Surviving economic downturn with talent  

18 December 2008:

They can only do this if employees believe in the organisation and its leaders. Organisations must use their people policies to inspire the trust of all their stakeholders from shareholders through to current staff and any future recruits.

Breaking trust in bad times

Ceridian's survey of nearly 1,000 UK workers shows that they are already deeply concerned about the impact the economic downturn is having in the workplace.

• 56% discuss the prospect of recession twice a week or more and 78% believe the recession will last up to two years.
• 28% say their organisations have already cut jobs as a result of the downturn.
• 47% of people working for organisations that have made redundancies say this has put pressure on the business¡¦ stated values.
• 24% do not trust their bosses sufficiently to have an honest conversation about the impact that recession might have on job security.
• 56% would stay in a job they did not enjoy until business conditions improved.

However, 88% believe they would find another job within six months if they had to, suggesting that many could become more willing to leave their current job when the upturn arrives.

Building trust with existing staff

In times of crisis, employees crave leadership. It is vital that leaders are open and honest, stick to the facts and are prepared to involve people in finding solutions. People will trust and respect managers¡¦ decisions if they see they have been taken judiciously and with the best interests of the whole business in mind.

In a recession, key staff may not always be the same thing as your best staff, so it is essential that organisations understand their wider talent base. Senior managers need to have a clear idea of the key skills, knowledge and expertise they will need to take them through the downturn and move them into the recovery position and then identify these within the business.

Clear, honest and informed employee communication is crucial to maintaining employee trust. Employees soon know if the boss¡¦s rhetoric doesn¡¦t match up to the reality of life on the front line. But if they feel their bosses are being honest, they are more likely to offer that extra effort the business needs. Employers should not underestimate the role an employee forum or works council can have in securing staff buy-in to a recession strategy and harnessing their good ideas and innovation.

Reward and benefits need to be more pertinent to economic conditions without increasing the wage bill. This means a smarter use of the pay pot by, for example, offering store vouchers as incentives rather than gifts; or allowing people to cut back on their travel to work costs by working from home where it is appropriate.

Building trust by developing skills

A carefully thought out learning and development (L&D) strategy sends a powerful signal in a crisis and acts as a great motivator. But employers must still expect to measure the impact L&D has on business success.

A strategic approach to L&D should enable the business to cut training spend without losing sight of the people and skills it needs. This means reviewing existing L&D provision to differentiate between must-have and nice-to-have development.
Encouraging networking within the business and building a coaching culture can strengthen knowledge sharing and help develop leadership capability.

Building trust among potential recruits

Organisations need to ensure they have a pipeline of talent ready and waiting for when times improve. Forward thinking employers will seize the opportunity a business downturn offers to strengthen the talent pool.

The recruitment industry has experienced a massive turnaround over the past five to ten years with its migration online. To capitalise on this in a downturn, employers need to review their current recruitment methods, reassess their suppliers and revisit internal systems including the recruitment technology they use.

Maintaining a strong, visible employer brand during a downturn spells confidence to the outside world and tells existing staff and potential recruits that you are planning for a positive future.

Building trust with the senior management team

Given the pressure currently on most businesses, it is likely that CEOs and financial directors will be looking for the extra value they can leverage from their people management strategy. This means developing a strategy that is focused on business needs but at the same time can respond to short-term changes inevitable in a recession without compromising the longer-term aims of the business.

Well being initiatives such as health campaigns or Employee Assistance Programmes can be used to develop a more resilient workforce able to cope with the stresses and extra workload that recession brings.

Senior leaders need to be able to trust the quality of management information that comes their way. This means developing a simple set of metrics that can reliably measure the efficiency, effectiveness and business impact of people policies.

Conclusion

Successful people management in a recession will not involve organisations implementing ever more exciting initiatives but will simply be about doing what they have always done, only better and with more focus on business need.

This is the best way of offering people leadership that will inspire them to keep faith with the organisation, even if they are uncertain about their own future in the business.

About the Author:

Ceridian provides HR, payroll, EAP and HR consultancy services to over 50% of the Financial Times Global 500 and more than 75% of the Fortune 500. In the UK, Ceridian serves 9,600 customers with a headcount of over 1.7m and processes 24m payslips a year. It is the largest payroll provider overall, and the second largest outsourced payroll processor in terms of revenue, with over 70 years' experience in payroll in the USA and 40 years in the UK.

Source: Article Snatch

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