During these times of economic uncertainties, employers are finding it more important and critical than ever to communicate with their employees.
First of all, most people today are feeling emotionally drained, as they try and cope with all the stresses related to the economic uncertainties. Obviously, these are consequences that can affect employee productivity and the quality of work.
Many employees are probably wondering, “OK, how are businesses going to turn ‘these lemons into lemonade?’” In other words, what are their employer plans? Employees expect that employers will have some type of plans to communicate. They look to and depend upon employers for some type of guidance.
When companies look to communicate with their employees, here is how I generally categorize employee expectations, especially during these tough economic times:
- From the CEO: Employees are looking to hear about the ‘state of the union.’ They want to know what is happening, and they want their top leaders to be open with them. They want to learn what is going well; and what is not going well.
- From HR Leadership: Employees might be feeling insecure and they may want to know about compensation matters, such as pay and bonuses. Will there be salary reductions, etc.?
- From Service Operations: How are those client or customer satisfaction ratings coming across? Do we need to give our clients/customers more attention or be more responsive to them in other ways?
- From Upper Management: What is the pulse of our employees? What can we do differently to impact our employees? Should we be doing more cross training to increase the bench strength? Do we need to look at continuous improvement processes? What can we be doing to add more value?
The bottom lines of all these factors are: These times have inherent opportunities for management to motivate the workforce. And depending on how frequently upper management communicates, or not, can have a direct impact on whether or not employees actually end up becoming de-motivated.
I’ll share a story to help illustrate. I recently worked with the head of an organization, which was going through a merger-acquisition.
This organization had tenure considerations, because most employees had worked there between 20 and 30 years. This business news was going to be a shock to these employees, and it had been determined that only about two percent of them would remain after the merger.
The leadership announced there would be a gradual downsizing; and that laid-off employee benefits would include up to one year’s worth of compensation. Even though this information helped ease their minds, it was still a shock, because they also realized their jobs would no longer be with this company.
All this leads me to my point about the significance and relevance of employee communications: We formed company meetings and everyone brought in food, so they became social events, as well. We made it clear that anyone could talk about their concerns.
The employees discussed how they wanted workforce development, and we brought in professionals from the employee assistance program (EAP). We initiated networking groups, and we kept the regular communications going on a monthly basis. We continued this process until the final 10 employees remained; and it made all the difference in achieving a successful transition, because these employees felt as though someone cared.
It’s also important to remember that some employees can adjust quicker than others, and some people may need more time to accept the changes. I find that once people grow to accept the changes, then they are better positioned to move on and look for a new job. Again, this is why company communications to employees are very important, because these initiatives show employees that someone really does care about them.