Seatbelt light on: Businesses need staff engagement to weather downturn - David Grindle

As many businesses are faced with redundancy and restructure. David Grindle says, Positive outcomes will abound if you bring employees with you as you ride out the current storm.

David Grindle is the director in charge of the employment law team at WRMK Lawyers. He has practised in this area of the law for 17 years.

OPINION

Peter Cunnah’s remix of the song “Things Can Only Get Better” held its #1 spot on the charts for four weeks back in 1994. Ironically, the track was also used as the Labour Party’s theme tune during their successful campaign in the 1997 General Election.

Fast forward 27 years, and now the National Government is telling us “It’s always darkest before the dawn” and apparently, they too believe things can get only better.

For employers, we certainly hope so. From now until the figurative new dawn, times will be challenging for employers and employees alike. We are seeing a lot of redundancy and restructure work occurring within our region – but it does not always need to be that way.

It is important to identify ways to reinforce employment relationships so businesses can be in their best shape. Being productive, efficient and economic is how businesses can navigate through this current economic malaise.

Honesty and transparency between employers and their team is important now more than ever. Good companies take their people on the journey and entrust them with details regarding the company’s wins and losses. Staff do not live in a bubble and are not naïve – they will be worrying about job security. In the absence of information from management, job security concerns become a self-fulfilling prophecy and productivity drops, engagement falls and adverse outcomes become inevitable. But with some leadership and planning a good company will recognise what the economic downturn does for their workplace culture and engage with staff to take active steps to pivot the business or otherwise counter any potential adverse outcomes before they arrive.

No one likes to fly when the seatbelt light comes on and you know things might get a bit bumpy. But ultimately, you are pleased the pilot has given you the warning so that you can prepare for what is ahead. You trust that the turbulence won’t be forever and that you will come out the other side. An economic downturn is the same; recognise it, prepare for it and then respond to it, because it too will pass.

Your company needs to be in the best shape it can be when the economic blue sky returns, so why not adopt the seatbelt light analogy and tell staff things are going to get bumpy. But unlike the pilot, a good employer might also ask for help from their staff to do certain things along the way. Remember, management do not have an exclusive licence to come up with good ideas.

The difficulty with this downturn in particular is that it comes on the back of several difficult years. While in an ideal world you would have high engagement before the downturn hit, recent history might be testing your team’s resilience and ability to accommodate further workplace changes. Regardless of what has happened in the past, we need to understand the levels of staff engagement. The stronger that connection is, the more likely it is that the business will survive and thrive, so make sure your company has employees at the heart of its decision-making. Letting them know you have their back will result in greater engagement.

By now you will no doubt be tired of the analogies and the opportunities to realise the hope that a new dawn brings, but if you can do one thing to ensure your business is around to see the sunrise, make sure you invest in staff wellbeing and engagement. Positive outcomes will abound if you bring employees with you as you ride out the current storm.