With all the talk about increasing unemployment – the highest in Ireland for 10 years, the potential impact to the Irish economy if McCain becomes President in the US due to his proposed approach to corporation tax and the recent PricewaterhouseCoopers CEO Pulse survey reporting that only 14% of Irish CEO’s beleive there is a favourable outlook for the Irish economy over the next 12 months, is it any wonder that business leaders are less than enthusiastic about opportunities for growth?
I can imagine the conversations that are taking place around most board-rooms. When under pressure the usual approach is to look at budgets and immediately identify where costs can be cut. And the usual suspects are discretionary spend from training and development, travel and expenses, considering pay cuts and wage freezes and reducing marketing spend.
Whatever actions we decide upon, one thing I highly recommend is that you engage our team with the challenge facing you.
Through opening up a dialogue about the challenging time your business may be facing will enable you to ensure that your team:
- understand the decisions you are making and the reasons for them
- will be able to identify what these changes mean for them and their roles
- will be better equipped to explain any changes to clients or business partners
- and will undoubtedly be able to share ideas and suggestions they have for managing through tough times.
Engagement of your people at times of uncertainty is critical – and I’m not just talking about delivering a message of the actions you are planning to take as this runs the risk of disengaging your people, demotivating them and in fact even run the risk of losing your best and brightest talent.
Today I met with one of my coaching clients – a high potential marketing leader in a global company – and he opened the conversation sharing with me that he was considering leaving the organisation.
You see only last week he had been called into a meeting with his senior executive team who outlined that as their operating unit is underperforming, that everyone would be rated as underperforming this year in the year end appraisal.
My client had delivered great performance within his own team and function, but the overall collective performance of the business unit was way off mark and had not met the annual plan.
His immediate reaction was to leave the organisation as he felt that his personal contribution was not being recognised and even worse in his eyes was being rated as underperfoming which in the context of this organisation was to say farewell to any chance of job moves in the future.
When he had reflected on the message from the executive team and he thought about what he would do if this were his business, he completely understood the decision and why is was being made at a rational level. However his emotional connectiveness to the employer brand was severely impacted.
This high potential marketing leader who has significant influence with his team and his colleagues had been left disengaged and demotivated.
We talked through his strategy for moving forward and specifically for the next 180 days as he starts the new financial year. We explored how he might engage his own team and his internal stakeholders and clients in the challenging agenda for the year ahead. And we also talked through how he needs to demonstrate resilience through adversity – the actions we are seen to take and how we are seen to behave have an impact on other peoples experience of our personal brand as a leader.
At the end of our time together he had a robust plan of action and I think it’s unlikely this high potential leader will leave his organisation in the short term.
He had someone to turn to and talk through his personal and professional strategy with, but that’s not the case for most high potential leaders.
The conversation left me wondering what conversations are taking place in the workplace today that are undermining the strength of powerful employer brands, the psychological contract and talent strategies that have been crafted and developed by HR Directors and Heads of Talent Management.
Every connection, every communication, every conversation we have with our people can strengthen or destroy your employer brand. And at times of uncertainty or recession the risk of losing our best people despite golden handcuffs is never greater.
And as most businesses today are highly dependent on hiring and retaining great talent as a key strategy to winning in an ever increasingly complex and competitive world, my guess is that the organisations who will ride the recession with be those who understand and actively engage their people.
What examples have you seen where great employee engagement strategies have been put in place to help company’s ride the recession?
June 11th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Thought provoking stuff..most employers probably feel that they have no problem retaining staff during high unemployment – but clearly this is an issue? I think that uncertainty (not just unemployment) in a market creates issues for employers. In my line of work, I focus on developing GREAT people to make them more POPULAR, so that customers and prospects – and when times are tough, sales professionals often consider leaving an organisation as they are disgruntled, and organisations that are finidng it tough to sell and perform go looking for ‘better’ staff to help them out of the ‘hole’ Great article and one that should get employers thinking differently about a downturn!
June 13th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Hi Krishna,
This is an area I’ve very interested in, specifically motivation in the non-profit sector. I wrote my recent thesis on this and once I have the results I’ll send you a copy. If the thesis itself is too specific to interest you the supporting material might be interesting.
Have a great weekend!
R
June 19th, 2008 at 9:48 am
[...] Read a recent article about the importance of employee engagement through a period of recession as a critical element of your talent management strategy Did you find this article helpful? Then please share it! [...]
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:52 am
[...] Read a recent article about employee engagement through a recession and why it’s a critical skill to winning the war for talent. [...]
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Krishna,
What you described here is exactly how engagement is lost. I thought your comment about intellectually understanding the situation is different then the emotional connection to the event is a masterful insight.
While this person may stay this time, what has not changed is the culture of disengagement at the company. Your person will be stomped on again and again, separating this person from the work needed for the company.
I wish I had something that would change the pattern shown here, but it just is tough to turn that around.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Let’s hope that if we engage in dialogue online and offline it will help us all as leaders stop and think for a minute.
And perhaps in that point of reflection we may see ways to engage in a more inspiring and connected way with our people.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:02 am
[...] favorite Irish blogger, Krishna De, describes this situation with one of her clients in “Employee Engagement Through a Recession:” …he had been called into a meeting with his senior executive team who outlined that [...]