Articles News, Views and Issues A Case for Renewal of Employee Engagement
A Case for Renewal of Employee Engagement |
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With 2009 coming to a close (thank goodness!) and talk of the Great Recession crawling to its inevitable end, it is finally time to get out of our War Rooms and get on with the job of preparing for potential prosperity again. The view from the Board Room is a precarious one, fraught lately with too many discussions about cutting costs, removing overhead, making jobs redundant, whilst at the same time scurrying to find new revenue streams and reinvigorating sales opportunities in a market landscape changed forever by credit crunches, price wars and the corpses of companies gone into administration. It’s almost too painful to recall that it was only a year ago when the glorious go-go days came to a screeching halt, seemingly overnight. To many of us, it was the worst news possible delivered every night on the evening news – if not minute-by-minute over the tickers of so many financial news network channels. It’s been hard and painful for everyone involved, and in taking a moment of bereavement for ourselves, best we not forget the plight of the good people who work feverishly to bring our dreams to life everyday – especially since we have lost so very many to the unjust financial knife of this economy’s heartless intensity.
Beyond the sense of radical change without control taking over our lives, there is a greater concern that when things actually turnaround, we’ll not be well prepared to jump back into the fray and reverse our fortunes effectively. This is a very real and powerful concern and not to be ignored. On the back of several hundred (thousand in some cases) cuts, programme scrapping, product realignments, massive reorganisations and anything else employed to stave off administration, our employees have been left beleaguered, often carrying the burdens of work no longer being done by redundant colleagues and left to wonder if they might be next. This sensation snowballs when networks of employees are massively disrupted and suddenly old reliance, trusted partnerships and safe ports in storms are eliminated over short periods of time. The ‘Human Knowledge Database’ is suddenly stripped of its effectiveness and production can grind to a halt with no one wanting to risk stating the obvious: “We don’t have what we need to sell, produce, deliver or consult and I don’t want to look as if I’m part of the problem.” Sales people who were deemed ‘top notch’ two years ago are barely hitting, or indeed missing targets and wondering where their next commission check will come from. The state of the nation of your business is in peril, and we’ve only just begun to wake up to that fact. But there is good news. It starts with the recognition that a new day is coming and the time to re-invent, re-vision, re-energise and re-invigorate is here, today. Ann Elliot, one of Price Waterhouse’s top HR consultants recently stated: “Organisations have paid the price from the last recession of ill thought-out decisions regarding people cost reductions in terms of disengaged employees leading to low productivity, morale, high turnover, increased investment in re-recruiting and a weakened internal and external brand and have learnt from that experience. The next decision needs to be the right one.” When asked what was keeping CEO’s awake at night lately, Anne’s response was spot on:
The advice we all need to heed comes in the form of four critical areas:
It’s time to take back control in order that we prepare for prosperity, and the first step in that process is by recognising the changed landscape around us. Tight cost and cash management will make your company less vulnerable to future economic turns – keep expenses down, programmess business critical only, and people costs managed by careful and intelligent decision making moving forward. If there was ever a time to make a bold decision, it is now whilst the norm of change and transformation has enveloped us all – when we are still quite used to it. Are your top executives performing? Is your organisational structure nimble, agile and able to react fast? Are your products and brand messages still relevant? If you had to do it all over again, what might you change for the better? Take the time to do that thinking proactively and engage your brightest minds to participate – taking the negative energy of the day and converting into positive change for tomorrow. If you haven’t tracked the performance of your company, leaders, teams or employees in the past, I’m sure you’ll agree that doing so will provide a window of clarity that will allow you to see daily who is making a powerful difference, and who is lagging behind. 2010 is the year of the Top Performer and you should have nothing but these people working for your company in hitting targets and marching headlong into tougher and tighter markets. Last but by no means least: Employee Engagement. You need to gather up the troops and get them battle ready all over again – and treat them as if they have just joined the company. Once you are certain that the tough redundancy and performance based firings are over, you need to let your people know that explicitly, in as many ways as you can. Reinforce the messaging that they are the top performers. There should be a renewed sense of passion, mission and feeling rolling through your company. You need to employ their wits, intensity, energy and desire to not only reverse 2009’s devastating trends, but to take advantage of 2010’s much anticipated turnaround opportunities. There are hundreds of cost free ways to engage with your employees using inspired and constant communications, innovation work groups, cheap and cheerful gatherings, sports days, recognition events, benefit enhancements, charity events, on and on the list goes. Name your own Minister of Culture and get them gathering ideas, enthusiasm and actions that will bring people back together, and get their psychology on the mend. Importantly, ensuring that HR, Finance, Operations and Sales teams are fully aligned and communicating effectively whilst providing you the dashboard you need to steer clear of next year’s exciting new challenges is essential. It’s time to reinvent yourself, your company and get tuned into what is clearly a very different world. Your people are your best bet in getting there. Take the time to get them on side, behind the mission and never take for granted that you can rely on their loyalty as there will be a huge shift in human talent throughout the next two years. The game has changed, but the new rules are being made up every day. Be a rule-maker, not just a game player.
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Shaking off the burden of leadership for the moment, a chilling thought has come creeping back to haunt me: “Have I forgotten about the other victims of this difficult time – the over-burdened employees who have been left to defend the battlements whilst watching their colleagues walk off into the woods of an uncertain future?” Yes, for a moment I had – I’m sure we all have, and it is high time we gather ourselves up and look to the future.
