People Strategies in times of Economic Downturn

The economic downturn with its associated fall in consumer confidence and demand has impacted organisations in many ways. Organisations have responded by reworking budgets, cutting costs, restructuring and many have embarked on redundancy programs. These management decisions have lead to staff insecurity, frustration and in some cases a sense of being underwhelmed or overwhelmed by new workloads, brought about by the reduction in headcount.

Inevitably staff performance and engagement has declined markedly. As staff disengagement rises organisations are faced with the grim reality that underperformers are less likely than ever before to quit their jobs and talented staff are more likely to move on.

Maintaining employee engagement during the downturn is possible and essential to safeguard the performance of the organisation and its ability to attract and retain key talent in the short and longer term. In the downturn special attention needs to be given to increasing employee commitment to the organisation. Key components involve connecting staff and their roles with the strategy of the organisation, regular organisation wide communication and a focus on providing development opportunities.

Below are a number of KEY actions focussed at increasing staff engagement at this time. We encourage you to assess yourself against these key actions and implement appropriate options. (All questions have to be answered YES to maximise engagement.)

Clarifying performance expectations, providing feedback & coaching

  • My staff have clearly defined performance goals/expectations. Everyone knows what is expected of them at work, or on a project or assignment? 
  • Everyone knows how they will be evaluated?
  • I provide fair and accurate feedback to staff on a DAILY basis?
  • My feedback is focussed at helping staff do their jobs better i.e. it is concrete, providing specific suggestions for improvement?
  • I know what my employee’s strengths and preferences are and I match these, wherever possible, with the work that needs to be done?
  • I make time to provide staff with the assistance they need i.e. coaching to find solutions to difficult problems, breaking down big projects/goals into smaller chunks?
Options:
  • Reinvigorate your goal setting and performance review system. Put clarity and relationship back into this important process
  • Ask your people for feedback on your feedback – frequency & quality
  • Attend a People Axis workshop on feedback and coaching
  • Make time to sit with individuals to explore what they enjoy doing, what they enjoy about their role, what they would like more of in their role?

Connecting with and contributing to the Organisation

  • I help staff understand the connection between their jobs, their individual contributions, and the organisation’s strategy and success?
  • I share information about the organisation with staff?
  • I encourage staff to share their opinions and suggestions?
  • I encourage staff to look for new and better ways to do things?
  • Our organisation creates opportunities for two-way communication between leaders and staff
Options
  • Use pre-shift ‘huddles’ to communicate timely messages about business performance and critical to-do’s for staff
  • Raise awareness of strategy via simple but highly visible means – posters, charts etc
  • Communicate frequently even if to discuss how the company is working through issues before decisions are made
  • Anchor communications in data and specifics about business fundamentals and strategy
  • Create communication forums that allow for the exchange of information, staff to ask questions of leaders
  • Provide actionable guidance on how employees can contribute to the turnaround
  • Personalise leadership communications to staff – relay personal experiences, maximise face to face contact

Development opportunities – commitment to quality and a personalised approach

  • I help staff build skills to become more effective in their jobs?
  • I provide staff with challenging development opportunities – job specific skills and other general skills?
  • Leaders in our organisation demonstrate a commitment to staff development?
Options
  • Help staff consciously extract experience-based development opportunities from their current roles.
  • Consider stretch opportunities for staff i.e. projects or responsibilities that encourage the development of targeted skills
  • Move employees into new positions, job rotation, transfer, secondment to provide staff with a range of business and leadership experiences
  • Invest in Leadership Development – particularly focussed at communicating & dealing with change, managing underperformers, retain key talent, providing effective feedback
  • Use learning and development programs to re-engage the “survivors” of redundancies. They are directly responsible for the organisation’s performance and its ability to achieve redundancy goals.

In addition to the above engagement strategies critical attention needs to be given to identifying, targeting and retaining critical positions and people in the organisation. This can be done by:

  • Identifying critical workforce segments and roles on which to focus retention efforts
  • Assessing retention risk of individuals in critical roles and top performers 
  • Equipping leaders with knowledge and skills to create customised retention action plans

In times of economic uncertainty organisations need to increase their monitoring of employee engagement and be proactive in communicating results and action plans to staff.

Please contact People Axis (03) 9894 2805 or e-mail info@peopleaxis.com.au to find out how you can monitor employee engagement and implement options addressed in this article.