Well, the “doom and gloom” merchants are telling us that the green roots of recovery are starting to show and that the worst of the recession is over. So you can heave a sigh of relief and pat yourself on the back for having seen your organisation through it and survived. Unfortunately, as you know only too well, the pressure never eases up, and that just means your challenges take on a different hue.One of your biggest challenges as a business executive is that it is only in a recovering economy that you find out the true costs of your business survival tactics. If you have laid off people now is the time that you start to feel the pinch of those gaps. Suddenly your skeleton staff cannot cope and you need to think about recruiting again. The trouble is that your new recruits cannot offer the same level of expertise and service as their predecessors and now you find yourself beset with quality and service complaint issues that add unnecessary costs, damage your goodwill and could even create a further threat to your business.Even if you managed to avoid making people redundant, what additional strain did you place on them? How sure are you that they will stay now that the employment market is picking up? A recent survey by Pricewaterhouse Coopers has indicated that one in three people are looking to change their jobs at the first opportunity. How would you manage if you were to lose a third of your people now?The fact remains that redundancy programmes are a very short term solution. They enable you to survive but they are not good for your business in the long term. So now is an ideal time to lay the foundations for a new people management platform that will:
Ensure your people are engaged and committed and therefore will not leave.
Prevent you having to repeat the medicine the next time there is an economic downturn, or – heaven forbid – if this proves to be the “double dip” recession that so many have predicted.
Of course, when you have so much else to think about, this is not top of your priority list right now. It should be. In fact, if it is isn’t, you need to make sure it is. Let’s go through the reasons why again.1. You need to rebuild your credibility with your employees If you have made people redundant, trust levels will be low. You cannot ensure the support and commitment of your people unless they know that you have taken steps to ensure that the past will not repeat itself.2. You need to develop momentum as quickly as possibleThe marketplace is not the same as it was before the recession. Thus, as the economy improves business is up for grabs and you will unquestionably lose out if you let standards slip. And while you can impose standards you cannot execute them. You depend on your people for that which, of course, means that you have to be able to trust them and you cannot do that if they are not engaged.3. You have to develop a credible employer brandThe employment market picking up again is a double edged sword. On the one hand it means that you need to protect your existing employees from temptation, but on the other it means that you could lure away good people from their existing jobs, which is imperative if you want to develop the aforementioned momentum. Either way you need to develop and embed a culture that makes you an employer of choice.4. You need to future-proof your businessYou need to ensure you don’t fall into the boom and bust patterns of past economic cycles. Traditional thinking has it that you hire in good times and lay-off in bad, but in order to have that credible employer brand you have to commit to a policy that precludes that. This makes it vital that you introduce policies that engage the hearts and minds of your people, because that is the only way you can ensure that you have everyone looking out for the long-term interests of your business.One thing is for sure, you never again want to go through what you have just been through. That alone makes the case for changing your priorities if you are not already looking to change your approach to the way you manage your people. You won’t regret it and, as you can see, the benefits means your decision will more than pay for itself – with the bonus of making your own life easier!