Economic Downturn Is Temporary - Employee Engagement Is Permanent

In the year ahead the international economic environment has jolted some short-sighted organisations into thinking about reducing human capital expenses. “There is potential for some companies to consider laying off lower performing “dead wood” employees thus putting even greater performance pressure on already time burdened top talent” says Ian Hutchinson, Chief Engagement Officer at LifebyDesign.com.au

During tough times, everyone is being asked to do even more with less. As such it can be increasingly challenging to keep your top talent engaged and motivated during these times as it can directly impact an individual’s morale, performance, bonuses/rewards and work life balance.

Insightful Leadership Through Change

“Intelligent leadership is putting even more focus on engaging remaining top talent with self-leadership, an approach which is becoming increasingly important. Self-leadership is all about helping people become more resilient in times of change with techniques to focus positively on what they can control rather than negatively on what they can’t control”.

Research such as the USA airlines study has shown that those organisations that look after their employees during times of adversity will flourish even more so when economic times normalise than organisations that panic in short term uncertainty.

Killing Off Your Good Workers

Clouded environments like these can prompt irrational and hasty decisions that can easily undo all the hard work of recent times spent on employee engagement. Recent efforts to engage employees can be easily wasted and even negatively impacted into a downward spiral if employers don’t stand by their key talent.

“Economically spooked organisations need to avoid making knee-jerk reactions and consider the negative effects that can quickly impact and reverse all the positive employee engagement work that can take many years to transform and rebuild. Many companies are intelligently looking at more cost effective and scalable employee engagement solutions such as http://www.mecentral.com/ , an online engagement system now licensed in five countries and used by a number of Best Employers including Vedior (Ranstad), now a four year in a row award winner.”

With many seasoned veteran baby boomer leaders now retiring, less down-turn-experienced leaders are now being pushed through the ranks to fill the vacuum. “If these leaders don't play their engagement cards right, they can easily find themselves without a full house of valuable employees in 12 months time when the economy bounces back”.

The cost of loosing the wrong people at the wrong time can be extremely detrimental to any organisations and can have a huge economic impact, termed by Hutchinson as “Engagement Economics”. To calculate the bottom-line cost to your business, go to the Engagement Economics Calculator at LifebyDesign.com.au.