Wading through the Doom & Gloom
You’d have to have been on a desert island to not be aware of the state of our economy and the predictions that 2009 are going to be worse than this year. With redundancies on the rise and the economy shrinking it is easy to feel incredibly pessimistic about the future. I would be very surprised to hear of any company that isn’t looking closely at their budgets, tightening their belts and having to make some difficult decisions. I am not going to talk about how we should run our businesses but how we can continue to try and engage everyone during these difficult times.
- Share your company goals
Ensure everyone knows where the company is heading, what its goals are and get everyone wanting to be a part of that journey. They will want to help the company achieve those goals if they know about them and are excited by them. Communication is free and massively valued by everyone! A monthly or weekly meeting is all it needs. - Keep training and developing people
You will engage people more if you are continually working on their personal growth. In addition, they will be more able to deal with market changes if they have the skills to deal with them. Even if budgets are smaller for training and development you can still use innovative ways to keep people learning and growing during their time working with you such as running knowledge or sharing sessions yourselves (I’ll talk about training and development more in my next entry). Research shows that if you slash budgets and don’t train (admittedly a very simple cost cutting exercise), you are 2.5 times more likely to fail than if you don’t. (source – cimaglobal.com). - Invest in your people
Apart from salary & training there are so many factors that engage people to a company including how you manage and lead your company, how you manage your team, how you keep your team bonded, how the company is doing things for the wider community and environment and how people generally feel about their well being. Make sure that you continue to invest as much as you can in these areas to ensure that the talented people you have hired are still there and committed to you after any difficult time. - Try and keep those small things that make your company a great place to work I’m sure most companies have things that don’t cost a huge amount and are valued by lots of people. By cutting them out at a first pass may not be the best option and could affect morale.
20 November 2008 by Nicky Swain
Nicky Swain is HR Director at online marketing and creative agency, Digital Outlook and has 12 years experience in HR & recruitment working within entertainment.
Nicky Swain is HR Director at online marketing and creative agency, Digital Outlook and has 12 years experience in HR & recruitment working within entertainment.
