve the nation’s productivity problem, says James Moore

‘Treat your workers well and pay them properly and productivity problems start to go away. All of a sudden we’re making up the gap with Germany. Virtue is it’s own reward’ (Invision)

A festive message for Britain’s bosses: try a little Taylor Swift in the New Year.

No I don’t mean getting your daughter to put the collected works of the world’s biggest pop star on your Spotify account for the journey into work. You don’t need to put her vinyl output on your Christmas list, either, although the sparkly orange version of Life of a Showgirl will brighten up your turntable. We’re talking about her approach to employee relations, productivity and staff motivation.

Taylor appears to understand these in a way that most of her CEO peers in business don’t. The Eras tour grossed a spectacular $2bn, a haul to which I contributed - my daughter’s joy was worth every penny. The boss handed out $200m of that to those who made the event fly. The dancers. The drivers. The crew, without whom that joy would not have been possible.

Scenes in the new Disney Plus docu-series show dancers opened mouthed as they read personal notes from their CEO and then got to the bit about their bonuses. Some were in tears.

You can bet that if we find ourselves suffering from labour shortages in future - some hope given the latest unemployment figures were predictably dismal but bear with me - she will not be among the sufferers.

Those dancers, in particular, work in a notoriously insecure profession. It’s not always well-paid, and they’re not always well treated as they move from job to job. If the numbers are correct - the figure has been put at $750k but there’s a lot of guesswork in that - the mortgages they probably can’t get? Problem solved.

The figures that have been bandied about are simply not affordable to most businesses. But some still manage to see the advantages to the Swift approach. John Lewis would be an example, at least before its recent difficulties. Perhaps not a surprise given that it is an employee owned enterprise. Ditto Richer Sounds, whose founder Julian Richer handed the business over to an employee trust when he exited stage left. It was a tax efficient means of doing so, but so what? And the place was a first rate employer prior to the move. Richer is also someone who gets it.

It shows. When we visited our local branch with the purchase of birthday presents in mind, we were told that people usually needed to book in advance to use the listening room, but no problem. It’s empty right now. You want to test out some blood curdling death metal on the speakers you’re eyeing? We can fix that. Here, have you heard this? It’s on my Spotify.

That there is rare service. And it is productive service, for which the business was rewarded when I produced my credit card and paid for the kit. It didn’t even hurt (much) because they did us a deal. We left smiling.

Elsewhere, remuneration committees ask us to believe that their CEOs won’t get out of bed for less than seven figures. Ditto top bankers. But outside the boardroom, or bankers’ officers? The attitude is too often that the peasants on the shop floor can take the crumbs and they’ll like it or they can sling their hooks.

One feature of those unemployment figures (now at 5.1 per cent, a ten year high excluding covid) is that wage rises fell to 3.9 per cent. They’ve been declining for months on end and yet some economists have warned that the figure is still too high and may give the Bank of England pause on decision day - Thursday - when the Monetary Policy Committee is widely expected to deliver a Christmas pressie to the nation by cutting interest rates. That is something the economy badly needs.

The message emanating from Threadneedle Street, in so many words (many of them in incomprehensible eco-speak), is that the economy cannot handle such rises because, in the absence of productivity gains, they will encourage inflation.

Britain’s productivity problem is oft discussed. It is responsible for more hand-wringing than you’ll find from Keir Starmer’s team when they look at the opinion poll ratings. What on earth are we to do? I dunno, try some competence?

As for the productivity puzzle, is it really a puzzle? Treat your workers well, and pay them properly, and it starts to go away. All of a sudden we’re making up the gap with Germany. Virtue is it’s own reward. Who knew? We’ll call it the Taylor Swift rule.

Decency seems to be a radical concept these days. It’s time for bosses to listen to people who understand its value. Like Taylor. It’s good karma. And good for business.