Regardless of which industry you operate within, your external environment has changed radically in the last 12-18 months.
The dark clouds initially sparked off by the credit crunch have now turned into an economic storm and in some parts of the world, a full blown hurricane. The recession driven by falling consumer and business confidence is having an impact on most of the industrialised world and beyond.
Whilst many businesses are cost-cutting and reducing headcount, the forward-thinking ones are still maintaining a strong focus on retaining talent.
In a downturn, retaining the best people is crucial for helping you ride the economic storm, while also ensuring that you have the team to power ahead and take advantage of the opportunities when the economy and market turn around.
But retaining the right people during a down-turn isn’t always easy – here are 7 tips:
1. Have a plan (and get your people involved)
Your best people will only stay and ride the economic storm with you if they are confident in your ability to survive through the hard times.
For that, you need to have a strategy to plough through the choppy waters your business may now be in, and to communicate it effectively. Where possible, involve your people in the plan and keep them updated. This demonstrates to people that you value them.
Being valued and being involved are two of the most basic human needs. Meet these needs in a downturn and people will want to stay with you.
2. Communicate more (make that much more)
In times of change and uncertainty, if you are not communicating with your people then someone or something else will fill that vacuum. That something is often gossip, rumour and negative vibes – which poison your business and its ability to succeed in a challenging environment, whilst also destabilising your people.
When people are insecure and don’t know what’s going on, they start looking at jobsites and entertaining calls from head hunters.
To minimise the risk of this, the leaders in your business need to communicate much more with people. There needs to be more management by walk-about – i.e. not just the formal meetings. More informal discussion that helps build trust and confidence in the leadership of the business whilst helping you alleviate rumours and undue concerns.
3. Tackle underperformers now
In a challenging market, you need a strong, focused, dedicated team around you.
You need people who are willing to get stuck in and do what is required to help your business ride the storm but also capitalise on opportunities that arise.
Taking brave decisions now demonstrates to your team that you are willing to do what’s necessary to ensure longer-term stability and the continued employability of people. Communicated in the right way, this sends a message to your best people that this is a business they want to stay with. It also sends a not-so-subtle message to your average performers that they need to raise their game.
4. Be open, honest and authentic with your people
The 2 biggest fears your people will have are:
a) How sustainable is your business?
b) How safe is their job?
Having a level of honesty and authenticity in troubled times is a key part of building trust with your employees.
I appreciate that it’s not always possible on all issues, but be honest about what you know and admit if you don’t know the answer to something. Explain that you’ll tell your staff when you do know, and make sure that you do what you promise.
Once again, this builds trust, minimises anxiety and keeps everyone focused on running the business. All of which helps you retain your best people.
5. Reward the right behaviours
To succeed in the current climate, your priorities should be to ramp up your sales activities, enhance your level of customer service and manage your cost-base much better.
So now is the time to look at rewarding those behaviours which add value to your business.
So take another look at the key performance indicators that the various teams in your business operate to and then ensure that your pay and bonus schemes are aligned to those behaviours.
This will make your business sharper and ensure that your best people are successful and well rewarded - which of course helps you retain them.
6. Build a sense of camaraderie
When war veterans are interviewed they often say that the war-time was the best years of their lives. When asked why, they say “because we were in it together.”
When people feel they have a common goal and are pulling together it creates a sense of loyalty that no amount of money can buy.
The more you do to create an environment of fun and togetherness, the tighter the bond and so the more connected to the business your staff will feel.
So, have more team nights out, go for breakfast, buy the team lunch – do whatever works for you and them.
When people associate work with feelings of fun and togetherness you create an emotional loyalty. They don’t want to let the team down and so less likely to move onto another employer.
7. Manage your thinking (and that of your leaders)
All of the above sounds great – but I know from personal experience that when things are tough it’s really easy to just feel down, frustrated and questioning yourself, which of course doesn’t motivate you to act on points 1 to 6.
So it’s important that the leaders in your business are focused on solutions and not the problems; that they are focused on what’s working, not just on what is not.
Having an upbeat and positive mindset (coupled with a healthy dose of realism), will help leaders engage with their people and set an example which will inspire others to follow.
Just like real storms or hurricanes – economic storms and recessions are never permanent. Markets, like weather patterns, are cyclical.
The priority during a real storm or hurricane is to minimise the damage, survive the storm and then re-build once the storm passes. That’s exactly what your business should be doing during the current economic storm – minimise damage, survive and then rebuild.
But to do this, you need to have a strong team of people around you – in the same way you would in a real storm or hurricane.
So as the uncertainty within the economy continues, stay focussed on retaining the right people. They are crucial to the survival and future success of your business.
