Under Pressure to Cut Costs? Why Continuing to Invest in People is the Smart Game
With COVID-19 cases and outbreaks largely under control across Australia, and limitations on gatherings slowly easing, many organisations are looking forward to their team members getting back to the office.
That said, for most organisations it is unlikely that a pre-March 2020 style of work will be the future. A hybrid approach of working from home and the office is likely to be in place for quite some time, if not the new normal going forward.
This new phase of the pandemic will consist of re-organising how we work, travel, congregate, eat, move and connect. Bringing your people back to the office is not as simple as flicking a switch.
Though we have not lived through a global health pandemic and are navigating through new waters, we have lived and worked through other crises that we need to reflect on and ensure we do not make some of the same mistakes when it comes to creating engaging and positive work experiences for our employees.
If we think back a decade or so to the last global setback, the Global Financial Crisis, and the workplace aftermath, particularly in a select few industries, we can learn from that and say no organisation wants to be remembered as being the "bad boss" during a difficult time.
Business leaders are likely to be closely scrutinised as they manage the return to work over the next few months.
Over the past decade, attracting and retaining top talent has been the number one focus for most Australian organisations. People are the most scarce, costly, and valuable resource for many organisations, so we must continue to nurture that resource. Budget cutting is like pruning a tree; you need to do it to help your organisation thrive in the long run. However, if you cut too much, and in the wrong places, you might damage the tree. Traditionally the Human Resources, or People and Culture, budgets have been at the top of the list when it has come to budget downsizing, in particular learning and development, rewards and recognition, support benefits and social events.
To help your organisation not make the same mistakes this time around, here are few tips to make the transition smoother.
Continued Investment in Talent Development
Learning and development budgets are often the first to be scaled back when organisations start pruning their operating budget.
The objective of learning and development is to align employee goals and performance with that of the organisation. This is particularly important during tougher economic times as having a skilled workforce allows organisations to achieve more with less resources.
It is important that organisations do not scale back on learning opportunities that help their employees’ productivity on a daily basis and that help them prepare for the future of the workplace.
Employee development can have a profound impact on the long-term health of your people and the business. Beyond formal training and critical skills that need to be constantly refreshed, there are everyday alternative opportunities to consider, such as offering in-house coaching, focusing on developing behavioural skills, and developing virtual platforms that enable peer-to-peer learning.
This is an opportune time to curate a balanced learning and development program - one that brings the best of online, instructor-led and experiential learning in a way that best invests in employee capability and capacity today and into the future.
Reward & Recognition
Employee reward and recognition has been proven to improve organisational values, enhance team efforts, increase customer satisfaction and motivate certain behaviours amongst employees. Recognition is a strong contributor to employee engagement as recognition reinforces the team effort and contribution to the organisation’s success.
A company culture that recognises hard work regardless of outcomes drives a sense of psychological safety and personal investment from every team member. This empowers employees to be more innovative and think outside the box—a competitive advantage for any team, especially at times when teams are still scattered, and close collaboration has been strongly undermined.
To make employee recognition meaningful in the current space and budget limitations you may wish to consider the following initiatives:
Pivot from long term to short term outcome management - set short-term expectations and KPI’s and adjust them regularly. Agree on a flexible way of working that caters for the unprecedented and ever-changing nature of this crisis.
Recognition needs to be timely - celebrate when goals are met, or big projects are completed but also give informal recognition in your day-to-day activities.
Acknowledge everyone’s great work for team achievements – let your team know that you see their efforts in real-time and show that you are not just focused on the results.
Highlight the impact of your employees’ work on the organisation, it is a good way to make them feel connected with their organisation’s purpose.
As always, be aware of your employees’ preferences, whether it be public or more personal praise. Be sincere and specific - take the time to figure out what you appreciate before you speak.
Health & Wellbeing Support Benefits
With so many people working from home during the majority of 2020, the line between professional and personal hours has been blurred like never before. Some employees have been working longer hours than normal.
All team members now have a role to play in helping create a mentally healthy workplace. With so much change to our ways of working, this period of transition is the ideal time to make sure organisations are across workplace mental health risk factors. By doing so, you can reduce the likelihood of burnout.
The changing routine, travelling to work, sharing a space with colleagues, or even re-connecting to corporate networks and setting up the office workspace, will require empathy and re-adjustment. To aid in a smoother transition here are some ideas of programs you may wish to feature as part of your health and wellbeing initiatives:
Acknowledge stress, listen to employees’ anxieties and concerns, and empathise with their struggles. Let the employee’s stress or concerns (rather than your own) be the focus of dedicated 1:1 conversations.
Channel your team’s awareness to prioritise self-care, knowing that their wellbeing will also affect the quality of care they are able to give to their colleagues and clients.
Continue supporting your team members with access to resources that support the different facets of maintaining a healthy lifestyle: physical, nutritional, mental and financial health.
Keep on promoting your EAP, offer free mental health counselling sessions.
Encouraging Social Interactions in the Workplace
There have been a few perks associated with working from home, such as no commuting and additional time to focus on family and other responsibilities, however we have also lost a lot. The biggest loser in the work from home mode is the office water cooler chatter. Many things we took for granted in our regular office routines such as morning coffee runs with colleagues or social drinks at the end of a long week. Even just being able to talk to a co-worker to ask a quick question or have a chat has been missed as organising yet another online call didn’t feel worth the effort.
With the rearranging of the work is an opportunity to reconnect - take advantage of the transition period to celebrate and build new levels of trust and camaraderie internally. Enjoy the little things that have been absent over the last six months - take the time to have that one-on-one conversation with a colleague, visit your regular café, just like you used to.
Across industries, it is now time for leaders to use the lessons from this large-scale work-from-home experiment to reimagine how work is done. In order to settle people back into the new work normal, it is going to take smart investment into the human resources of the organisation. It is also a chance for organisations to be bold about how they shape their organisation for the future.
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